841: How to Create a Thriving Higher Education Community - with Gregory Giangrande, Chief People Officer & Chief Communications Officer, Ellucian

Joe Sallustio: Welcome back, everybody. It's your time to up on the EdUp Experience podcast where we make education your business. This is Dr. Joe Sallustio and I am back and I am fresh and feeling good about podcasting today. As you know, we were recently on site and did 24 podcasts in like a two-day period. I literally couldn't talk and I said, you know what? I'm not going to podcast for a couple of days or maybe a week or two. That actually turned into two days. And I was right back on the mic. Why? Because I love to do this. I love to talk to people who have something to say. And I love bringing on co-hosts and guest combinations that are literally next level.

I'm really excited to bring a co-host to the mic for the first time here on the EdUp Experience podcast. She is now an affiliate podcast in the EdUp Experience Network. And so I said, she's really good on a microphone. I've got to get her on. Ladies and gentlemen, here she is. She's the host of the Get Down to College Business podcast. She's Dr. Sarah Holtan, and she's also an associate dean of arts and sciences at Carroll University. Sarah, how are you?

Sarah Holtan: I'm doing great, Joe. Super happy to be here for my first, but hopefully not my last co-hosting gig with you.

Joe Sallustio: Well, a couple facts about you Sarah that I've learned recently. One, you are a proficient podcaster, but you have no microphone today, which is very unique for a podcaster. And I have a microphone. What's going on in your life?

Sarah Holtan: Well, thank you for busting me out right out of the gates there, Joe. So I prize myself on being prepared, but on the one day you asked me to co-host is the day I'm in between mics. So yes, you have me mic-less. I'll do my best to compensate for it.

Joe Sallustio: You do sound good though. You sound good. You sound clear. And you know, of course, it's such an honor to have you as a part of the EdUp Experience Network. You bring a conversation about the business of colleges and universities that, you know, there are so many in trouble right now. They're in trouble with the model itself, with how they handle technology, how they're thinking about scale.

And so I think our guest, we're going to bring our guest to the microphone now. He's been doing this for a little while. He has never met a microphone he didn't like either, like the rest of us. And we'll tell you why. And you'll know who he is when you hear him. Ladies and gentlemen, he's Greg Giangrande. He is the chief people and communications officer at Ellucian. Greg, welcome to an EdUp mic.

Gregory Giangrande: Thank you for having me. But you're also catching me today. Like Sarah, I don't have a mic either. So we'll run this together, Sarah.

Sarah Holtan: We're the former TV people and we don't have mics.

Joe Sallustio: Yeah, you two former TV people don't have microphones for the podcast. How does this work out? What era are we in now?

Gregory Giangrande: We are giving new meaning to the term "drop the mic."

Joe Sallustio: Yikes! Don't drop my mic. I paid a lot of money for this sucker. Greg, we're here. First of all, Ellucian is a... you hear about higher ed tech companies and somehow I feel when you think ed tech, a lot of folks who think ed tech, they think about small organizations, startups. Ellucian is a massive ed tech company like multi-billion dollar valuation. It's insane how large it is when you think about the people, the scope, the geography. I don't know where I just saw you guys in Latin America or South America somewhere, somebody's doing some conference across the globe. Talk to us just about the scope and the size of Ellucian as we're leading up now to E-Live in San Antonio. Just give us a lay of the land.

Gregory Giangrande: It's so exciting to be part of an organization that has that kind of global region impact. We have four thousand employees across the globe in every region. We serve almost three thousand institutions globally and over twenty million students. And when you think about being part of an organization that has that kind of impact and that kind of reach, it really is a unifying sort of theme throughout the organization that is the foundation of the culture. And to know we have that impact on society because we're working in a community of higher education professionals with one purpose and that's students. It's a fulfilling career and job.

Joe Sallustio: Amazing. I thought you were going to say it was amazing. I was ready for that.

Gregory Giangrande: It's a fulfilling career and job.

