Doug co-founded Sterling in 1983; since then, the firm has become a leading investor in education and other industries, having made over 80 investments over the years.
Doug ardently believes universities play an indispensable role in the development of nations, communities, and individuals, and that more students deserve access to the resources of the world’s top-tier universities. His work has been driven by his vision of using highly innovative design principles to deliver breakthroughs in quality and scale for all levels of education.
Doug subsequently founded Laureate Education, the largest higher education company in the world, which grew to more than 1,000,000 students enrolled at 70 campus-based and online institutions owned or managed by Laureate and its affiliates. These universities operated over 150 campuses in 23 countries around the world, offering bachelors and advanced degrees in almost every field of study. Under Doug’s leadership, Laureate became the world’s largest Certified B Corp™ and the first publicly traded company that is organized as a Public Benefit Corporation. Doug served as Chairman and CEO of Laureate from its inception in 1999 through the end of 2017 and as Chairman through 2018.
Prior to founding Laureate, Doug was the Chairman and CEO of its predecessor, Sylvan Learning Systems, during which period Sylvan became the largest K-12 tutoring company in North America, with over 1,000 tutoring centers, more than 200,000 students and a brand that became a household name. Along with co-founder Chris Hoehn-Saric, Doug launched many other notable education companies within Sylvan during this period including Sylvan Prometric (now Prometric Inc.) which became the global leader in computer-based testing and assessment.
Mr. Becker’s most recent entrepreneurial venture, Cintana Education, was formed in partnership with Arizona State University, to connect universities around the world with the world-class resources needed to develop and scale high-quality academic programs. The Cintana alliance of universities now includes 16 institutions with over 200,000 students.
As part of his work with Sterling and Cintana, Doug serves on the Boards of various education technology companies including OpenClassrooms (France), Lecturio (Germany), Dreamscape Learn (U.S.), and Instride (U.S.) where he serves as the non-executive Chairman. As part of his commitment to community service, Doug has served on many non-profit boards and currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Johns Hopkins Medicine and Johns Hopkins Medicine International. He served for 16 years as the Chair of the Board of the International Youth Foundation, a global NGO focusing on the needs of youth in over 100 countries, including many of the most impoverished nations, and continues to serve on the Board as Chair Emeritus.
REPRESENTATIVE PORTFOLIO COMPANIES
- Cerebro Capital
- Cintana Education
- Escape Studios
- Lecturio
- Open Classrooms