January 27, 2026 • 30 mins
APUS President Nuno Fernandes is a visionary leader who has been successful in making online higher education more affordable and accessible, while delivering top-quality education and favorable student outcomes. As the fifth President of APUS, he is focused on a global digital journey that integrates personalized, collaborative, technology-driven learning experiences to prepare students for tomorrow’s challenges and opportunities. Mr. Fernandes has a wealth of experience driving innovation across higher education, technology, and business. He has been serving as APUS President since September 2022. Previously, Mr. Fernandes was president and CEO of Ilumno, the largest online program manager in Latin America, and among the top 3 globally (in terms of managed students, which numbered 300,000). He served in several roles with increasing responsibilities at the company for over a decade. Mr. Fernandes was instrumental in improving student retention, student satisfaction, graduation rates, and reputation at the company’s owned and partner universities. He also led efforts to expand access to higher education in several countries. Prior to his roles in higher education, Mr. Fernandes accumulated over a decade of experience in the consumer goods industry at Bosch, where he undertook numerous international assignments and held various leadership roles. Born in Porto, Portugal, Mr. Fernandes holds a Master of Business Administration from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Porto. He has also participated in several executive education programs at Harvard Business School and Carnegie Mellon University, among others. Mr. Fernandes is trilingual, speaking English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to iHeartRadio CEO's You Should Know series. I'm Eric Rodriguez.
Today we're catching up with Nuno Fernandez, the president of
American Public University System. Thanks so much for joining us.
So before we get into the American Public University System,
let's learn a little bit about you. First, tell me
about your history, where you're from, your education, kind of
your personal journey here.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
I was born in a small country in Europe, in Portugal,
and I lived in Portugal until I was about twenty
years old. Then I got to spend some time in
the UK, and then my first real job was in Madrid,
in Spain, and I worked for an international company, a
German company called Bosch, you might have heard the name.
(00:41):
And I've worked for them for eleven years, different roles
product management, sales, marketing, and I was, you know, I
traveled alfwhere around the world with them. I lived in Brazil,
I lived in Mexico, spent some time in Colombia and
always working with sales and marketing and if I actually
I became responsible of one of their divisions in Mexico City,
(01:04):
and then I came to the US with them in
the year two thousand and eight, as I was telling you,
as their senior vice president of marketing for the US
and Canada. And I've done that for about four or
five years, and around the year twenty twelve, I moved
to higher education and I've been working higher education since then.
(01:26):
I started in a prior company as their CMO, eventually
became the president c of that company, and then in
the year twenty twenty two, I moved to American Public
University system as a president and that's where I'm right now.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So tell me what caused that transition to go from
the business world to higher education.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
What motivated Yeah, it was not intentional. It was more
like a coincidence, a good one, I would say. So
I was I had a very nice career at BOSH,
and you know, I was progressing, developing myself, and I
was approached by ed Hunter in Miami around the year
twenty twelve, as I was telling you, and they were
(02:03):
looking for a CMO for an education company. And until
that point in time, I never really thought about education
as something that you could market, that you could sell,
that you could you know, offer, because I was in
the consumer goods world, so you know, it's like physical things.
But then I started thinking about my own journey and
my family journey and my parents. I always tell the story,
(02:25):
but I think it's relevant for the discussion.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
My parents are.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
First generation college graduates, and they were born in a
you know, in a very small village in Portugal with
with you know, two hundred people, So.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
My grandparents, they did not know how to read.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
All right, So I could I could witness how much
education transform their lives and the possibilities that it opened
for themselves and consequently for me, and I thought that
it would be really cool to be able to do
something similar for other people, to offer expand access to
education afforded by education, so that more people could transform
(03:03):
their lives, just like my family transform their lives and
my life consequently. So as I started thinking about it,
I said, well, it's you know, I'm going to do it,
and I took the job as the chief marketing officer
of that company. At the time, it was a company
that was rapidly expanding. We were in ten countries and
at our peak we had more than three hundred thousand students,
(03:25):
so it was a very large organization. And eventually I
became the president and c of that company and I've
been in higher education since.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Then, so what drove you to the American public university system.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
So it was interesting because I've I spent almost ten
years in my prior organization where I was just telling you,
I started the CMO and then I became the president
and CEO, and I've been living in the US since
two thousand and eight, and I always had this curiosity
and this interest of working in the US for the
(03:58):
US in education. Prior job was working in the US
but for global education. Right we had universities in Columbia,
at universities in Mexico, and we had business in South
Africa and London, in the UK, in Spain, in Greece at.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Some point, so we were all over the world.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
But I always had this curiosity of being able to
work in the US for the US and really being
able to see how much we could I could translate
from my own experience to be competitive in the US market,
which always attracted me significantly. So in twenty twenty two,
again by coincidence, I was approached again by another head
(04:35):
hunter and he presented me this opportunity with the American
Public university system, and I was immediately attracted to it.
For different reasons. The first one being that it's you know,
a full at American university working specifically for the US,
but also because of their mission. You know, they have
this military background. My father was in the military in Portugal,
(05:00):
of course, so I always had a lot of respect
for people that serve the countries, and I was very
intrigued by American university systems. So I decided to take
the job, and I started in September of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And here I am.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
You mentioned the mission statement of APUs. Let's go into
that a little bit. What makes it so unique?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
It's very unique. You know, not a lot of people
know about a PUS, but the reality is that it's
one of the ten largest universities in the United States.
