Don King

Don King serves as the Vice President for Strategic Enterprise Data, Systems and Analytics, partnering closely with other senior leaders to provide executive and strategic leadership to establish the vision, strategy, and operations for ensuring that the university’s analytics framework, data, and data systems are a strategic business asset of the university to drive innovation to create growth.

Don King is a Big-4 CPA who began his career in public accounting, where he worked primarily on Real Estate, Energy, and Higher Education clients. Prior to Cornerstone, Don served in a variety of roles in the post-secondary education industry, including: executive level positions focused on strategic, operational and financial oversight of multi-state and multi-national educational institutions, external auditor, and executive recruiter. For the last decade, his King Consulting Group, LLC (KCG) firm supported colleges, universities, educational finance companies and other non-education clients in all aspects of maximizing their business operations.

Key career experiences that will support Cornerstone’s current strategic growth initiatives:

• Executive level leadership experience in Finance, Treasury, Legislative & Regulatory Affairs, Investor Relations, Legal, Strategic Planning, Accounting, Financial Reporting, Financial Planning & Analysis, and Cash Flow Forecasting.
• Extensive experience in contractual negotiations with billions of dollars of closed transactions in areas including, but not limited to, mergers & acquisition, syndicated bank credit facilities, lease facilities, sale lease-back transactions, surety bond facilities, private student loan programs, and banking and insurance services.
• 25 years of experience in education financing with particular expertise in building and managing programs for non-traditional students through partnerships with schools, third-party servicers and sources of capital.
• Leadership of cross-functional teams that oversaw massive business reengineering projects during multiple university turnarounds, including, but not limited to the following: online growth initiatives, admissions and financial aid; student accounts; cohort default operations; student lending operations; centralized financial aid (for multi-locations schools) and student services.

Don’s action-oriented and data-informed approach—anchored in strategic vision, financial stewardship, and a commitment to operational excellence, especially in serving marginalized and non-traditional students—positions him as a valuable member of the executive team as Cornerstone seeks to navigate and thrive in today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape while remaining faithful to our beautiful mission to graduate influencers in the world for Jesus Christ.

Don and his wife, Melissa, have four amazing daughters.