Management Team
Donald J. Trump, Chairman
Michael W. Sexton, President and Co-Founder
Michael I. Bloom, Chief Marketing Officer
Roger Schank, Chief Learning Officer
Greg Saunders, Vice President, Technology
Josef Katz, Vice President, Marketing
Jack Mahoney, Vice President, Sales and Service
Donald J. Trump
Chairman, Trump University Chairman & President, The Trump Organization
Donald J. Trump is the chairman of Trump University, as well as the chairman and president of The Trump Organization. Mr. Trump is the archetypal businessman, a deal-maker without peer and an ardent philanthropist. He has continually set new standards of excellence while expanding his interests in real estate, world-class hotels, gaming, sports, and entertainment. He is personally involved in everything his name represents. This commitment has made him a world renowned figure, and the preeminent developer of quality real estate. His vast holdings include, among many others: Trump Tower, Trump Plaza, Trump Palace, and The Trump Building on Wall Street (home of Trump University).
Mr. Trump has authored a number of books, including: The Art of the Deal , The Art of the Comeback, How to Get Rich, The Way to the Top, The America We Deserve, and Think Like a Billionaire. He has a syndicated radio program that can be heard on more than 400 Clear Channel Radio stations; and he is the producer and star of the hugely popular television show, The Apprentice.
Mr. Trump is heavily involved in charitable activities, among them: he is chairman of the Donald J. Trump Foundation; and a member of the board of directors for the Police Athletic League and United Cerebral Palsy. Mr. Trump was named Developer of the Year by the Construction Management Association of America, and in 2000 the UJA Federation named him Hotel and Real Estate Visionary of the Century. Mr. Trump is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Michael W. Sexton
President & Co-founder
Michael W. Sexton is the President and Co-founder of Trump University. In this role, Mr. Sexton is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the company and managing its day-to-day operations. Prior to launching Trump University, Mr. Sexton was a partner with Par Three Ventures, an early-stage business development partnership. In that role, Mr. Sexton was instrumental in launching companies in the recruitment services, recruitment media, and print media industries. Mr. Sexton’s expertise is in launching and growing early stage ventures. He has been a member of the executive team and advisory board for a number of successful start-ups including an installation services provider and a human capital management software company.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Sexton spent eight years as a management consultant creating shareholder value for clients by developing and implementing leading edge growth and profit-improvement strategies. Most recently, Mr. Sexton was with Accenture in the firm’s Strategic Services practice in New York. While there, he led engagements for Fortune 1000 companies across a range of industries including retail, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, and transportation.
Mr. Sexton has an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, and a B.A. from Tufts University.
Michael I. Bloom
Chief Marketing Officer
Michael I. Bloom is the Chief Marketing Officer of Trump University. In this role, Michael is responsible for all marketing activities at Trump University. Michael has more than 20 years of multichannel marketing experience and has consistently delivered successful results through online campaigns in email, display, e-commerce, and search, as well as traditional direct mail, print, and telemarketing channels.
Prior to joining Trump University, Michael was General Manager of Datran Direct, the multichannel marketing business he launched in 2006 as a division of Datran Media. Michael created a broad array of industry-leading products and data strategies to serve clients with high performance multichannel marketing solutions and Datran Direct quickly grew by winning new business with Fortune 500 clients including Disney, DirecTV, and Fox Digital. Michael previously held senior level positions managing marketing campaigns and optimizing consumer databases at Time Warner, AT&T, Audio Book Club, Western Union, and Sony.
Michael has published many articles about multichannel marketing in leading industry publications including DM News and Target Marketing Magazine and has been a presenter at key industry conferences sponsored by the DMA and National Center for Database Marketing. Michael earned his MBA at SUNY Albany and holds his BS from Cornell University.
Roger Schank
Chief Learning Officer
Roger Schank, Ph.D., is chief learning officer for Trump University. Dr. Schank is a preeminent researcher in the field of cognitive science specializing in how learning and memory work. He has applied his research in a variety of applications for universities, high schools, major corporations, and various government entities such as the U.S. Army and the EPA. His educational philosophy emphasizes learning by doing and the use of simulations to enable students to have experiences and to be able practice real skills.
Dr. Schank first came to prominence in the early 70’s, while an assistant professor at Stanford. He was the first researcher to program computers to process basic, typewritten sentences. He continued to do groundbreaking research in artificial intelligence, focusing on learning. While the head of computer science at Yale, he worked on understanding how human memory works and how people learn.