I think we're number nine or ten right now. We
have about ninety thousand students. But the university was founded
by a veteran with the purpose, the original purpose of
(05:41):
serving the military. So that's sort of our DNA how
it was created, and until today, the large majority of
our students are military or veterans. However, in the last years,
and this is something that I've been sponsoring and championing
with my team, is that we know that we have
(06:03):
a very high quality education, it's very affordable, and we thought, well,
why can't we offer these also to non military people
that would benefit from the same quality education for a
very affordable price, you know, in this online environment that
is flexible.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So we've been we started some efforts to offer.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Our products our services to non military students, especially to
their families, the extended families of the military. And nowadays
almost twenty percent of our population now is quote unquote civilians,
non military students. So we are still very unique in
the sense that we are very you know, military centric centric,
(06:43):
but we are expanding also to other audiences, and we
are also expanding internationally, which is very exciting as well,
because I know there's a because of my background, I
know there's a high demand and a high interest for
American education outside the US. The US is still all
the sort of scene as the number one player in
the world in terms of education. A lot of people
(07:06):
like to come here, but they can't. You know, it's expensive,
you have to visa problems, you know, the immigration. You know,
if you have a family, it's very hard for you
to put your life on hold for two years and
say and I'm going to go to the US, So
we are taking American education to them, and we have
a very competitive price point. So we're very excited about
that that that is something new that we're just starting.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
You mentioned also about online, and that's what makes the
school unique because you can pretty much whenever you have opportunities,
you can sit down and work.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah, we are one hund percent online. Most schools, particularly
after COVID, they've moved also to an online environment environment,
but of course they offered they still offer traditional education.
My view is that it's not that online is better
or worse than traditional education. It's more about what the
(07:58):
expectations and the needs of the students are. So we
serve a lot of as I told, a lot of
military students, but we serve a lot of adult learners
that you know, they have a family, that their life,
they have worked, so it's very hard for them to
take a traditional education path, you know, I'd.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Say virtually impossible.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
So online offers that flexibility that you can study, you know,
after hours, you can study during the weekend. If you
didn't learn something that you feel I don't really understand this,
you can always go back and relearn it. So there
are a lot of advantages of studying online. This is
not to say that traditional education again is better or worse.
I think both of them can be equally good or
(08:36):
equally bad. It depends on the university. And this is
something that is rapidly changing. This online reputation is to
be not very appreciated, but I think that that is
rapidly changing and people are understanding that is actually the
same level of quality is just in a different format
of delivery.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Do you feel that reputation has changed, because originally when
you sit an online school, people kind of step away. Well,
but you're fully accredited, and it's we are.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Fully accredited by HLC, the Higher Learning Commission, which accredits
some of the most raptable universities in the United States.
And I feel it's changing because I don't I don't
think that the delivery methodology defines the quality of a university.
(09:24):
The quality of the university is the quality of the universe.
So what I mean by this is, let's say, let's
take an example of let's say Harvard, Right, So if
Harvard offers an online program and they offer a few
you know, people will assume that that's high quality because
it's Harvard, right, So so what I mean by this
is that either the university has quality or it doesn't,
(09:45):
and the delivery methodology is the same. It's like you
can have an appointment with the doctor and you can
be talking to the doctor face to face or you
can be talking to the doctor to a computer.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
It's still the same doctor.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
So the doctor is going to be able to look
at the same blood exams and the same you know,
it's going to be able to assess you either through
a computer or phase to face sort of in the
same way. It's still the same doctors. So that doesn't
make the doctor better or worse. And that's my point
with education is if the education with the cuality of
the university is good and the delivery methodology shouldn't shouldn't matter.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
And basically, at your school, you can start any time.
Programs start once a month, you can work on your
own time. There's no set schedule. Talk to me a
little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, we we've you know, again one of these sort
of interesting coincidences that happened because we've built our school
to serve the military originally, so it's very flexible. We
start classes every month because we wanted to offer that
flexibility to the service members, and then we translate that
to quote unquote non military students. So you can start
(10:53):
classes every month. We have monthly starts. You can take
course per course, or you can take you know, several
courses at the same time.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
It's really up to you.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
If you need to put your studies on hold for
one or two months, that's not a problem at all.
So it's incredibly flexible and very much adapted to the
audience that we serve, which are working adults and working
profess and.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Professionals.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
You were talking about that being working professionals. How does
that kind of make a classroom different even at being
online for a student and the staff, because you learn
from each other.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Well, I actually think it's better, you know. I you
know again, I don't. I don't.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I never like to compare with traditional education because I
never want to pass the image that I'm saying that
it's better or worse. It really depends on what your
expectation is. But as a professional myself, like if I
would do an MBA now, for example, I did Minmago,
But let's say if I wanted to do an MBI,
I would much rather be in a classroom where everyone
(11:56):
as a career as experience. You might have some high
highly ranked military people, you might have some you know,
senior managers. I would much rather be in a classroom
like that where I feel that I could learn from
my colleagues than be in a classroom full of you know,
twenty four years old, right, because I feel that I
could learn and get the experience, you know, share that experience.
(12:20):
So again I think it's it's great, and it's it's
also an advantage of a PUS which our professors are faculty.
A lot of them are practitioners, meaning that they have
a real job and then they also teach, so it's
not just sort of this fury, you know, the theoretical
academic experience, but they teach based on their real experience,
(12:41):
and I think that's very valuable for the students.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Let's talk about the degrees and the various certificates that
you all offer as well, because it's a wide range.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, we have.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Almost almost I think we have more than two hundred
programs now, all the way from certificates to associates, bachelor, masters,
and doctoral programs.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
In all areas.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I mean, we have almost everything that is possible to
have in an online format. Of course we don't have
you know, you know, law degrees or med degrees, you know,
things like that that are not possible to offer. But
everything else we have, and we keep expanding our portfolio.
We just launched some really cool certificates. We're about to
(13:25):
launch them right now in quantum computers, robotics AI. So
we are trying to keep up with, you know, the changes,
and trying to be at the forefront of offering really
innovative programs for our students. But if you go to
our website, if you asked our TDU, you will find
a very deep, wide range of programs and and in
(13:49):
you know, in business, are humanities, cybersecurity, I mean everything,
we have almost everything.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Earlier you talked about the financial situation, how this is
very affordable school. You also offer a law for our veterans.
