Mike Cairns

Mike Cairns is the current Chief Financial Officer at MakeSchool. Mike has also served as the Interim Chief Financial Officer and the Vice President Finance and Administration, Chief Financial Officer at Saybrook University.

At MakeSchool, Mike Cairns leads the financial strategy for the organization with a focus on ensuring relevance of education for the modern economy and accessibility to students of all backgrounds. Make School's education:

- Combines the liberal arts with computing education in a bachelor’s granting program

- Provides relevant and engaging education through real world projects

- Unites students from a broad socioeconomic range who possess grit (as measured by non-traditional metrics) and a passion for impact and innovation

- Ensures students are the core focus of the institution

At Saybrook University, Mike Cairns co-led the transition team and integration of people and systems into the TCS Education System which resulted in vastly improved infrastructure and a net savings of $250,000 per year. Mike also led all facets of relocating Saybrook's campus from San Francisco to Oakland, which resulted in net savings of $400,000 per year. In addition, they engineered the financial aspect of a turnaround strategy resulting in savings of approximately $1.3 million per year. This included analysis and recommendations on program viability, cost of instruction and faculty workload criteria.

Their manager is Ashutosh Desai, Founder. They are on a team with Casey Spurgeon - Director of Outcomes & Talent Partnerships, Dion Larson - Head of Engineering, and Alyssa Valerio - Director of Business Operations.