Joe Sallustio: As we're leading up to E-Live in San Antonio and EdUp will be there for the third straight year, what you just talked about - geography and the scope of Ellucian - diversity of people, of thought, of institutions, is it central to the way you guys conduct your operations? I know that I had the pleasure and honor of talking to Laura Ipsen many times on this podcast and she always champions diversity, equity, inclusion and thought. AI is blowing this organization up, serving students and how important diversity of thought is. And of course, as we get together at E-Live, you get to bring in all this diversity from across the world together. What's it going to be like? And how important is that diversity of thought toward your mission?

Gregory Giangrande: It's critical to our mission. You know, it's so unfortunate that you hear in the media how many organizations are politicizing DEI in a way and co-opting it to mean something negative. And it's not that at all. It's one of our differentiators and I think it's one of our superpowers, celebrating inclusivity because that's what makes every organization better. It's what makes people better by learning from others, having different points of view. It's what we teach our children. It's what education is all about. The whole point of education is not just a means to an end to get a job, but how to make you better prepared to be a citizen of the world and have that kind of impact. And you can only do that if you have an appreciation and understanding.

So DEI is a core tenet of our culture and E-Live represents the best of our company and the best of our community. It's our company coming together, every function, every part of the business from across the globe. We spend an entire year preparing for the three and a half days to convene a community of like-minded people who also represent diversity of thought and every dimension of diversity that you can think of. And what a privilege it is to be able to do that and to talk about the students at the center of everything we do and trying to enable student outcomes that not only are a measure of an institution's success, but what we do to impact society.

We will have customers from across the globe and we will have every type of higher education institution. One is not better than the other. They're just different and they are for different audiences and different learners. And that's what we're trying to do, just to convene the best thought around our best products and our best innovation, which are best in class. Really excited and I feel privileged to be on stage with my colleagues.

Joe Sallustio: Tell it like it is. Now, Sarah, I'm going to pass it to you. But before I do, and I hope this is OK for me to mention, I have an email, Greg, from someone that knows you. And it says with the same last name as you. And it says that you're not as good at podcasting as she is. And of course, we're talking about your daughter, who on the EdUp Experience had her own mental health miniseries. Highlighting really... she interviewed some heavyweights, by the way. I mean Arianna Huffington... it's just insane who she interviewed. But you'll never be as good as she is. I don't know if I'm going to read it word-for-word, but it says something like that, that she's just way better at podcasting than you.

Gregory Giangrande: Well, I've learned a long time ago that when it comes to my daughter, I'm always wrong. And as competitive as I am, I don't mind losing to her every single day. She's, and my kids are the joy in my life. And I'm so proud of all of her accomplishments and the authenticity of the human being that she is. And thank you and Elvin for giving her the opportunity. I know it's meant a lot to her.

Joe Sallustio: Well, she's going through a college search process. So you got to get right in the middle of it, which makes this even more interesting for you. And Sarah, you know a little thing or two about college, don't you?

Sarah Holtan: I do. And Greg, I'm most interested. You talked about all the different things we can expect at E-Live. What do you look forward to most besides dinner and drinks with Joe?

Gregory Giangrande: I get so inspired by people who love what they do, who have passion around a purpose. And it feels so natural and organic to bring and convene that kind of community together. Also in my role as Chief Human Resources Officer, I feel as much like a coach and a little bit of a conductor as well. And what you're trying to do in either role is bring out the best in every member of the team. To watch our talent and our company do what they do and shine and work with our customers and our customers feel the tangible kind of benefit of being together. I love seeing that the value of coming together and watching people excel at what they do. I find that inspiring, particularly when it's when they're rallying around the kind of purpose that we all have here.

Sarah Holtan: So if I show up to this conference, will I find the solution to the FAFSA issues?

Gregory Giangrande: You will find the best experts who are working with the government to help them resolve some of the challenges that they've had in helping families apply for financial aid. So yes, you won't find better subject matter experts on any aspect of higher education than at E-Live and with our team.

Sarah Holtan: You've probably heard about how some of the colleges out there are preparing like their own mini financial aid packages in advance of FAFSA coming together. What do you think about that? Like kind of getting ahead, does that lead to maybe new ways of doing things in the future?