Give me a little bit more information about both of those.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah, So, the United States government as a benefit for
military members which is called tuition assistance, and what that
means is that they pay two hundred and fifty dollars
per crede hour to any service member that wants to study.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So our our philosophy has always been too much.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
That price sort of no out of pocket costs where
the student can get the benefit the tuition assistance and
study quote unquote for free, meaning no out of pocket
cost for the student. So the military students, the undergraduate
military students, they can literally study for free, for free
in the sense that you know, the government is paying,
but they don't have to put any out of pocket costs.
(14:51):
And the graduate students they have to pay a very
small fee of eighty five dollars per of course, and
that's it. So so why But the reason why I'm
saying this is because, contrary to other universities, our university,
the cost structure was created to serve those students. So
our cost structure was made based on the revenue that
(15:12):
we get from those students. That's two hundred and fifty dollars, right.
So it's very hard for a university where the standard
let's say price per grade our tuition is eight hundred dollars,
let's say, which is very common, it's very hard for
them to say, okay, and I'm going to offer these
to fifty because their cost structure is is not aligned
with that. So for us, it's very easy to to
(15:36):
sort of expand that benefit, that affordable tuition to other
audiences that are not military. For example, you mentioned veterans.
We have a specific discount grant for veterans where they
get ten percent off in undergraduate and fifteen percent off
in graduate student credit programs. And then we have another
(15:57):
great benefit, which is if you are in a military
family or if you're in a veteran family, even if
you're even if the military or the veteran are not
students with the PUS, I'm going to give you the
same price that I will.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Give a military or a veteran person.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
So let's say you are married to a service member,
You're going to get to fifty you know, and that's
sort of very hard to match. I mean, I would
be you know, it's very hard to find out there
where you, as a civilian can study for twenty fifty.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
OUs per CREDI.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
So that's why I'm saying that we were lucky in
that sense that we built our cost structure around the
income that we receive, and now we are able to
expand that affordability to other audiences.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
If that makes sense, it does. It makes complete sense.
In a few minutes ago, you mentioned one of the
used to be a buzzword AI, artificial intelligence, and you
really have have you mentioned offering a program in AI studies?
How has the APUs really kind of embraced AI.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Well, we were one of the first ones actually to
be very open about AI and I would divide into
sort of categories. The first category is like what do
we do with AI and your operation? And the second
category is like what do you teach about AI? Right,
so on the first category, we have embraced AI for
student services, for career services, for mental health, for content creation,
(17:18):
and we continue to do so. You know, we are
implementing our chatbots, you know, twenty four to seven virtual
tutors inside the classroom where the students have always someone
in a machine, but someone to talk to. So we
were one of the first ones to fully embrace it
and to change our academic policy actually to say that
it's okay to use AI in the classroom and we
(17:41):
are fine with using I in the assessments and everything
for as long as you disclose it. So you have
to disclose it that whatever you used. So we never
try to fight it. We always try to say, always
from the perspective of being a school that teaches professionals
because my logic, our loge, the provost logic is Okay,
(18:02):
if I'm teaching a professional, most likely that professional one
he or she graduates, E or she will use AI,
you know, in the real world, in the real world.
So why should we prevent that you're doing this service
to the students if we say okay, I don't allow it.
You actually want to encourage and prepare the student to
be ready for what is the real world. So in
(18:24):
terms of operations, we've been one of the first firstments
out there adapting AI, but also in terms of teaching AI.
So we we are about to launch our Bachelors in AI,
a Certificate in AI.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
We are working on our Masters in AI.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
We are about to launch certificate in quantum Computers, which
is not necessarily I, but it's you know, connected. We're
launching a certificate in Robotics, which again is not necessarily A,
but it's very connected. And we have a really cool
initiative that we're launching now with in Q one meaning
(19:05):
as we.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Speak, which we made.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
We have this partnership with m T where we're using
some of the content of some courses of mi T
to be able to offer that content to our students.
So it's uh, it's uh, it's it's an agreement where
we can we can use the content that they have
in some courses and then we are going to offer
(19:30):
that mi T content inside the APUs classes to to
the APS students at the APUs price point. So that's
something that we're very excited about.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I'm gonna focus on you a little bit more again.
So you mentioned it a little bit earlier about your
business background. How does your expertise in the business world
then transition to help the students from.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
A p U S.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Yeah, I'm uh, I'm usually I don't really like to
talk much about.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Me, but I always.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Say that I'm a different president in the sense that
not better or worse, but certainly I'm not a traditional
university president that you know, an academic career and three
PhDs and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Right.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I came from the business world, and you know, afterne
my MBI I still want to do my PhD. I'm
going to work on that. But and I've been in
educational for you know, almost fifteen years. So, but certainly
my background is different than most presidents, and I think the.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Benefit of that has been that.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I have very strong, very strong opinions about.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Branding and how you position your institution.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
And I think that's incredibly important because there are more
than four thousand colleges and universities just in the United States,
and it's very easy for you to look exactly the
same as others. There's four thousand of them. So we've
been working very hard to improve the value of our brand,
to how differentiate ourselves, how we communicate to the market,
(21:11):
how we expand our presence online in terms of social
media and things like that. For example, in twenty twenty two,
we had about three hundred thousand followers on our social
media and now we're more than one million, so you
know it's working that, you know, we're getting our name
out there. I also say that, of course, my background
in marketing helps, you know, to understand how the dynamics
(21:37):
of the market works. In general. We have a great
marketing team, so I try not to get in their way,
but I'm just saying that, you know, I think that
that background helps as well. I always say that marketing
is sort of building the bridge between what you have
and what the consumer wants to consume. So you have
to find a way to build that bridge between what
you're trying to offer and what someone wants to buy.
