Ruth Veloria was appointed as the Executive Dean, for the School of Business, University of Phoenix in December 2013. In this role she is responsible for the School P & L and all key process from enrollment to graduation, including curriculum development.
Formerly, Ruth was Vice President of Client Services at Charles Schwab Co. She joined Schwab as a Vice President of Corporate Strategy. Ruth began her career in Management Consulting; she was a principal at the Boston Consulting Group in San Francisco and a business analyst at Booz & Co, in London.
Ruth has an M.M. degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Evanston, Illinois, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from New College, Oxford University, England.
What fuels Ruth’s passion every day, is her determination to create an environment that offers the finest possible student experience at University of Phoenix; and that students graduate ready to tackle the job requirements of their chosen professions.
Ruth has spent the most recent years of her career leading a reinvention of the student experience as the Senior Vice President of Student Experience at the University of Phoenix. Her work has focused on identifying and piloting innovations in and out of the classroom that improve student success and progression.
How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
I remember my mother would always tell me to never be dependent on another person for your financial wellbeing. She told me education is the key to making sure that is possible to support your family. When my father died early in my life, my mother gave me the strength, and know-how to be self-sufficient, and I began setting goals. At 11 years-old, I remember vowing to attend University of Oxford after that year’s accepted class from my school was announced in the morning assembly. I did attend Oxford, and I continue to set high goals for myself and for my team.
How has your previous employment experience aided your tenure at University of Phoenix School of Business?
I’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by incredible leaders in my career, and the best leaders were also incredible people. My past experience, and my colleagues taught me the principle of “do what is right for the customer and everything else will follow.” This is a principle I carry on to this day as a business school leader. I think constantly about the student experience and each contact point where they're interacting with us. Whether it’s with the curriculum, the student services staff or our faculty, I aim to ensure the student experience is at the forefront of our strategy at the University level, and in the School of Business.
What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at University of Phoenix School of Business?
As Executive Dean, my most rewarding highlight is to have the ability to create a strategy, to start to see the strategy through, and be accountable for ensuring its success. This is a great career growth step for me coming from just strategy or just operations in my former roles at Charles Schwab. The key challenge is influencing change at the university level that can allow us to be more nimble and responsive.
In addition, our challenge as a University is effectively creating or revising our programs and delivery methods to suit students’ needs. Sometimes that involves completely redirecting efforts to ensure continuous progress.
What advice can you offer to women who want a career in your industry?
This goes for all people who wish to advance in their career. Think like a chess player. You need to ask yourself, is there an industry, type of work, or project you want to do someday? When you figure it out, look for opportunities within your current organization, or in a field of interest that you might offer your skills to. Consider who and what you need to know and invest in yourself so that you're an expert in the field you want to be in. Ultimately, for women and men, it’s important to be sure your decisions are reflective of the personal brand you want to project.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in your career to date?
Progress takes time. I love the saying that there’s no such thing as a bad idea, just an idea whose time has not yet come. I disproportionately focus my time and energy on creating agility for the future. As a result, I can often see the next hill while we are still on the current one. Persistence to keep showing the way forward, and seeding moments of personal realization for leaders in the organization has led to some of my best organizational impacts. However this style of operating takes a lot of patience in most organizations.
How do you maintain a work/life balance?
You have to be smart about what is important, set priorities and know what your non-negotiables are. With four active children, I have to be creative about fitting things into my schedule. Some nights that might mean sitting down to dinner with my family and going back to work when they go to bed.
It’s important to convey these principles to my own team, too. As technology is increasingly integrated into daily life, it becomes more difficult to distinguish what constitutes work hours. Achieving a harmonious relationship between career and home life is ultimately an assessment of priorities. The question I encourage my team and others to ask is, where am I focusing my time and is it working?
What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?
For women in the workplace, we still face the issue of access to all levels of the organization. To truly be inclusive, leaders need to be mindful that they are not just mentoring people like themselves. Organizations need to create environments where diverse perspectives are welcomed and anyone can be an insider. Having a mentor who can help guide you in this area can produce positive outcomes.
How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?
I have had tremendous mentors in my career. Most notably, they taught me about the importance of demonstrating high integrity with my colleagues, and the capacity to be a leader, but without having to present myself in a way that went against my personality. They taught me that all leaders do not fit one certain mold, and the importance of developing my authentic leadership style.
I also learned that you get the most out of a person by fostering a safe environment for people that allows them to test ideas, take chances and grow. I encourage my colleagues and our students alike, to take risks and not be afraid to fail forward.
Which other female leaders do you admire and why?
I was a young girl in England when Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister. Politics aside, it made a great impression on me at the time. As the daughter of middle-class shopkeeper, Thatcher broke down a gender and a class barrier that was highly relatable for me. In fact, we both attended Oxford and studied chemistry! She was extremely principled, and steadfast in defending her ideologies in a political arena that was dominated by men.
What do you want University of Phoenix School of Business to accomplish in the next year?
Our University vision is to be recognized as the most trusted provider of career relevant higher education for working adults. As businesses and industries become even more competitive, our students and their organizations are demanding more efficient pathways to the knowledge that can fuel career enhancement. Therefore, it is a great time to be serving working adults if you like to innovate, as I do. Over the next year, we must continue the journey to this destination. We must deepen our knowledge of employer needs and ensure we align our programs, and most importantly the way they are delivered that aligns with what our current, and potential students need.
Whether I am meeting with employers, or gaining insights from industry leaders, listening to students’ needs allows me to come back to our teams with the most up to date external information. We can then rally our teams to create a path forward, and set the team off on their journey to create career relevant educational experiences for our students.