Gregory Giangrande: It's that kind of innovation. It's that kind of different communities coming together, bringing their expertise together to solve problems. And it's out of necessity, right? And so I think it's a testament to how adaptable and how agile this community can be, just like when COVID hit, right? And so many institutions had to think about how do they keep educating students and how do they keep creating those kinds of experiences? And a lot of institutions discovered their ability to flex and be agile in ways that they didn't have to before. And that was empowering and inspired a lot of confidence. So I'm not surprised with yet another challenge, colleges are coming together to solve it themselves.

Joe Sallustio: Speaking of solving challenges, planning a conference last year at E-Live was massive. I don't think I could properly explain the scope of the site. I mean, it was just huge, right? But amongst that hugeness, which was super cool, there were, it's small at the same time because there's so much networking happening. And the beauty of the way that you all facilitated it. It was almost like, here's a topic, here's what we think a solution might be and go chat amongst yourselves. And you saw the solutions being passed back and forth, then manipulated amongst the customers without Ellucian saying, here's how you should do it. Here's the way to conduct business. It was like, well, here's this tool. How are you going to use it to serve students? And then just all these light bulbs went off. That's such an important part of this, isn't it, Greg?

Gregory Giangrande: The in-between, the walk between the sessions, so to speak, where you go, did you hear that too? This might sound like a shameless plug, if you are in the EdUp Experience podcast. That's all we do here. If you are in the higher education community and you have not been to E-Live, then you have no idea what you're missing. It is, if there's one event that you go to in any year, it's E-Live. And it's not just for what we bring to the show. It is the convening with like-minded colleagues, personas who are every day waking up thinking about the challenges that you have, whether it's from advancement and registration, recruitment, financial aid, advising.

You will find your cohort there and you will learn from each other and at this and on big stages and in small venues in big group think tanks and in intimate settings. We also have some fun. We bring some fun. We bring some sizzle. So it's a great blend and you can feel the community. And it doesn't matter whether it's in the main stage area where we have up to 10,000 people or any of the three to 400 breakout sessions. We've got speakers with the expertise from every area of higher education to learn from and great networking as well. And that's the charm, that's the value that you can't replicate by just being virtual. It's those in-between moments that you mentioned, Joe. It's enjoying a meal together, traveling from one session to the other, and experiencing it live is just, there's no substitute for it.

Joe Sallustio: And Sarah, I want to pass it back to you, but I do, Greg, and I don't, I didn't know if you knew this, but one of my favorite people in the world, Lindsay Stanley, sent me a recording of you having fun from E-Live last year. I want to play it. [Sound clip plays] Cheers! Cheers! Cheers! I had to cut it off after. I don't recall that.

Gregory Giangrande: We were in New Orleans and but I... Cheers!

Joe Sallustio: Okay. I cut it off a bit too long but thank you for that Lindsay. I really appreciate it. You know, this has given me a really good idea. Why don't you bring Lindsay on as a guest?

Gregory Giangrande: For another day.

Joe Sallustio: I've been trying to get Lindsay for the better part of three years. She will never come on. Maybe at E-Live this year we'll get her. Lindsay only does on-air work. You know, the radio is not good enough for her. Are you kidding me? She needs the camera.

Sarah Holtan: So Greg, I love that you talked a lot about networking being one of the highlights of your conference. I know that's how I always am at a conference. I'd be there and I've got my handful of really strong connections that I'm going to somehow partner with in the future. And I would imagine that you're on a lot of people's kind of must-meet list. Who's on your must-meet list? I know you have some big names coming in.

Gregory Giangrande: Well, before you say it, I'll be there. You don't need to. I'll be there to shake your hand. Don't waste any time talking about me.