(21:59):
And I think that in many cases in education and
in other products as well, but in education, the marketing
is very tactical and not very exciting. So again, connected
with the brand, we try to communicate a lot of
the benefits of the university, the benefits for us too,
(22:19):
So we try to use a lot of real people,
real families, how they transform their lives, make it very
emotional in the sense that, Okay, this is what it's
going to do for you. These are real cases, are
real examples of how education transforms your life. So I
think having that marketing background helps. And also I would
say that I'm very driven by having great talent around me,
(22:44):
so I always try to build great teams, and this
is no different here. We have a team of great people,
and I always say that, you know, there's no great
organization without great people, and the opposite is also true, right, So.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I would say that those are.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
The main differences that I have versus you know, lost
more traditional university present.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
You were talking about real people, real stories. Tell me
some of these success stories through.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
The Oh oh my god, we have so many you know.
We it's interesting because we have sort of everything.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
We have the student that their their ambition is reve
got some sort of mid level management job and take
care of their family, you know, and watch their kids
growing up, and you know, and the ambition professional ambition
is just okay, I want to stable job, and that's fine,
there's nothing wrong with that. And then we have people
that you know, that become incredibly relevant in their field
(23:40):
of expertise. For example, the Chief Medical Officer of NASA is.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
A graduate from a p US.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
The current chairman of the Chief of Staff, which is
the most important position in the military in the United States,
and I can say in the world is a is
a graduate of APUs. And it was also faculty. By
the way, at some point, you know, the first woman
that that's food the Thunderbirds is a graduate from a PUS.
(24:10):
So we have all these examples of like high performance
over achievers, but we also have examples of you know,
quote unquote normal people that they just want to establish
a good life for them. So for example, commencement last year,
which we do every year on myy in Washington, d C.
And it's a very large event with eighteen thousand people
(24:31):
last one. So there was this graduate he came, you know,
I was talking to him and and he said that
he left the military and his words not mindset.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I was super lost. I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
And then you know, I found the PUS and I
graduated cybersecurity and east words he said, and now I
don't know what to do with.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
The money because I've been so successful.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Right, you know, good problem to have, but I don't
know exactly what that means in terms of, you know,
how much money is it? But but but for him,
it was a lot when that's really what matters, right,
And so we have a lot of these stories of
like pretty much like my family. You know, to be honest,
like you know that you are able to transform your
life and to achieve things that you otherwise.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Would not be possible.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
I always, you know, I tell this this story, but
it's true because think about my parents. They were born
in a village with where my grandparents did not know
how to read, they did not know how to write.
You know, they were farmers. They're very humble people. If
my parents would not have had access to education, probably
(25:38):
I would still be living in that village, right, And
I would be, you know, a fisherman or and there's
nothing wrong with that, but I'm just saying that my
life would be vastly different, vastly different, and certainly I
would not be here in the US. Certainly I'll not
be here talking to you. Certainly I would not have
the son that I have right now.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
You know.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Certainly my life would be completely different. And that was
all because of education. So education impacts things in ways
that are very hard to predict and that are very
powerful for it. But it's very hard for people to
realize because you really have to go back in time
and say where did it start. It's almost like this
butterfly fact, like you have to go back and back
(26:15):
and back to the point of where everything started. And
the point for me in my life where everything started
was when my parents decided to go to college. And
this was even before I was born, so they transformed
my life even before I existed. And that's what I
think happens with a lot of our students, which we
have a large percentage of students, and I don't know
(26:36):
how much it is right now, but let's say at
least twenty to thirty percent of our students are probably
first generation, and I know that their families and their
lives are going to be transformed as well. That's really cool,
that's really satisfactory to me to see that.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
We you know, we played a small role in doing that.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Earlier we talked about how APUs has been evolving. How
do you continue to evolve? Where do you see the program,
say in a decade or so.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah, we've been evolving in different ways. So one is
being programmatic, trying to expand our portfolio, as I said,
having these more of cutting edge programs, and being at
the forefront of offering programs that typically a university like
HOURS would not do right. Let's say, for example, if
you take quantum computers, you know, you probably expect MIT
(27:24):
to offer that, or you know, or Stanford, but certainly
probably not APS. So we try to be at the
forefront of offering this type of edgy in a very
programs but for a price point that is very affordable.
So we want to continue doing that and expanding the
portfolio in that way. We want to expand our presence,
as I said, in the US outside the traditional military audiences.
(27:49):
Although we want to continue being the leader that's our DNA,
it will never change.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
But we also want.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
To expand internationally, and this is an effort that we're
just starting right now. And you know, we we're purst
I think in Mexico, Columbia, we have some plans in Europe,
in the Emirates, So I think.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
That's going to be very successful.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
And maybe you know, in three or four years when
we talk again, I'm sure that we're gonna have thousands
of students outside the US. So that's exciting for us,
and we want to continue to grow. I mean we,
as I told you, we are now number probably number ten,
number nine in terms of size. You know that we're
in the top ten of the largest universities in our states,
and I would like to continue to climb that that
(28:31):
ranking and hopefully get to an even more impressive result.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
If you could define your own legacy as a leader,
what do you want it to be?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Yeah, I think you know.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
When I think about leadership in my case, I don't
know you, but when I think about great people that
I work with or that I work for, it's always
about how much I developed myself and how they made
me feel right.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Did they made me feel Did I was I supported?
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Was I empowered? Was I did. I feel that I
was growing, that I was explaining myself, that I was learning.
So I would like to be remember, uh, you know,
for the people that work with me, by the people
that work with me, someone that had a positive impact
in their careers, and that's someone that they feel that they,
you know, they are better professionals after working with me
(29:28):
than they were before, and and that the experience has
been positive and rewarding. So I think that's the job.
You know, the job of leadership is really to develop others.
That's the main job, I would say, probably not the
only job, but one of the most important jobs is
to develop the ones that work with you and for you,
(29:48):
and hopefully they will be able to acknowledge that that's
what happened.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
What's your final takeaway for our listeners about the American
public university system.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
I take aways to you know, if you are into
interested in going back to school or if you're interested
in pursuing a new degree, I would encourage you to
go and take a look because it's a really good school.
