Senior Vice-President, Education Marketing
Ken's passion for higher education began as an award-winning graduate student, researcher, and lecturer at the University of Toronto, where he created one of the first scholarly e-communities using the Internet, wrote dozens of journal articles and conference presentations, and edited hypertext editions of Renaissance playtexts. For almost a decade, Ken took a sabbatical from academia to manage a successful regional advertising agency, developing award-winning brand identities, marketing strategies, websites and multimedia campaigns for a wide range of non-profit, public sector, and education clients.
In 2005, Ken co-founded Academica Group with CEO & President Rod Skinkle, leading an unprecedented expansion and evolution of our flagship research study, the UCAS™ Applicant Study, and consulting with dozens of college and university clients on recruitment marketing and brand strategy. In particular, Ken has led the development of our conceptual, data-driven framework for mapping institutional positioning and reputation. Recent projects that have benefited from Ken’s strategic thinking include our branding work for Lethbridge College and Mount Royal College, marketing audits for McGill University, Cambrian College, Fanshawe College and Sault College, alumni research for Bishop’s University, the Ontario Applied Degree marketing plan (“Degrees in Demand”), the University of Western Ontario undergraduate recruitment campaign, and Athabasca University brand positioning report.
Ken created and continues to edit Academica's Top Ten, a free daily news summary that now serves more than 1,700 email subscribers and thousands of RSS readers.
Ken is an active, long-standing member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), American Marketing Association (AMA), and the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE), and an honorary member of the Rotary Club of London South. He has authored or co-authored numerous research papers on student recruitment, written a syndicated column on graphic design, and presented research papers or facilitated workshops nationally and internationally, at conferences for the ARUCC, SCUP, CCAE, CACE, OACC, OURA, AARAO, ACAATO, SAA, and on dozens of university and college campuses across
Ken holds an honours BA in English Language & Literature from the University of Western Ontario, an MA in English Literature from the University of Toronto, and completed all coursework toward a PhD in Renaissance Drama, also at UofT.
Read Ken's blog or book reviews
See Ken's Upcoming Conference Presentations
Read Ken's Institutional Positioning framework
Read Ken's 2007 Year in Review
Contact Ken:
(519) 433-8302 ext.205
ken@academica.ca