Joe Sallustio: You did steal my thunder, Joe. Definitely, Joe was among the top of that list. But there are different categories of must meet. So if we're talking about the great lineup of speakers, who doesn't want to meet William Shatner? You don't even have to be a Trekkie to appreciate the career he has had and the influence he has had. So that's an icon, you know, right there. And if we couldn't have planned this better, but we had no way of knowing when we booked San Antonio that the kickoff day one was going to be right the same day as the solar eclipse and San Antonio is right in the path. So who better than Bill Nye, the Science Guy. 

So from a celebrity standpoint, I don't know if I should take certain pauses to make sure Joe, give you ample opportunity.

Joe Sallustio: I push the button whether you pause or not, Greg.

Gregory Giangrande: So looking forward to, of course, and then Maurice, everyone is excited about or interested in AI. Maybe not everyone is excited about it, but everyone is interested. You cannot have a discussion about the future of work, the future of higher education, without having a conversation about AI. And we have one of the foremost authorities and thought leaders in Maurice Conti speaking on day two. And that's gonna be a must-see event, along with day two being our product keynote, where we have our chief product and technology officer and our top executives in product and technology sharing with our customers all of the latest innovations that are sort of unmatched in the industry.

So meeting those speakers is top of the list, but there's nothing like, and not just university presidents, it's not just about that. The people day in and day out who have hands on keyboards, who are working so hard to create great experiences for students and helping them, whether it's community colleges, whether it's four-year privates, whether it's HBCUs, MSIs, just getting close to our customers makes everything we do every day that much more relatable, that much more tangible. So I'm looking forward to meeting all of our customers and shaking as many hands as I possibly can.

Joe Sallustio: I like your style, dude. So you brought up AI, which you're right, we can't have our conversation in higher ed without bringing up AI. But I'd love to know what are your predictions for how AI is going to transform technology and how we do business. And even more specifically than that, what is it doing for HR? Because you're dealing with this, right? You're over so many employees. And HR seems like one of those areas AI can really help.

Gregory Giangrande: Absolutely. And I've actually been pretty vocal about this. I see it as in the near term, this isn't even something that's three to five years out. I think in the near term, when you think about data and analytics, and having greater insight into talent and talent flow and skills and gaps and matching roles, responsibilities with skills that people have or the training people need in order to be able to do a job and preparing them for the next job in their career and graduates for jobs that are available in the workforce, AI from a human resources standpoint is going to completely transform the HR function. 

And a lot of what is a heavily intensive kind of manual admin part of the function of HR is going to become much more strategic because we're going to be able to work with much more rich insights and have the strategy around how does that impact our business? So that's where I see AI really transforming the HR function to make everyone more impactful in how they can apply sort of the data, the talent analytics to the business strategy. 

And then in the workforce, I mean, the more we can align the learning to skills and ability that people need to prepare them for certain jobs. And the more seamless and the easier we can make the transition from whatever kind of learning, whatever kind of degree or certification that can lead to a job, the more that we can create that link, the better it is for learners, for job seekers, and for business. And I think AI will help everyone in that ecosystem, learners, the institutions and the employers, be much more aligned and in sync so that the whole ecosystem operates in a much more integrated and efficient way.

Joe Sallustio: You know, based on what you said, I go, man, I would be really helpful to map the skills that I need to achieve something, right? To tell me from here to there. Here's how I take this path, here's what I need. That's going to be a huge benefit of AI. I love talking with Sonia Khan from Ellucian. She's doing a lot of great work with AI. One of those people when you talk to her and you leave knowing that you're way dumber than she is, because she is so darn smart. But you want to blow your mind with what AI holds in the future. You spend five minutes with Sonia and she will do that. 

But this event, Greg, as we talk about this, events are like weddings, right? You get you're planning a massive thousand-person wedding where anything can go wrong, but everything will go right at the same time, even when it goes wrong. Kind of like doing a podcast on the EdUp Experience network. What else should we be asking you about E-Live? What else do we need to know? Is there anything else you want to say? Open mic.

