In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 26, we are back into the topic of education, this time with an entrepreneurial CEO with a vision for a better world through education.

Dr. Jamie Beaton is the 29 year old co-founder of Crimson Education Group. He has carried a passion for education, borne of an entrepreneurial mother who hung her own university degrees, three of them, in his bedroom when he was a small boy.

He went on to excel at Kings College in Auckland, before leaving our shores to study at Harvard University in the USA. Now, some ten years later he has a double degree from that most esteemed of universities, as well as eight other university degrees from the who’s who of prestigious education, including Stanford, Yale, Princeton and Oxford.

His own entrepreneurial efforts led to the creation of Crimson Education, an organisation that supports high school students to gain offers to the world’s most competitive universities, including those he has attended. Crimson Education now has  a network of over 20,000 students and with over 2,300 tutors and mentors around the world.

In this episode, Bruce Cotterill talks to Jamie about what makes the best universities and how an aspiring student should select a university. Their conversation is littered with tips and ideas for those considering studying abroad. And parents might be pleasantly surprised at the cost of doing so. If you look in the right places, it might not be as expensive as we think.

There’s also plenty of discussion about the state of the New Zealand education system, how we can improve it, and why we should.

Episode 25 of Leaders Getting Coffee is a “must listen” for any students and parents  considering University as a next step, and how to maximise that opportunity. And we hear the story of a fascinating young New Zealander who lives and breathes education.