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Deborah L. Devedjian is a leader in creating, building, and transforming organizations. She weaves together more than 20 years of experiences in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors with the goal of maximizing mission and accountability. In an exceptional manner, Ms. Devedjian combines keen business insights with passion and enthusiasm. As a leader, she is results oriented and visionary. As a valued board member, she contributes her pragmatic, innovative ideas and talents to further the organization’s mission.
Ms. Devedjian launched Copernicus Learning Fund, LP and Copernicus Learning Consultants, LLC in July 2001 to address the needs of the $2 trillion global Education & Training industry. She believes that the four fundamental industry changes--demand for accountability, advances in science and technology, structural changes, and growth of the knowledge economy—have created unprecedented opportunities for student achievement, education reform, and economic development.
She joined Warburg Pincus in New York, one of the world’s largest global private equity firms, with $14 billion under management, in January 2000 where she created and led the firm’s Education & Training (E&T) Investment Group. She established Warburg Pincus as the world’s leading investor in the field. The 12 companies now in the portfolio represent $250 million in investments in K-12, higher education, and corporate training and information. She also advised E&T portfolio company CEOs and boards on corporate strategy, M&A, and operations. Over the last three years, she has evaluated more than 1,000 business plans, including 70% technology transactions and 30% schools and products companies and met with more than 300 companies.
In 1994, Ms. Devedjian founded RoundTable Partners, Inc., in Berlin, Germany and Greater Philadelphia in response to the need for a global and multi-disciplinary approach toward business. RoundTable Partners is an international venture finance and advisory boutique that incubates high tech ventures and restructures middle market companies. She also co-founded and chaired the board of a plant biotechnology company that sold the first commercial genetically-engineered plants for non-agricultural uses; repeat clients included DuPont, IT Corp., and the U.S. Army.
In 1990, Ms. Devedjian was the first American selected for the 10-member Transitional Team to write the business plan and launch operations of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Paris, London, and Berlin--a $13 billion merchant bank restructuring of state-owned enterprises and financing private sector development in Eastern Europe and the former USSR. With operations underway, Ms. Devedjian headed the Bank's Real Estate Group, generating $1 billion in investments: $800 million in project finance transactions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Prague, Warsaw, and Budapest, cultivated $150 million in industrial transactions for Polish companies undergoing privatization and restructuring, and advised the Republic of Poland on its Mass Privatization Program. She was also instrumental in introducing and securing a $57 million loan for a power project in Armenia. She designed and rolled out the group’s strategy, established financing criteria and protocols, and reviewed 400+ business plans.
Previously for four years, she formulated corporate strategies for The Boston Consulting Group, co-launching the Retailing, Distribution, and Services Group. She managed case teams and client task forces to restructure and rebuild companies.
Committed to bringing the best business practices into public education, Ms. Devedjian was elected to the Marple Newtown Board of Education in PA, serving 1995-1999. As Board president, Ms. Devedjian guided her board in overhauling the district. She spearheaded massive educational and fiscal reforms, resulting in 15%-ile improvements in normed test scores, three no millage-increase budgets, unifying a once-fractious community, and a nationwide award.
Education & Training Boards and Awards: Ms. Devedjian is a Member of the Board of Trustees of Polytechnic University, the Harvard Business School Club of Greater New York, and the Governing Board of the Commission of Independent Colleges and Universities. She has also served as a Board Member of Marlboro College, The David T. Kearns Program for Business, Government, and Education at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and Elwyn, Inc. (a $200 million organization based in Media, PA serving people with mental and physical challenges in Greater Philadelphia, NJ and DE). She has served on the Partnership for New York City's Education Policy Committee and the New York City Investment Fund’s Education Committee, . She has served as Chair of the Pennsylvania-Russia Business Council, Board Member (and offered Chair but declined due to move) of Community Capital Works (micro lending for Philadelphia inner city entrepreneurs), and Vice President of the Board and Head of the Minority Task Force of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum of Greater Philadelphia. She also advised the President of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary on student recruiting and developing a regional corporate ethics program. Ms. Devedjian served as her Yale Class Treasurer and received the Yale Alumni Service Award in 1999. She is a Fellow of the Young Leaders Program of the French-American Foundation and an alumna of Leadership, Inc. of Philadelphia.
She has also held posts with the Holocaust Memorial Council in Washington, D.C., Gruppo GFT in Turin, Italy, The University of Pennsylvania Museum, and Sotheby's. She also authored An Economic Impact Study of the Not-for-Profit Arts on New Haven.
She has delivered or written more than 100 speeches and articles on venture capital, education reform, and international business. She is currently writing a book on using the best private sector practices to reform public education.
A native of Philadelphia, Ms. Devedjian holds a B.A. cum laude in Economics and in Art History from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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