Gregory Giangrande: It is not just an event about higher education and about products and services and how we can support institutions so they can empower student success. But it's also about community. A big part of Ellucian is, and our culture, is giving back. So everywhere we bring E-Live, the roadshow we go on, we think about the community that we're in for those three or four days. We convene not only our own employees, but the participants in E-Live to provide service-oriented activities that give back to those communities. And whether it's underprivileged students, whether it's veterans, whatever is important in that location, we create activities throughout the entire event for all participants to give back to the community. That's a big part of E-Live as well.

Joe Sallustio: For anybody that wants to register, E-Live.Ellucian.com, E-L-L-U-C-I-A-N.com. The reason I wanted to do this episode, let me just say this, because Ellucian is a partner of the EdUp Experience. There's a reason why we're going to E-Live, first of all, because it's amazing, but secondarily, because we believe in what Ellucian is doing. I don't do these episodes for a lot of people to hype events and products. In this case, I wanted to get you on Greg, I don't think people fully understand the amount of work that's going into serving the higher education community. This is not just about Ellucian customers. Sure, there's gonna be a lot of Ellucian customers there. This is about what Ellucian is doing to create community around solving the challenges of higher education.

So yeah, we can hype it up. We can talk about it. This is bigger than any one company, any one issue. It's about the future of students. And I just want to say that because I don't want anybody to feel like that this is about one thing. No, it's about coming and being part of the solution. And E-Live is creating the platform for that. Any comments on what I said? I just want to make sure that we say that.

Gregory Giangrande: Thank you for that. Everything we do, we're not just the largest ed tech company in this space. Our resources are solely focused on this one thing and that is the higher education community and putting students at the center. It's students first. Everything that this community does is about students, student success, student outcomes. And so the opportunity to convene that community with that one purpose is a privilege. And so you're right, it's not about just Ellucian, it's about the entire community and network of professionals who every day, and they're not all doing sort of frontline high profile work, but they all should feel proud of the contributions they are making to the service of students. And that's everything that we do. It's all about the students and helping institutions to help their students.

Joe Sallustio: Excellent. Sarah, what did you think about this episode today popping on? By the way, I said there were two facts about you. One, you didn't have a microphone and two, I grabbed you 10 minutes before we were going to record. And so you came in unprepared, but did a great job.

Sarah Holtan: Thank you. You'll have to let me know how I did. You know, we always think we do fine in the moment. And then when we listen to ourselves back, we just cringe, right? That's usually how that goes.

Joe Sallustio: Stop listening to yourself. That's my advice.

Sarah Holtan: Greg, I just want to say how awesome it was because you opened up my first question to you was, you know, what are you looking forward to? And you talked about how you love to be inspired by the people and their purpose and their passion. And then your last answer was an illustration of like I could see how inspired you are by this, about bringing these people together with their passion. So what a nice way to sort of bring things full circle. So I really appreciate that.

Gregory Giangrande: Well, I appreciate the opportunity because this is bigger than all of us. This purpose here, this mission is bigger than any one company. And I'm just to have the platform and Joe, everything you and Elvin do with this podcast and network. It's great work for the entire community. So thank you. Thank you for the opportunity.

Joe Sallustio: Ladies and gentlemen, my first exit, my guest co-host, she's Dr. Sarah Holtan. She is host of the podcast that's on the network. Get Down to College Business. You're going to find out more about it because we're going to tell you more about it. And maybe she'll have me co-host sometime.

Sarah Holtan: Any time and I'll bring a mic and I'll bring one for you, too. So we're well prepared.

Joe Sallustio: I see this is what happens if you give me a fact I got to bring it up on the podcast and little-known facts about Greg the last time I saw him he was on stage either really making a good cocktail or making a bad cocktail. I think it was with emerald literally on stage so awesome last year emerald was on stage this year William Shatner Which think about the like 60-year career that man has had in I mean just amazing to see the guests and everything. He's the one and only Gregory Giangrande. He is the Chief People Officer, Chief Communications Officer at Ellucian. Greg, thanks for coming on and telling your story and why it's important for us to come to E-Live.

Gregory Giangrande: Thank you for having me. Look forward to seeing you on site.

Joe Sallustio: Ladies and gentlemen, you've just ed-upped.