Alexandra (Alex) Bernadotte is the founder and CEO of Beyond 12, a technology-enabled nonprofit that integrates personalized coaching with mobile technology to increase the number of traditionally underserved students who graduate from college and translate their degrees into meaningful employment and choice-filled lives. She has more than 18 years of executive management and strategic development experience in the nonprofit and private sectors. Immediately before launching Beyond 12, Alex was an entrepreneur in residence at NewSchools Venture Fund where she developed the business plan for Beyond 12.
Alex’s previous professional experience includes serving as executive director of The Princeton Review’s Silicon Valley office; executive director of Foundation for a College Education; co-founder and vice president of marketing at educational travel company Explorica; director of operations at EF Education; and operations manager at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, where she coordinated the efforts of an international youth substance abuse prevention foundation. Alex currently serves on the board of directors of Cengage Group, the board of advisors of the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship, and the Presidential Commission for Financial Aid at Dartmouth College.
Alex received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth and earned a master’s degree with a concentration in policy and organizational leadership from Stanford. She is an Ashoka Fellow, a recipient of the 2011 NewSchools Venture Fund Entrepreneur of the Year award, a Jefferson Award for Public Service winner, a Dartmouth College Social Justice Award and Stanford University Alumni Excellence in Education Award honoree, and a Fellow of the 22nd class of the Pahara – Aspen Education Fellowship. In addition, Beyond 12 was named one of the world’s ten most innovative education companies by Fast Company, and the organization’s MyCoach mobile app won a Xammy Award for best social impact app from Xamarin, a Microsoft-owned mobile development platform.