SHOW NOTES
EPISODE DETAILS
Episode Guest: Peter Gudmundsson, President of the Board for International Leadership of Texas Charter Schools
Connect with Peter on LinkedIn
School / Organization: International Leadership of Texas Charter Schools
Website: https://www.iltexas.org/
Topic: Strategic planning and the role of the board in driving goal alignment and accountability for your charter school.
FULL BIO
Peter A. Gudmundsson, aged 59, is the CEO of BeHome247, a leading provider of unified property management platform technology for operators in hospitality and residential real estate. Until 2020, Peter served as the CEO of The Pet Loss Center, a fast-growing leader in pet memorialization and cremation services across ten markets in five states. He grew and sold the company to a strategic investor for 3.5x revenue during the COVID lockdown.
Prior to that, Peter was the President & CEO of RecruitMilitary, a leading veteran hiring solutions company (offering job fairs and digital services) that he acquired with an investor group in 2013. RecruitMilitary assists companies in attracting and retaining high-quality veteran employees and students. Peter sold the company with a 34% IRR and remained as CEO for an additional eight months to oversee the transition. Most of Peter’s career has been dedicated to leadership in media, education, and intellectual property-intensive businesses. Before acquiring RecruitMilitary, Peter ran the Dropout & Truancy Prevention Network, a social enterprise that combined location verification technology with phone-based personal mentor/coaches to keep kids in school and on track to graduate. In 2008, he founded the Priceless Legacy Company, a custom publishing company that helped people preserve their life stories and lessons in print and electronic formats.
Before founding PLC, Peter served as CEO and President of Beckett Media LP, the world’s leading publisher of magazines, books, and websites for sports collectors and gamers from 2005 to 2008. He teamed up with Apprise Media and Spectrum Equity Investors to buy the company from its founder. At Beckett, Peter completely revamped the web business and launched new magazine titles dedicated to online gaming, high-end sports memorabilia, and various other collecting phenomena. He tripled EBITDA during his tenure.
Before Beckett, Peter founded, operated, and sold Design Guide Publishing Ltd, the publisher of high-end interior design publications in three major Texas cities. Peter achieved a 5x ROE by selling the company four years after its launch. Prior to founding Design Guide Publishing, Peter was President and CEO of Jobs.com, an Internet employment media company. Before joining Jobs.com, he served successively as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and President of Primedia Workplace Learning, a pioneer in the field of distance learning. Earlier, Peter served as Vice President of Corporate Development for Primedia Inc., KKR’s media company. Before Primedia, Peter worked as the Assistant to the President of Tosco Corporation and as an investment banker in corporate finance, debt capital markets, and mergers & acquisitions at Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York.
Peter is a regular media contributor, having appeared on CSPAN, multiple local television and radio programs, and published opinion pieces in Forbes, The Washington Post, US News & World Report, The Hill, The Christian Science Monitor, and many other periodicals. Peter is also the author of "Not Done Yet: A College to Career Transition Guide for Parents" and "The Veteran Hiring Leader’s Handbook." He has served on the board of a twenty-thousand-student charter school system, International Leadership Texas.
A former U.S. Marine field artillery and intelligence officer, Peter is a graduate of Harvard Business School (MBA) and Brown University (BA in History with Honors). He serves as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Iceland in Texas, the Board President of the International Leadership of Texas charter school network, and is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (Gold) Maverick Chapter. He is married to the former Kathleen Vouté of Bronxville, New York, and they reside in Dallas with their four adult children.