We have very affordable prices, we have really high quality
and although it's not a name that traditionally is out
there as others it's not a name that is as
(30:18):
known as the sort of as other names. I would
say that it's a great option to consider, and I
would recommend to go to our website and take a
look of all the things that we offer, and you might.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Be positively surprised. Our website is APUs dot t DU.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
All right, thank you so much for joining us here today,
new No Fernandez, the president of the American Public University System,
and thank you for joining us on our CEOs You
Should Know series
Welcome to iHeartRadio CEO's You Should Know series. I'm Eric Rodriguez.
Today we're catching up with Nuno Fernandez, the president of
American Public University System. Thanks so much for joining us.
So before we get into the American Public University System,
let's learn a little bit about you. First, tell me
about your history, where you're from, your education, kind of
your personal journey here.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
I was born in a small country in Europe, in Portugal,
and I lived in Portugal until I was about twenty
years old. Then I got to spend some time in
the UK, and then my first real job was in Madrid,
in Spain, and I worked for an international company, a
German company called Bosch, you might have heard the name.
(00:41):
And I've worked for them for eleven years, different roles
product management, sales, marketing, and I was, you know, I
traveled alfwhere around the world with them. I lived in Brazil,
I lived in Mexico, spent some time in Colombia and
always working with sales and marketing and if I actually
I became responsible of one of their divisions in Mexico City,
(01:04):
and then I came to the US with them in
the year two thousand and eight, as I was telling you,
as their senior vice president of marketing for the US
and Canada. And I've done that for about four or
five years, and around the year twenty twelve, I moved
to higher education and I've been working higher education since then.
(01:26):
I started in a prior company as their CMO, eventually
became the president c of that company, and then in
the year twenty twenty two, I moved to American Public
University system as a president and that's where I'm right now.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So tell me what caused that transition to go from
the business world to higher education.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
What motivated Yeah, it was not intentional. It was more
like a coincidence, a good one, I would say. So
I was I had a very nice career at BOSH,
and you know, I was progressing, developing myself, and I
was approached by ed Hunter in Miami around the year
twenty twelve, as I was telling you, and they were
(02:03):
looking for a CMO for an education company. And until
that point in time, I never really thought about education
as something that you could market, that you could sell,
that you could you know, offer, because I was in
the consumer goods world, so you know, it's like physical things.
But then I started thinking about my own journey and
my family journey and my parents. I always tell the story,
(02:25):
but I think it's relevant for the discussion.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
My parents are.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
First generation college graduates, and they were born in a
you know, in a very small village in Portugal with
with you know, two hundred people, So.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
My grandparents, they did not know how to read.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
All right, So I could I could witness how much
education transform their lives and the possibilities that it opened
for themselves and consequently for me, and I thought that
it would be really cool to be able to do
something similar for other people, to offer expand access to
education afforded by education, so that more people could transform
(03:03):
their lives, just like my family transform their lives and
my life consequently. So as I started thinking about it,
I said, well, it's you know, I'm going to do it,
and I took the job as the chief marketing officer
of that company. At the time, it was a company
that was rapidly expanding. We were in ten countries and
at our peak we had more than three hundred thousand students,
(03:25):
so it was a very large organization. And eventually I
became the president and c of that company and I've
been in higher education since.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Then, so what drove you to the American public university system.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
So it was interesting because I've I spent almost ten
years in my prior organization where I was just telling you,
I started the CMO and then I became the president
and CEO, and I've been living in the US since
two thousand and eight, and I always had this curiosity
and this interest of working in the US for the
(03:58):
US in education. Prior job was working in the US
but for global education. Right we had universities in Columbia,
at universities in Mexico, and we had business in South
Africa and London, in the UK, in Spain, in Greece at.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Some point, so we were all over the world.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
But I always had this curiosity of being able to
work in the US for the US and really being
able to see how much we could I could translate
from my own experience to be competitive in the US market,
which always attracted me significantly. So in twenty twenty two,
again by coincidence, I was approached again by another head
(04:35):
hunter and he presented me this opportunity with the American
Public university system, and I was immediately attracted to it.
For different reasons. The first one being that it's you know,
a full at American university working specifically for the US,
but also because of their mission. You know, they have
this military background. My father was in the military in Portugal,
(05:00):
of course, so I always had a lot of respect
for people that serve the countries, and I was very
intrigued by American university systems. So I decided to take
the job, and I started in September of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And here I am.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
You mentioned the mission statement of APUs. Let's go into
that a little bit. What makes it so unique?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
It's very unique. You know, not a lot of people
know about a PUS, but the reality is that it's
one of the ten largest universities in the United States.
I think we're number nine or ten right now. We
have about ninety thousand students. But the university was founded
by a veteran with the purpose, the original purpose of
(05:41):
serving the military. So that's sort of our DNA how
it was created, and until today, the large majority of
our students are military or veterans. However, in the last years,
and this is something that I've been sponsoring and championing
with my team, is that we know that we have
(06:03):
a very high quality education, it's very affordable, and we thought, well,
why can't we offer these also to non military people
that would benefit from the same quality education for a
very affordable price, you know, in this online environment that
is flexible.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So we've been we started some efforts to offer.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Our products our services to non military students, especially to
their families, the extended families of the military. And nowadays
almost twenty percent of our population now is quote unquote civilians,
non military students. So we are still very unique in
the sense that we are very you know, military centric centric,
(06:43):
but we are expanding also to other audiences, and we
are also expanding internationally, which is very exciting as well,
because I know there's a because of my background, I
know there's a high demand and a high interest for
American education outside the US. The US is still all
the sort of scene as the number one player in
the world in terms of education. A lot of people
(07:06):
like to come here, but they can't. You know, it's expensive,
you have to visa problems, you know, the immigration. You know,
if you have a family, it's very hard for you
to put your life on hold for two years and
say and I'm going to go to the US, So
we are taking American education to them, and we have
a very competitive price point. So we're very excited about
that that that is something new that we're just starting.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
You mentioned also about online, and that's what makes the
school unique because you can pretty much whenever you have opportunities,
you can sit down and work.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah, we are one hund percent online. Most schools, particularly
after COVID, they've moved also to an online environment environment,
but of course they offered they still offer traditional education.
