Mark Shay is a business developer with a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit and retain students.  In an illustrative career that has spanned three decades, Shay has served thousands of customers, ranging from individual faculty members and graduate deans, to university presidents and foreign governments.  He is well known for balancing the non-commercial spirit of educators with the commercial realities of operating efficiently and effectively using technology to improve the bottom line.

At IDP Education, Shay brings his deep understanding of the American higher education market to the world’s largest student placement firm.  As Regional Director of North America, Shay is responsible for bringing IDP Education’s network of prospective students to the American higher education market.  He will oversee the institutional relationships with universities that are looking to expand their international student enrollments and improve their brands overseas.  Shay is also a resource for the company, providing guidance to the operations of IDP, helping support the expansion of the business, improving the efficiency of student placements everywhere as IDP grows its presence in Australia and worldwide.

Before coming to IDP, Shay was the founder and former CEO of Educational Directories Unlimited, a leader in the emerging market of computer-based student recruiting. EDU began in the early days of the Internet, creating market-leading online academic directories that connected students with schools including the popular and effective GradSchools.com, StudyAbroad.com and IIEPassport.org. Shay is known as one of the leading authorities in the field of online marketing and using the Internet to communicate with students.

Shay’s experience with the American market both from the student and university perspective will help guide IDP’s steps forward.  With field counselors working with students and families worldwide, IDP’s market advantage is taking the wealth of information that is available about higher education and putting it into manageable and actionable steps so that prospective students, interested in studying abroad can achieve their dream of an advanced degree.  Demand for higher education exceeds supply worldwide and IDP’s 40-year history of bringing opportunity to students in emerging markets continues to be its highest priority.

To help institutions better understand the international market, we suggest you follow Mark Shay’s blog on international student recruiting.  He will also be presenting at academic conferences and is available to present his perspective personally.
He can be reached by telephone at +1-610-357-4648 or email: mark.shay@idp.com