DeVry training institution CEO out after federal lawsuit

Daniel Hamburger

DeVry training group‘s CEO is out, months after DeVry university become suspended from the departmentof Veterans Affairs’ ideas of Excellence application and four months after the Federal trade fee filed suitagainst DeVry, accusing the for-profit university of deceptive college students approximately activityplacement success.

Daniel Hamburger — who turned into paid $5.three million final yr to lead the Downers Grove-primarily based organization — has been replaced by Lisa Wardell, an established DeVry board member with aheritage in personal equity.

Hamburger left “to pursue other possibilities,” consistent with a information launch from DeVry, which didnot make Wardell to be had for an interview.

Lisa Wardell
Lisa Wardell has been named CEO at DeVry training organization. Wardell replaces Daniel Hamburger, who left “to pursue different possibilities,” DeVry stated. The stock of the Downers Grove-primarily basedbusiness enterprise has lost fifty six percent of its cost since the begin of 2015. (Ryan Stevenson /commercial enterprise wire)
DeVry’s stock has lost 56 percent of its cost for the reason that start of 2015, as it and other for-profitschools have come underneath expanded federal scrutiny.

A lawsuit filed with the aid of the FTC in January alleged DeVry made deceptive claims whilst it boasted intv and net ads that 90 percentage of students actively looking for employment landed jobs in their fieldinside six months of commencement. DeVry included in that wide variety a business degree graduaterunning as a server at a Cheesecake factory restaurant and a technical management graduate who took atask as a rural mail carrier, the FTC alleged. DeVry also falsely claimed that its graduates made 15percentage extra than “all different bachelor’s diploma candidates,” the FTC alleged.

Then, in March, the VA suspended DeVry from a listing of 6,000 colleges that voluntarily agreed tostandards such as the stop of “fraudulent and aggressive recruiting strategies and misrepresentations.”

DeVry is contesting the fit, which it said in March is “without advantage.” faculty spokesman Ernie Gibblestated in an email Tuesday that “Daniel’s departure has nothing to do with the FTC.”

The FTC says 30,000 to 50,000 college students were misled by way of DeVry’s claims. A 2012 U.S. Senate committee file observed that the school, which gets 80 percentage of its funding from the federalgovernment and aggressively recruits students from the army, spends extra on advertising and marketingand pupil recruitment than it does on practise.

Over 1/2 the students who enrolled within the 2008-2009 college yr dropped out by means of the centerof 2010, the report observed. The excessive prices the faculty costs mean many college students leavewithout a degree however with a heavy debt burden, the file said.

Wardell, who changed into maximum lately executive vp and chief working officer of different keepingemployer RLJ Cos., will lead DeVry’s tries to diversify globally. DeVry education institution already runs ascientific faculty within the Caribbean and a university in Brazil.