My view is that it's not that online is better
or worse than traditional education. It's more about what the
(07:58):
expectations and the needs of the students are. So we
serve a lot of as I told, a lot of
military students, but we serve a lot of adult learners
that you know, they have a family, that their life,
they have worked, so it's very hard for them to
take a traditional education path, you know, I'd.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Say virtually impossible.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
So online offers that flexibility that you can study, you know,
after hours, you can study during the weekend. If you
didn't learn something that you feel I don't really understand this,
you can always go back and relearn it. So there
are a lot of advantages of studying online. This is
not to say that traditional education again is better or worse.
I think both of them can be equally good or
(08:36):
equally bad. It depends on the university. And this is
something that is rapidly changing. This online reputation is to
be not very appreciated, but I think that that is
rapidly changing and people are understanding that is actually the
same level of quality is just in a different format
of delivery.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Do you feel that reputation has changed, because originally when
you sit an online school, people kind of step away. Well,
but you're fully accredited, and it's we are.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Fully accredited by HLC, the Higher Learning Commission, which accredits
some of the most raptable universities in the United States.
And I feel it's changing because I don't I don't
think that the delivery methodology defines the quality of a university.
(09:24):
The quality of the university is the quality of the universe.
So what I mean by this is, let's say, let's
take an example of let's say Harvard, Right, So if
Harvard offers an online program and they offer a few
you know, people will assume that that's high quality because
it's Harvard, right, So so what I mean by this
is that either the university has quality or it doesn't,
(09:45):
and the delivery methodology is the same. It's like you
can have an appointment with the doctor and you can
be talking to the doctor face to face or you
can be talking to the doctor to a computer.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
It's still the same doctor.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
So the doctor is going to be able to look
at the same blood exams and the same you know,
it's going to be able to assess you either through
a computer or phase to face sort of in the
same way. It's still the same doctors. So that doesn't
make the doctor better or worse. And that's my point
with education is if the education with the cuality of
the university is good and the delivery methodology shouldn't shouldn't matter.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
And basically, at your school, you can start any time.
Programs start once a month, you can work on your
own time. There's no set schedule. Talk to me a
little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, we we've you know, again one of these sort
of interesting coincidences that happened because we've built our school
to serve the military originally, so it's very flexible. We
start classes every month because we wanted to offer that
flexibility to the service members, and then we translate that
to quote unquote non military students. So you can start
(10:53):
classes every month. We have monthly starts. You can take
course per course, or you can take you know, several
courses at the same time.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
It's really up to you.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
If you need to put your studies on hold for
one or two months, that's not a problem at all.
So it's incredibly flexible and very much adapted to the
audience that we serve, which are working adults and working
profess and.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Professionals.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
You were talking about that being working professionals. How does
that kind of make a classroom different even at being
online for a student and the staff, because you learn
from each other.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Well, I actually think it's better, you know. I you
know again, I don't. I don't.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I never like to compare with traditional education because I
never want to pass the image that I'm saying that
it's better or worse. It really depends on what your
expectation is. But as a professional myself, like if I
would do an MBA now, for example, I did Minmago,
But let's say if I wanted to do an MBI,
I would much rather be in a classroom where everyone
(11:56):
as a career as experience. You might have some high
highly ranked military people, you might have some you know,
senior managers. I would much rather be in a classroom
like that where I feel that I could learn from
my colleagues than be in a classroom full of you know,
twenty four years old, right, because I feel that I
could learn and get the experience, you know, share that experience.
(12:20):
So again I think it's it's great, and it's it's
also an advantage of a PUS which our professors are faculty.
A lot of them are practitioners, meaning that they have
a real job and then they also teach, so it's
not just sort of this fury, you know, the theoretical
academic experience, but they teach based on their real experience,
(12:41):
and I think that's very valuable for the students.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Let's talk about the degrees and the various certificates that
you all offer as well, because it's a wide range.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, we have.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Almost almost I think we have more than two hundred
programs now, all the way from certificates to associates, bachelor, masters,
and doctoral programs.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
In all areas.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
I mean, we have almost everything that is possible to
have in an online format. Of course we don't have
you know, you know, law degrees or med degrees, you know,
things like that that are not possible to offer. But
everything else we have, and we keep expanding our portfolio.
We just launched some really cool certificates. We're about to
(13:25):
launch them right now in quantum computers, robotics AI. So
we are trying to keep up with, you know, the changes,
and trying to be at the forefront of offering really
innovative programs for our students. But if you go to
our website, if you asked our TDU, you will find
a very deep, wide range of programs and and in
(13:49):
you know, in business, are humanities, cybersecurity, I mean everything,
we have almost everything.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Earlier you talked about the financial situation, how this is
very affordable school. You also offer a law for our veterans.
Give me a little bit more information about both of those.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah, So, the United States government as a benefit for
military members which is called tuition assistance, and what that
means is that they pay two hundred and fifty dollars
per crede hour to any service member that wants to study.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So our our philosophy has always been too much.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
That price sort of no out of pocket costs where
the student can get the benefit the tuition assistance and
study quote unquote for free, meaning no out of pocket
cost for the student. So the military students, the undergraduate
military students, they can literally study for free, for free
in the sense that you know, the government is paying,
but they don't have to put any out of pocket costs.
(14:51):
And the graduate students they have to pay a very
small fee of eighty five dollars per of course, and
that's it. So so why But the reason why I'm
saying this is because, contrary to other universities, our university,
the cost structure was created to serve those students. So
our cost structure was made based on the revenue that
(15:12):
we get from those students. That's two hundred and fifty dollars, right.
