Deborah H. Quazzo

Deborah Hicks Quazzo is the Managing Partner of GSV AcceleraTE, a venture capital fund investing in exceptional entrepreneurs and their companies in the $75B education and talent technology sector. The GSV AcceleraTE portfolio of 32 companies includes Andela, Ansaro, Begin, ClassDojo, Clever, Course Hero, Coursera, CreativeLive, Degreed, Educents, Fairygodboss, Glimpse K12, Gradescope, Handshake, HotChalk, Hustle, Lightneer, ManifestHQ, MasterClass, MasteryConnect, Motimatic, Nearpod, Neat Work, NoRedInk, PeopleGrove, Pluralsight, RaiseMe, Remind, TARA, Turnitin, Tynker and Voxy. Deborah's firm also co-hosts, with Arizona State University, the annual ASU+GSV Summit to be held in San Diego, CA April 8–10, 2019. This event, now in its 10th year, with over 4,000 in attendance, celebrates innovations and innovators across the global “preK to Gray” learning and talent landscape.

Background

Deborah Quazzo grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. Deborah graduated cum laude with a BA in history from Princeton University in 1982 and an MBA from Harvard University 1987. She is married and has three children.

Career and civic engagement

Previously Deborah co-founded GSV Advisors, a boutique advisory firm focused on learning and human capital technology companies. In 2001, Quazzo co-founded ThinkEquity Partners, an investment bank with offices across the U.S. which was acquired in 2007 by London-based Panmure Gordon. She was a member of the Panmure Gordon Board until she resigned from the firm. Prior to that, she was a Managing Director in Investment Banking and head of the Global Growth Group at Merrill Lynch & Co. She began her career at J.P. Morgan.

Deborah currently serves on the board of Ascend Learning (a portfolio company of Blackstone and CCCP), Degreed, The Educational Testing Service (ETS), Lightneer, Remind, and Web.com (NASDAQ: WWWW). She is a board observer at CreativeLive, and RaiseMe, and an advisory board member of Area9 Lyceum. She is a member of the boards of The Common Ground Foundation, Harvey Mudd College, National Louis Universty, Steppenwolf Theater Company, The Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School, The Khan Academy Thought Leadership Council, The Board of Dean’s Advisory Council at Princeton University, The Strada Institute for the Future of Work Advisory Committee, and the Honorary Board of Marwen. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition. Deborah was previously a member of the Chicago Board of Education (CPS) appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Additionally, she has previously served on the boards of a number of education organizations including America’s Promise Alliance, New Schools for Chicago, Teach For America Chicago, The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship Chicago, and KIPP: Chicago. Deborah received the 2014 Arnold M. Berlin ’46 Distinguished Service to Princeton Award from the Princeton University Club of Chicago, the 2014 Visionary of the Year Award from CFY PowerMyLearning, the 2016 LEAP Innovator in Education "Champion" Award from LEAP Innovations, the 2016 Inaugural Impact Award from Golden Apple Foundation, and the 2017 Visionary Award from the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

Investments

Deborah Quazzo's investments are listed at http://gsvadvisors.com/about/personal-investments/ :