Gregory W. Cappelli

Gregory W. Cappelli (born c. 1968) is an American business executive and national education policy expert. He is the CEO of Apollo Education Group, a Fortune 1000 company and the parent company of the University of Phoenix, as well as chairman of Apollo Global, a subsidiary company that invests money in educational institutions.

Cappelli began working at Apollo Education Group (“Apollo”) in 2007, serving as executive vice president of global strategy and assistant to the executive chairman. He was appointed co-CEO of Apollo on April 27, 2009, at the age of 41. As co-CEO, he shared the role with Chas Edelstein. The two men had worked together at Credit Suisse before each joined Apollo Group. Three years later, he became the sole CEO of the Apollo.

Cappelli’s tenure at Apollo is marked by his leadership improvement in two areas, one internal and one external. His external focus has been to apply the company’s assets to building a skilled workforce. His internal focus has been on improving the operations and recruiting strategy of the University of Phoenix.

In 2012, Mother Jones named him one of the ten most overpaid CEOs.

Skilled workforce

In 2014, he told a journalist that he had he had traveled around the world over a span of 18 months to meet with companies. His goal was to learn how other companies developed their workforces.

Under his leadership as CEO, Apollo partnered with Fortune 1000 companies to train company employees. In 2015, Apollo created a business unit called Apollo Professional Development. The unit runs programs that train employees at Fortune 1000 companies. Chief Executive Magazine called him “passionate about creating a skilled workforce for employees.”

Corporate leadership

During a conference call with investors at the end of 2015, he said, “None of us at Apollo are satisfied where we are right now.” On the call he pledged to improve the company and replace programs that don’t work with more forward-looking options, such as a cybersecurity certificate program, for example.

Regarding internal improvements, Cappelli told the Phoenix Business Journal in 2014 that he changed the recruiting process at the University of Phoenix, resulting in recruiters focusing on listening to prospective students’ needs and goals.

Cappelli has also taken a role in global leadership. He has been a keynote speaker at the Milken Institute Global Conference. The Milken Institute is a think tank focused on global prosperity, capital expansion, jobs and health issues.

Cappelli is a member of:

• Former board of directors members of Everybody Wins!, located in New York
• The Board of Governors of the Boys and Girls Club of America
• The board of trustees of his graduate school alma mater, Dominican University

A few days after the 2012 presidential election, he was on a live C-SPAN television special called “Voter Demographics and 2012 Elections.” He served as a panelist offering his insight and answering questions from the audience.

While he was an analyst at Credit Suisse, in the 2003 “Beat on the Street” analyst survey, he earned “top honors.”

He graduated with a B.A. in economics from Indiana University. He later earned an MBA at Dominican University.