So it's very hard for a university where the standard
let's say price per grade our tuition is eight hundred dollars,
let's say, which is very common, it's very hard for
them to say, okay, and I'm going to offer these
to fifty because their cost structure is is not aligned
with that. So for us, it's very easy to to
(15:36):
sort of expand that benefit, that affordable tuition to other
audiences that are not military. For example, you mentioned veterans.
We have a specific discount grant for veterans where they
get ten percent off in undergraduate and fifteen percent off
in graduate student credit programs. And then we have another
(15:57):
great benefit, which is if you are in a military
family or if you're in a veteran family, even if
you're even if the military or the veteran are not
students with the PUS, I'm going to give you the
same price that I will.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Give a military or a veteran person.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
So let's say you are married to a service member,
You're going to get to fifty you know, and that's
sort of very hard to match. I mean, I would
be you know, it's very hard to find out there
where you, as a civilian can study for twenty fifty.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
OUs per CREDI.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
So that's why I'm saying that we were lucky in
that sense that we built our cost structure around the
income that we receive, and now we are able to
expand that affordability to other audiences.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
If that makes sense, it does. It makes complete sense.
In a few minutes ago, you mentioned one of the
used to be a buzzword AI, artificial intelligence, and you
really have have you mentioned offering a program in AI studies?
How has the APUs really kind of embraced AI.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Well, we were one of the first ones actually to
be very open about AI and I would divide into
sort of categories. The first category is like what do
we do with AI and your operation? And the second
category is like what do you teach about AI? Right,
so on the first category, we have embraced AI for
student services, for career services, for mental health, for content creation,
(17:18):
and we continue to do so. You know, we are
implementing our chatbots, you know, twenty four to seven virtual
tutors inside the classroom where the students have always someone
in a machine, but someone to talk to. So we
were one of the first ones to fully embrace it
and to change our academic policy actually to say that
it's okay to use AI in the classroom and we
(17:41):
are fine with using I in the assessments and everything
for as long as you disclose it. So you have
to disclose it that whatever you used. So we never
try to fight it. We always try to say, always
from the perspective of being a school that teaches professionals
because my logic, our loge, the provost logic is Okay,
(18:02):
if I'm teaching a professional, most likely that professional one
he or she graduates, E or she will use AI,
you know, in the real world, in the real world.
So why should we prevent that you're doing this service
to the students if we say okay, I don't allow it.
You actually want to encourage and prepare the student to
be ready for what is the real world. So in
(18:24):
terms of operations, we've been one of the first firstments
out there adapting AI, but also in terms of teaching AI.
So we we are about to launch our Bachelors in AI,
a Certificate in AI.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
We are working on our Masters in AI.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
We are about to launch certificate in quantum Computers, which
is not necessarily I, but it's you know, connected. We're
launching a certificate in Robotics, which again is not necessarily A,
but it's very connected. And we have a really cool
initiative that we're launching now with in Q one meaning
(19:05):
as we.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Speak, which we made.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
We have this partnership with m T where we're using
some of the content of some courses of mi T
to be able to offer that content to our students.
So it's uh, it's uh, it's it's an agreement where
we can we can use the content that they have
in some courses and then we are going to offer
(19:30):
that mi T content inside the APUs classes to to
the APS students at the APUs price point. So that's
something that we're very excited about.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I'm gonna focus on you a little bit more again.
So you mentioned it a little bit earlier about your
business background. How does your expertise in the business world
then transition to help the students from.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
A p U S.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Yeah, I'm uh, I'm usually I don't really like to
talk much about.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Me, but I always.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Say that I'm a different president in the sense that
not better or worse, but certainly I'm not a traditional
university president that you know, an academic career and three
PhDs and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Right.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I came from the business world, and you know, afterne
my MBI I still want to do my PhD. I'm
going to work on that. But and I've been in
educational for you know, almost fifteen years. So, but certainly
my background is different than most presidents, and I think the.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Benefit of that has been that.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I have very strong, very strong opinions about.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Branding and how you position your institution.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
And I think that's incredibly important because there are more
than four thousand colleges and universities just in the United States,
and it's very easy for you to look exactly the
same as others. There's four thousand of them. So we've
been working very hard to improve the value of our brand,
to how differentiate ourselves, how we communicate to the market,
(21:11):
how we expand our presence online in terms of social
media and things like that. For example, in twenty twenty two,
we had about three hundred thousand followers on our social
media and now we're more than one million, so you
know it's working that, you know, we're getting our name
out there. I also say that, of course, my background
in marketing helps, you know, to understand how the dynamics
(21:37):
of the market works. In general. We have a great
marketing team, so I try not to get in their way,
but I'm just saying that, you know, I think that
that background helps as well. I always say that marketing
is sort of building the bridge between what you have
and what the consumer wants to consume. So you have
to find a way to build that bridge between what
you're trying to offer and what someone wants to buy.
(21:59):
And I think that in many cases in education and
in other products as well, but in education, the marketing
is very tactical and not very exciting. So again, connected
with the brand, we try to communicate a lot of
the benefits of the university, the benefits for us too,
(22:19):
So we try to use a lot of real people,
real families, how they transform their lives, make it very
emotional in the sense that, Okay, this is what it's
going to do for you. These are real cases, are
real examples of how education transforms your life. So I
think having that marketing background helps. And also I would
say that I'm very driven by having great talent around me,
(22:44):
so I always try to build great teams, and this
is no different here. We have a team of great people,
and I always say that, you know, there's no great
organization without great people, and the opposite is also true, right, So.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I would say that those are.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
The main differences that I have versus you know, lost
more traditional university present.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
You were talking about real people, real stories. Tell me
some of these success stories through.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
The Oh oh my god, we have so many you know.
We it's interesting because we have sort of everything.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
We have the student that their their ambition is reve
got some sort of mid level management job and take
care of their family, you know, and watch their kids
growing up, and you know, and the ambition professional ambition
is just okay, I want to stable job, and that's fine,
there's nothing wrong with that. And then we have people
that you know, that become incredibly relevant in their field
(23:40):
of expertise. For example, the Chief Medical Officer of NASA is.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
A graduate from a p US.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
The current chairman of the Chief of Staff, which is
the most important position in the military in the United States,
and I can say in the world is a is
a graduate of APUs. And it was also faculty. By
the way, at some point, you know, the first woman
that that's food the Thunderbirds is a graduate from a PUS.
