Best Merchant Partners
Senior Advisor to Founder
Academic Career & Executive Search is pleased to assist Best Merchant Partners in its search for Senior Advisor to Founder.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and screening and interviews may begin immediately. For best consideration, please apply by October 23, 2026. This position may be filled before the best consideration date.
Best Merchant Partners (BMP) offers a distinctive opportunity to work directly alongside founder Randy Best, a highly successful entrepreneur who has spent more than two decades building businesses designed to expand access to affordable higher education around the world. This position is ideal for an accomplished professional who thrives in an entrepreneurial environment and offers rare insight and exposure to the growth and evolution of businesses across a global portfolio. The position provides the opportunity to expand experience and advance professionally.
Operating at the intersection of higher education, technology and entrepreneurship, BMP and its portfolio companies are navigating an industry undergoing significant change, creating new possibilities for expansion, innovation and growth. The Senior Advisor to the Founder will work closely with Randy Best on a daily basis, helping advance priorities across BMP and its portfolio companies. This is a hands-on role, not a traditional advisory position. The Senior Advisor will be an active member of the team, working with leadership, following through on priorities and decisions, helping to evaluate opportunities and challenges, solving problems, and stepping in wherever needed to move initiatives forward.
This role calls for an intellectually agile, highly responsive individual who learns quickly, listens well and is comfortable working in a fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment. The successful candidate can quickly absorb new ideas, think independently, offer thoughtful perspectives and, most importantly, help translate ideas into action. Flexibility and follow-through are essential. The Senior Advisor must be comfortable moving between strategic discussions and hands-on work, adapting as priorities change, and taking on responsibilities that may fall outside traditionally defined roles.
This is an on-site position based in Dallas and requires significant international and domestic travel and flexibility.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Serve as a trusted partner to the Founder, helping establish priorities, evaluate opportunities and challenges, and ensure effective follow-through on decisions and initiatives.
- Work closely with portfolio company leaders to assess performance, identify operational needs and opportunities, and ensure effective execution and follow-through on key initiatives.
- Provide hands-on input and problem-solving across the portfolio, stepping into complex situations and helping move businesses and initiatives forward with urgency.
- Help shape and execute business plans for existing portfolio companies, balancing long-term strategy with the immediate operating needs of businesses at different stages of growth and development.
- Help evaluate opportunities for growth, partnerships, acquisitions and new business models, including potential expansion within the United States and re-entry into North America.
- Participate in due diligence related to potential acquisitions and investments and support capital and transaction-related activities as appropriate.
- Help BMP and its portfolio companies anticipate and respond to significant changes in higher education, technology and the competitive landscape, including the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence.
- Help foster effective relationships with executives, university partners, investors and other stakeholders, regularly representing the Founder and BMP as appropriate.
- Serve as a flexible, hands-on resource across the businesses, taking on emerging priorities and responsibilities as organizational needs and opportunities evolve.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
- Demonstrated strategic and operating experience, preferably within higher education, higher education technology, education services, or a related organization.
- Strong understanding of the higher education sector, including its organizational and governance structures.
- Willingness to travel extensively, primarily internationally, with travel averaging approximately two weeks per month.
- Based in the Dallas area or willing to relocate.
International business experience is preferred but not required.
About Randy Best
Randy Best is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Best Merchant Partners (BMP), the placement agent and strategist for a group of education companies, today in Latin America, Europe and Africa. An entrepreneur with an extensive history of founding and building businesses, Mr. Best has spent 25 years focused on mission-driven initiatives in education. His work began in child welfare and K-12 and later expanded to higher education, with a focus on technology to increase access to high-quality education in the U.S. and internationally.
In 1995 he founded Voyager Expanded Learning, a provider of in-school core reading programs, reading intervention programs, and professional development programs for school districts throughout the United States helping more than 6 million children learn to read. In 2005, he turned his focus to higher education founding Whitney University System, now Ilumno, a network of universities across South America, serving over 190,000 students. Also in 2005, he incorporated the American College of Education, now one of the largest online colleges of graduate education in America. In 2007, he co-founded Academic Partnerships, now Risepoint, an education technology company that partnered with higher education institutions helping them move their academic programs online and expanding accessibility.
Mr. Best has since founded additional online provider businesses in Europe and Africa, namely Higher Ed Partners Limited and Higher Ed Partners Africa.
Mr. Best serves/served in the following capacities:
Board Member: James B. Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy; NEA Foundation; National Urban Alliance for Columbia University; Higher Ed International, a holding company for Higher Ed Partners.
Advisory Board/Council Member: Education Commission of the States; College of Education Foundation for the University of Texas at Austin
Development Board Member: University of Texas at Arlington
He also served on the White House Millennium Committee, is a benefactor of the Smithsonian Institution and numerous philanthropic endeavors, mostly in Africa.
About Dallas
The Dallas–Fort Worth area is one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing metropolitan regions, combining a strong and diverse business environment with extensive cultural, dining, entertainment and recreational offerings. Dallas is home to renowned arts and cultural institutions, professional sports, distinctive neighborhoods, a thriving restaurant scene, and numerous parks and outdoor spaces. The surrounding communities offer a wide range of residential options throughout the metropolitan area.
Dallas also offers exceptional domestic and international connectivity. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is one of the world’s largest and busiest international hubs, providing extensive access to destinations throughout the United States and around the world.
Learn more about living in and exploring Dallas through Visit Dallas.
To Apply
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and screening and interviews may begin immediately. For best consideration, please apply by October 23, 2026. This position may be filled before the best consideration date.
To be viewed by the search firm, you must apply directly at: https://acesrch.applicantstack.com/x/detail/a21esjyand4j
Please apply through the application link and do not email applications.
Applications will be reviewed as they are received and should include a cover letter and curriculum vita. Ideally cover letters should not exceed two pages. All applications are treated confidentially.
Inquiries, referrals, and nominations are also treated confidentially.
Inquiries and questions: Please send to [contact details available in the full listing].
Nominations and referrals: Please send the nominee’s name, title, and contact information if available to [contact details available in the full listing].
