Our leadership team leverages over 80 years of combined proprietary school and education market experience, which enables us to deliver expert consulting and software services spanning a range of needs.
Cyanna delivers industry leading business consulting and commercial grade software solutions focused on the total student life-cycle and quality business management for the education enterprise.
Clients seeking advice about business process, technology, or brand/Internet marketing strategies can benefit from Cyanna Education Services Consulting, which focuses on solutions that target performance results that are institution specific and provide actionable strategies for solving the issues most critical to each organization.
Cyanna offers insight and direction to our clients by empowering them with best management practices, performance benchmarking methodologies, and strategies for optimizing core business processes.
Mr. Eckels currently chairs the Cyanna Compliance and Government Relations Consulting Practice.
Prior to founding Cyanna with partners Jon Phillips and Tim Laseke, Mr. Eckels was Counsel and Senior Vice President of Government Relations for TechSkills, a large, privately held post secondary, proprietary school with thirty (30) campuses in seventeen (17) states for which he oversaw accreditation, compliance, regulatory and government affairs for the entire network.
In previous work, Chris Eckels was the Director of Government Affairs for the Printing Association of Florida, successfully spearheading the passage of two pieces of legislation (1999 – HB 643 and 2000 – CS/SB 290) for Florida’s largest manufacturing industry.
Mr. Eckels is a licensed attorney admitted in the State of Ohio, having a private practice in Columbus, Ohio early on in his professional career. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the Ohio State Bar Association.
Timothy Laseke
Managing Partner
Mr. Laseke currently chairs the Cyanna Curriculum and Academic Affairs Consulting Practice.
Prior to founding Cyanna with partners Chris Eckels and Jon Phillips, Mr. Laseke served for 9 years as Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs for TechSkills, a 30-campus national private postsecondary institution.
For three years prior to joining TechSkills, Mr. Laseke was General Manager of US Operations for Wiechers & Partner, a German industrial automation software company.
Mr. Laseke has held Executive Account Manager and engineering positions at Eaton Corporation and Motorola Inc. and is the named inventor on several US patents related to electronic appliance control.
Jonathan R. Phillips
Managing Partner
Mr. Phillips currently chairs the Cyanna Admissions, Marketing and Business Operations Consulting Practice.
Prior to founding Cyanna with partners Chris Eckels and Tim Laseke, Mr. Phillips served for 5 years as Executive Vice President of Marketing and Division President for TechSkills LLC, a privately held, national, postsecondary institution with 30-campuses in 17 states for which he oversaw campus operations, admissions and marketing practices for the entire network.
Prior to joining TechSkills, Mr. Phillips was a co-founder Edgia, Inc., an Internet Software company, where he served as President and CEO leading Edgia through two corporate acquisitions.
Prior to founding Edgia, Mr. Phillips lead an internet training and development group as Director of Product Development at Course Technology, a Thomson Learning Company, now known as Cengage Learning.
Mr. Phillips, previous work included, Executive Brand Manager, with MacMillan Publishing USA – part of Pearson Education. Additionally, during his career in the Technology, Media and Publishing sectors, Jon has served in various brand management, corporate marketing and operations management roles.
Mr. Phillips received a Bachelor of Science – Communications and Marketing from Ball State University.
Matt Cole
Chief Technology Officer
Mr. Cole oversees all aspects of Cyanna’s technology platform and web services, as well as playing an integral role in Cyanna’s Internet strategy consulting practice.
Prior to joining Cyanna, Mr. Cole served as web strategist at Capital One, where he helped manage and execute the enterprise online marketing strategy for the Auto Finance line of business.
Prior to joining Capital One, he served as Director of Web Services for TechSkills, a 30-campus national private postsecondary institution.
Prior to joining TechSkills, Mr. Cole was a co-founder of Edgia, Inc., where he developed an online training and testing software platform that was a pioneer in the field.
Mr. Cole holds a Bachelor of Science – Sociology degree from Texas A&M University.
Kevin Paulsen
Senior Advisor
Mr. Paulsen currently chairs the Cyanna Mergers/Acquisitions Consulting Practice.
Prior to working with Cyanna, Mr. Paulsen served 10 years as the President and Chief Executive Officer of TechSkills LLC, a privately held, national, post secondary institution where he was responsible for TechSkills’ day-to-day operations. During his tenure, TechSkills grew from one Campus in Wisconsin to 30 Campuses in 17 states across the USA. Also during his tenure, TechSkills grew through the acquisition of Edgia in April 2003 and Boston University Corporate Education Center (BUCEC) in August of 2006.
Prior to joining TechSkills, Mr. Paulsen was the Executive Vice President of Global Services for Norstan, Inc., a publicly traded technology integration and consulting company in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he made multiple consulting acquisitions and integrated them in under one brand.
Mr. Paulsen is also a 21-year veteran of IBM, where he held a number of financial, sales and consulting positions. Prior to joining Norstan, he held the title of Vice President of Integration Services within IBM Global Services, in Chicago. He was promoted to lead the consulting and system integration practice for the Midwest United States, and the insurance industry vertical for North America.
Mr. Paulsen earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Finance from the University of Iowa.
Tracey Rossi
Director of Curriculum Services
Mrs. Rossi currently oversees all Cyanna Curriculum Services.
Prior to joining the Cyanna team, Ms. Rossi served for six years as Director of Academics for TechSkills, a 30-campus national private postsecondary institution.
She also worked as Director of Community Relations for Elmhurst Memorial Hospital and Senior Consultant at The Haymarket Group in Chicago, a Public Affairs and Community Relations firm.
Ms. Rossi has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
