Education Is the Business of CFOs, Says Guild’s New Chief Financial Officer, Chris Garber

Guild brings on new executive to lead its strategic finance function, as the company spends more time with Fortune 1000 CFOs doubling down on their investment in human capital.

Guild Education, the leading education and upskilling platform for America’s workforce, welcomes Chris Garber as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) from LiveRamp. Reporting to Guild’s CEO and Co-Founder Rachel Carlson, Garber will join the leadership team and build out the company’s financial operations in support of its continued growth, including strategic finance, FP&A, investor relations, accounting and business systems.

Garber will also spend time partnering with CFOs to bring finance deeper into the conversation on human capital investments and skilling. Innovative CFOs are increasingly focused on human capital amidst the war for talent and impending automation agendas. With education and upskilling programs now driving recruitment and retention outcomes as well as DE&I and mobility efforts, the shift from cost-center to true investment is underway.

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“In a knowledge economy, people are your core asset and the nation’s top CFOs are starting to focus on human capital and learning programs with that in mind,” said Rachel Carlson, Guild Education CEO and Co-Founder. “Companies that win in this economy will be those who treat their people as an investment, not a cost-center, and that includes investing IN your people. Chris embodies the new model of innovative CFOs who think more holistically about employees — both in his belief about learning as a strategic enabler and in his track record as a leader and mentor. We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome him to team Guild.”

Garber has a proven track record bringing a strategic lens to financial leadership in both pre-IPO and public companies. His broad range of financial and operational experience spans financial planning, investor relations, business analytics, commercial operations and IT. Garber joins Guild from LiveRamp , an industry-leading SaaS data platform, where he served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations. Prior to LiveRamp, Garber led financial planning & analysis and investor relations at Acxiom, a publicly-traded marketing services company. Earlier in his career, Garber held a variety of finance roles at Silver Spring Networks, Electronic Arts and Applied Materials. He has a B.S. in Finance from Santa Clara University and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program.

“Guild’s work to help CHROs and CFOs leverage education & skilling to attract, retain and develop the workforce of the future resonates deeply with me as a finance leader, and aligns with my beliefs in how innovative companies should be investing in the human potential of their workforce,” said Chris Garber, Guild Education’s Chief Financial Officer. “I am proud to join Guild at this incredible moment in the company’s journey and grow the company’s practice of helping F1000 executive teams unlock the positive business outcomes from investing in their people and their futures.”

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Garber’s hire comes at a time of significant market momentum for Guild with more and more of the nation’s largest employers committing to major education and upskilling investments. In the last six months, Guild announced new large-scale skilling partnerships with Waste Management, Target, and Sunrun, to offer comprehensive education and upskilling programs to their employees. Guild also worked with Walmart’s leadership to expand its education and skilling programs to cover 100% of the costs for associates with a $1 billion, multi-year commitment.

Guild announced a $150M Series E funding round in June that will help it continue to scale to meet market demand, and fund significant investments in its support services for America’s workforce, as well as growth of the company’s product and engineering teams. Garber’s hire will be instrumental in accelerating Guild’s business growth as it continues scaling in order to serve millions of America’s workers.

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