We are very excited to announce that Casey Powers has taken on the role of CEO of Climb.
Angela (Ceresnie) Prince, our former CEO, led Climb through a period of rapid growth. Under her leadership, we’ve expanded our business more than 500% and funded more than 40,000 learners on their path to career advancement — helping those learners achieve an average 57% salary increase as a result of their education investments*. She has also exemplified a passion for our mission and a commitment to our values every day, helping to build a company culture with those same values at its core.
As Climb has grown, the leadership needs of the company have evolved as well. In recent months, Angela recognized that Casey Powers, Climb’s COO, was the right person to be Climb’s CEO for the next phase of the company’s development and they made this leadership change decision together. (For more about how Angela approached this leadership change please see her LinkedIn post.)
“I’m unbelievably proud of the work that I and the rest of the Climb team have done over the past 6 years,” Angela says. “And while the decision wasn’t easy, I’m confident that the company will soar to new heights under Casey’s leadership! I look forward to remaining an advisor to her and being an advocate for both Climb and the industry we support.”
Casey is stepping into the CEO position after three years at Climb. She not only has a breadth and depth of experience in the finance industry in general — starting her career in investment banking before earning her Masters at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs and going on to hold leadership positions at several “mission-driven” fintech companies — but also a deep understanding of Climb, our mission, and our values. As COO, she’s revolutionized our operations and been an integral part of the leadership team. We’re all incredibly excited to see her continue to drive growth, culture and strategy at Climb.
“Not only has Angela been a tremendous leader for Climb over the past several years, she’s been a mentor and role model to me since I joined her team three years ago,” Casey says. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to continue to build upon the solid foundation that Angela has created during her tenure as CEO. We have an amazing team, a great culture, a growing business and a bright future. I look forward to leading Climb through this next chapter of its story as we continue to fulfill our mission to expand access to career-advancing education.”
1 Based on nearly 7,000 survey responses. The data points include Climb’s all-time survey respondents, with duplicate responders removed, that both: 1) reported to have graduated from their program and 2) reported both pre-program and post-program income data.