(24:10):
So we have all these examples of like high performance
over achievers, but we also have examples of you know,
quote unquote normal people that they just want to establish
a good life for them. So for example, commencement last year,
which we do every year on myy in Washington, d C.
And it's a very large event with eighteen thousand people
(24:31):
last one. So there was this graduate he came, you know,
I was talking to him and and he said that
he left the military and his words not mindset.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I was super lost. I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
And then you know, I found the PUS and I
graduated cybersecurity and east words he said, and now I
don't know what to do with.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
The money because I've been so successful.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Right, you know, good problem to have, but I don't
know exactly what that means in terms of, you know,
how much money is it? But but but for him,
it was a lot when that's really what matters, right,
And so we have a lot of these stories of
like pretty much like my family. You know, to be honest,
like you know that you are able to transform your
life and to achieve things that you otherwise.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Would not be possible.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
I always, you know, I tell this this story, but
it's true because think about my parents. They were born
in a village with where my grandparents did not know
how to read, they did not know how to write.
You know, they were farmers. They're very humble people. If
my parents would not have had access to education, probably
(25:38):
I would still be living in that village, right, And
I would be, you know, a fisherman or and there's
nothing wrong with that, but I'm just saying that my
life would be vastly different, vastly different, and certainly I
would not be here in the US. Certainly I'll not
be here talking to you. Certainly I would not have
the son that I have right now.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
You know.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Certainly my life would be completely different. And that was
all because of education. So education impacts things in ways
that are very hard to predict and that are very
powerful for it. But it's very hard for people to
realize because you really have to go back in time
and say where did it start. It's almost like this
butterfly fact, like you have to go back and back
(26:15):
and back to the point of where everything started. And
the point for me in my life where everything started
was when my parents decided to go to college. And
this was even before I was born, so they transformed
my life even before I existed. And that's what I
think happens with a lot of our students, which we
have a large percentage of students, and I don't know
(26:36):
how much it is right now, but let's say at
least twenty to thirty percent of our students are probably
first generation, and I know that their families and their
lives are going to be transformed as well. That's really cool,
that's really satisfactory to me to see that.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
We you know, we played a small role in doing that.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Earlier we talked about how APUs has been evolving. How
do you continue to evolve? Where do you see the program,
say in a decade or so.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah, we've been evolving in different ways. So one is
being programmatic, trying to expand our portfolio, as I said,
having these more of cutting edge programs, and being at
the forefront of offering programs that typically a university like
HOURS would not do right. Let's say, for example, if
you take quantum computers, you know, you probably expect MIT
(27:24):
to offer that, or you know, or Stanford, but certainly
probably not APS. So we try to be at the
forefront of offering this type of edgy in a very
programs but for a price point that is very affordable.
So we want to continue doing that and expanding the
portfolio in that way. We want to expand our presence,
as I said, in the US outside the traditional military audiences.
(27:49):
Although we want to continue being the leader that's our DNA,
it will never change.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
But we also want.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
To expand internationally, and this is an effort that we're
just starting right now. And you know, we we're purst
I think in Mexico, Columbia, we have some plans in Europe,
in the Emirates, So I think.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
That's going to be very successful.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
And maybe you know, in three or four years when
we talk again, I'm sure that we're gonna have thousands
of students outside the US. So that's exciting for us,
and we want to continue to grow. I mean we,
as I told you, we are now number probably number ten,
number nine in terms of size. You know that we're
in the top ten of the largest universities in our states,
and I would like to continue to climb that that
(28:31):
ranking and hopefully get to an even more impressive result.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
If you could define your own legacy as a leader,
what do you want it to be?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Yeah, I think you know.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
When I think about leadership in my case, I don't
know you, but when I think about great people that
I work with or that I work for, it's always
about how much I developed myself and how they made
me feel right.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Did they made me feel Did I was I supported?
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Was I empowered? Was I did. I feel that I
was growing, that I was explaining myself, that I was learning.
So I would like to be remember, uh, you know,
for the people that work with me, by the people
that work with me, someone that had a positive impact
in their careers, and that's someone that they feel that they,
you know, they are better professionals after working with me
(29:28):
than they were before, and and that the experience has
been positive and rewarding. So I think that's the job.
You know, the job of leadership is really to develop others.
That's the main job, I would say, probably not the
only job, but one of the most important jobs is
to develop the ones that work with you and for you,
(29:48):
and hopefully they will be able to acknowledge that that's
what happened.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
What's your final takeaway for our listeners about the American
public university system.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
I take aways to you know, if you are into
interested in going back to school or if you're interested
in pursuing a new degree, I would encourage you to
go and take a look because it's a really good school.
We have very affordable prices, we have really high quality
and although it's not a name that traditionally is out
there as others it's not a name that is as
(30:18):
known as the sort of as other names. I would
say that it's a great option to consider, and I
would recommend to go to our website and take a
look of all the things that we offer, and you might.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Be positively surprised. Our website is APUs dot t DU.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
All right, thank you so much for joining us here today,
new No Fernandez, the president of the American Public University System,
and thank you for joining us on our CEOs You
Should Know series
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal Season 5
Saskia Inwood woke up one morning, knowing her life would never be the same. The night before, she learned the unimaginable – that the husband she knew in the light of day was a different person after dark. This season unpacks Saskia’s discovery of her husband’s secret life and her fight to bring him to justice. Along the way, we expose a crime that is just coming to light. This is also a story about the myth of the “perfect victim:” who gets believed, who gets doubted, and why. We follow Saskia as she works to reclaim her body, her voice, and her life. If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal Team, email us at betrayalpod@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.