Nunzio Quacquarelli is founder and CEO of QS Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd. Nunzio passionately believes in QS’ mission to help young people to fulfill their potential through educational achievement, international mobility and career development.
Since 1990, Nunzio has led QS to become a leading player in higher education student recruitment and solutions. Today, QS serves over 1500 HE institutions. Best known for producing the world’s most popular rankings – QS World University Rankings – QS is also a world leader in international postgraduate student recruitment, running 350 events in 57 countries, online platforms attracting over 60 million web visitors and offering student enrolment solutions. QS Professional Services offer; higher education data intelligence and technology solutions supporting strategy, partnerships, mobility and admissions. QS consists of a team of over 500 people from 35 different countries, with offices in Austin, Portland, London, Paris, Stuttgart, Bucharest, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Melbourne.
In 1986 Nunzio graduated with a BA/MA in Economics from University of Cambridge.
In 1990 he earned an MBA from The Wharton School in the USA, where he won the Glockner Prize for Management. Before starting his own business Nunzio worked in strategy consulting for Mercer Management Consulting and Bain & Company, in the UK and Italy.
In 2003 Nunzio established the not-for-profit foundation, QS Education Trust, which has since provided merit-based scholarships to over 140 less privileged future leaders to gain access to higher education.
In 2004 Nunzio designed the QS World University Rankings® and contributed to the development of QS Star Ratings for Universities which are now the most popular rankings and ratings in higher education.
In 2010, Nunzio was selected as one of the ‘top 50 business leaders under 50’ by Diversity MBA magazine in the USA. In 2012 Nunzio was invited to speak to the Alumni of Cambridge University and was invited to the Advisory Board of The Wharton School SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management.
Since 2014 Nunzio has co-chaired the Wharton-QS Reimagine Education Awards which attract over 1000 entries from the world’s leading universities seeking to showcase their innovations in teaching, learning and nurturing employability.
A respected journalist and recognized authority on management education and career trends, Nunzio contributes to leading media around the world including; The Times (UK), The Guardian (UK), The Times of India, Handelsblatt (Germany), South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) and Corriere della Sera (Italy). Nunzio is regularly invited to address government education ministers and to speak at conferences and seminars on higher education and careers.