Dr. Schank’s subsequent research was based on his observations of the disparity between how people actually learn--rooted in the fundamental processes of memory--and how schools teach, i.e., putting a priority on acquiring new information about facts and events rather than improving and expanding students’ internal processes and abilities.
In 1989 Dr. Schank, working with Andersen Consulting, shifted his focus away from making computers smart to helping to make people smarter. He moved to Northwestern and established the Institute for the Learning Sciences (ILS). The ILS attracted a host major government and corporate sponsors. The basic premise behind the ILS was the creation of interesting learning environments that incorporate simulations, storytelling, role-playing, and other experiential methods. He retired from Northwestern as professor emeritus in 2000.
Dr. Schank has published hundreds of articles and more than 23 books, included the undisputed classic in the field, Dynamic Memory: A Theory of Reminding and Learning in Computers and People, and his most recent book: Lessons in Learning, e-Learning and Training. He is a graduate of Carnegie Tech, and has a Ph.D. from the University of Texas.
Greg Saunders
Vice-President, Technology
Greg Saunders, Ph.D. is the vice president, technology at Trump University, where he is responsible for all aspects of course creation and delivery. His main focus is on building user-friendly tools that allow designers to quickly create rich courses that include audio, video, and peer collaboration.
Prior to joining Trump University, Dr. Saunders was a senior learning scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was responsible for developing technology to build courses and collaboration tools. Before that, he served as senior vice president of software engineering at Cognitive Arts, where he led the engineering department in the creation of tools and technologies for the development of web-based courseware. He was responsible for building a set of tools to create online courses for Columbia University, as well as building courses for Fortune 500 clients such as GE Capital. Before joining Cognitive Arts, Dr. Saunders served as an assistant research professor at Northwestern University's Institute for the Learning Sciences, where he developed technology for creating learning-by-doing simulations. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science and a B.S. in Mathematics from Ohio State University.
Josef Katz
Vice President, Marketing
Josef Katz is the Vice President, Marketing for Trump University. In this role, Mr. Katz is responsible for creating the marketing vision and strategy that drives the University's growth. With a focus on testing and data analytics, Mr. Katz brings methodology and accountability to Trump University's marketing programs and has played a major role in the development of these programs.
Prior to joining Trump University, Mr. Katz served as the Executive Director of Integrated Marketing for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. There he was an integral part of their direct mail, email, internet, and relationship marketing initiatives. His efforts helped generate over $30MM in annual sales and were instrumental in finding new revenue opportunities in database marketing and partnership programs. In addition to his marketing responsibilities at Kaplan, Mr. Katz was involved in all data integrity and privacy policy issues.
Other experience include: providing direct marketing and data strategy for leading brands such as Intel, NASDAQ, Nestle, Volvo, Philips Electronics, New Balance, and Rogaine while working for Draft Worldwide and Euro RSCG.
Mr. Katz is an active member of the Direct Marketing community. He is on the operating committee for the Direct Marketing Association's CRM council and is an active participant in the email marketing roundtable.
Jack Mahoney
Vice President, Sales & Service
Jack Mahoney is vice president of sales and service at Trump University. In his role, Mr. Mahoney is responsible for all call center activity, customer service, educational product fulfillment, as well as continuing education sales. Prior to his work at Trump University, Mr. Mahoney was vice president at Investools, Inc. and ThinkOrSwim (a top rated investor education and online brokerage firm--stock symbol SWIM), overseeing teleservices, student retention and new account acquisition. In that role, Mr. Mahoney was instrumental in rapidly increasing call center revenue over 500 percent and dramatically increasing student retention and revenues per sale. Mr. Mahoney’s expertise for the past 18 years has been leading call centers to remarkable achievement quickly and efficiently. His excellent organizational and analytical skills have improved sales and customer service team performance while delivering new business, increasing margins and improving customer loyalty.
Prior to his work at SWIM, Mr. Mahoney was general manager of call centers at SandStar Family Entertainment and Leucadia Family Films--both movie production and marketing companies specializing in family entertainment. In that role, Mr. Mahoney managed all aspects of marketing, sales and customer service efforts. His company-wide continuous improvement protocol efforts resulted in a 1,700 percent increase in revenues and an increase of more than one million customers.
