Management Team
Gary R. Solomon, PROACT Search
CEO
Along with his new role at PROACT, Mr. Solomon is also the current President of Synesi Associates, a group of successful, urban school reformers that joined together to define a framework for district and school level support services that are built to further the efforts of thoughtful school district and building level leaders (www.synesiassociates.com). Synesi, whose team members had worked together first as part of the Chicago Public School District, and later as subcontractors to The Princeton Review’s contract with the School District of Philadelphia, and eventually the pre-cursor to Synesi Associates, Solomon Consulting Services. Each has given the team a great chance to work with reform minded educators across the country, and has provided a wonderful perspective about the types of reforms necessary to keep urban systems, both big and small, moving in a positive direction. Revenues have grown to over $5 million during the first year of Synesi Associates, doing work in the Recovery School District of New Orleans, the Louisiana State Board of Education, The East Baton Rouge Public School System, Kansas City, Missouri School District, and finally, Los Angeles Unified School District.
Before breaking out on his own, Gary Solomon served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for The Princeton Review, and was responsible for rebuilding the sales organization into a senior consultative team focused on creating custom solutions in the areas of assessment, professional development and academic intervention. During his 6 years with The Princeton Review, where annual revenue goals were exceeded by and average 150%, Solomon was fortunate to do significant business in many of the top 50 urban districts in the country, and work with some of the best and brightest reformers in the K12 space. Among the Districts: Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore City, Prince Georges County, Baltimore County, Charleston, Anne Arundel County, New York, Los Angeles, and Denver.
Prior to joining The Princeton Review, Solomon served as Regional Director of Sales and Business Development for NSchool.com and TimeCruiser Computing.
A graduate of the University of Illinois, Solomon holds a Masters in Education Arts from Northeastern University, and resides with his wife, Pam, and three kids in north suburbs of Chicago. For the past several years, Mr. and Mrs. Solomon have been involved in a variety of different charitable activities and co-founded the DaVinci Foundation, and educational non for profit based upon renaissance ideals that was established to provide equitable high school opportunities for inner city students, and also sits on the Presidents Leadership Council Board at the Field Museum of Chicago.
Thomas J. Vranas
President
Thomas brings an extensive background in educational management in the private sector, as well as numerous start-ups across various industries. He recently served as Vice President at one of the largest publicly traded test preparation companies where he was directly responsible for their sales teams as well as online learning division. Previously Thomas built an urban tutoring program in Chicago to service over 8,000 students with recognition for a quality program from the local and national government. Thomas has also started-up a Wireless Internet company, a Sales and Marketing company as well as a boutique Venture Capital firm. Thomas has been published by the Northwestern Press for his work in political economics and is and active volunteer at many organizations including Habitat for Humanity, Northwestern University and Steppenwolf Theatre. He's been a guest lecturer at Northwestern University, where he earned his B.A. in Economics and Slavic Languages.
Phil Hansen
Chief Operating Officer
Phil Hansen is a seasoned educator with an impeccable record rooted in Accountability. For fifteen years Phil taught history, before moving on to five years as assistant principal for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), and then Director of Special Education in the southern suburbs of Chicago. In 1991 Phil took on the role of Principal at Clissold Elementary, a Chicago Public school. In 1995 he became the CPS Director of School Intervention, before moving on in 1997 to take on the position of Chief Accountability Officer, where he served until 2002. At this time Phil was offered a position working as an assistant to the Illinois State Superintendent where he was the liaison between CPS and the Illinois State Board of Education specifically focused on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) implementation throughout the state.
Upon his retirement Phil joined The Princeton Review and managed a turnaround project in Philadelphia, transitioning four middle schools to new small high schools. He also separately did consulting work for the School District of Philadelphia, the St Louis Schools Office of Accountability, and the Recovery School District of New Orleans. In the Recovery School District he served as the Interim Chief Academic Officer during the transition of leadership. Upon joining Synesi Associates, as Vice President of Policy and Development he has worked with the State Board of Louisiana and the East Baton Rouge Parish School District. His primary work has been in completing school and district quality reviews followed up by long term support as an external partner. Through Synesi he also continues to work in New Orleans, assisting with the High School Redesign efforts
As an active member of his community, Phil has also served as President and Secretary of the Beverly Area Planning Association, and has received rewards for service from both the local community as well as the greater city of Chicago. Most recently Phil was honored as an outstanding City of Chicago Employee and Outstanding Educator from the National Conference for Community and Justice.
Steve Kupfer
Northeast Regional President
Steve Kupfer serves as Northeast Regional President for Synesi Associates and Proact Search and is responsible for executing talent management and support strategies in K-12 education institutions and organizations. He was previously a Senior Consultant in the education practice at Public Consulting Group where he worked alongside district leadership to implement web-based special education and response to intervention (RtI) case management modules in some of the largest school districts in the country, including Miami Dade County Public Schools, The School District of Philadelphia, and the Louisiana Recovery School District.
Steve brings practical, district-level experience in organizational development to challenges in K-12 human capital management and support. In his most recent role, he leveraged local leadership to build operational and financial capacity through Medicaid reimbursement programs, mitigating budget shortfalls and sustaining critical student services. Steve has also developed and implemented comprehensive strategies to engage and communicate with key internal and external stakeholders across districts, and has front line experience with the urgency and complexity of the problems school leaders face today.
Steve is a proud product of the K-12 public school system. He went on to receive a B.A. in political economy from Skidmore College, where he played baseball and was a member of various chamber music groups. He continued on to receive an M.B.A. from Clark University. Steve and his wife, Julie, a Predoctoral Psychology Intern at Northwestern University, are active supporters of the Crones & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA).
