Leeds, Weld and Company brings a power house of knowledge to its education investments

Internet Strategies for Education Markets: The Heller Report, June, 2001

Leeds, Weld and Company (New York, NY) is a private equity firm focused exclusively on the knowledge industry. In a conversation with ISEM, Jeffrey Leeds, a principal of the firm, explains that while the company has no specific devotion to Internet technologies, the group does believe that the Internet clearly plays a significant role in any learning company's strategy. The firm, says Leeds, understands that learning does not take place in a vacuum and everyone learns from combinations of media and social settings.

The two other principals of the firm, William F. Weld, former governor of Massachusetts, and Robert A. Bernstein, are joined by an Advisory Board that includes Lamar Alexander, secretary of education in the first Bush administration, Richard Beattie, a prominent New York attorney and former general counsel of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare under President Carter, Thomas McLarty III, President Clinton's former chief of staff, Barry Munitz, currently ceo of the J. Paul Getty Trust and the former chancellor of the California State University System and Richard W. Riley, secretary of education in the Clinton administration.

The current Fund 3 portfolio, started in 1999, includes seven firms. Ross University (Portsmouth, Dominica, www.rossmed.edu and www.rossvet.edu), an offshore medical and veterinary school; Datamark (www.datamark response.com, Salt Lake City, UT), a direct marketing firm in the postsecondary market; Interwise (Santa Clara, CA, www.interwise.com), a provider of software and services which facilitate the creation and management of virtual classrooms for synchronous learning; Cognitive Arts (New York, NY, www.cognitivearts.com), a provider of online educational and training materials; Quisic (Los Angeles, CA, www.quisic.com), a provider of online business curriculum courses; Medschool.com (Culver, CA, www.medschool.com), which provides e-learning for the healthcare industry; and ShopforSchool (St. Louis Park, MN, www.shopforschool.com), a site that links school fundraising support to shopping. A prior fund includes an investment in Edison Schools (New York, NY, www.edisonschools.com).

The firm is now creating a new fund that will focus on the same industry. Investments, says Leeds, have been up to $25 million, and with partners the firm can invest more than a $100 million in equity in a single transaction.