Management Team

Gary R. Solomon
Founder & CEO

Gary Solomon founded Synesi Associates in 2007.  Gary has worked in Education for the past twenty years, starting as a high school teacher in the Chicago suburbs.  As a member of the school staff Gary worked his way through a Masters in Education program, and took on the added responsibility of an administrative role for the district.  In 1999 Gary transitioned from the public to the private sector taking on a position at a private education company, as a regional business director.  From this time on Gary has proven himself to be a skilled and impressive business leader, balancing his roots as an educator with the fast pace of the private sector.  He has brought a unique perspective to his consulting firm because he knows what it is to be an educator and he has built his company on this foundation.

Before breaking out on his own, Gary Solomon served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for The Princeton Review, and was responsible for rebuilding the sales organization into a senior consultative team focused on creating custom solutions in the areas of assessment, professional development and academic intervention. During his six years with The Princeton Review, where annual revenue goals were exceeded by and average 150%, Solomon was fortunate to do significant business in many of the top 50 urban districts in the country, and work with some of the best and brightest reformers in the K12 space. Among the Districts: Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore City, Prince Georges County, Baltimore County, Charleston, Anne Arundel County, New York, Los Angeles, and Denver.

Prior to joining The Princeton Review, Solomon served as Regional Director of Sales and Business Development for NSchool.com and TimeCruiser Computing. 

A graduate of the University of Illinois, Solomon holds a Masters in Education Arts from Northeastern University, and resides with his wife, Pam, and three kids in the north suburbs of Chicago. For the past several years, Mr. and Mrs. Solomon have been involved in a variety of different charitable activities and co-founded the DaVinci Foundation, an educational non-profit based upon renaissance ideals that was established to provide equitable high school opportunities for inner city students, and also sits on the Presidents Leadership Council Board at the Field Museum of Chicago.

Thomas J. Vranas
President

Thomas Vranas brings an extensive background in educational management in the private sector, as well as numerous start-ups across various industries. He recently served as Vice President at one of the largest publicly traded test preparation companies where he was directly responsible for their sales teams as well as online learning division. Previously Thomas built an urban tutoring program in Chicago to service over 8,000 students with recognition for a quality program from the local and national government. Thomas has also started-up a Wireless Internet company, a Sales and Marketing company, as well as a boutique Venture Capital firm. 

Thomas has been published by the Northwestern Press for his work in political economics and is an active volunteer at many organizations including Habitat for Humanity, Northwestern University and Steppenwolf Theatre. He's been a guest lecturer at Northwestern University where he earned his B.A. in Economics and Slavic Languages.

Phil Hansen
Chief Academic Officer

Phil Hansen is a seasoned educator with an impeccable record rooted in Accountability.  For fifteen years Phil taught history, before moving on to five years as assistant principal for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), and then Director of Special Education in the southern suburbs of Chicago.  In 1991 Phil took on the role of Principal at Clissold Elementary, a high performing Chicago Public school.  In 1995 he became the CPS Director of School Intervention, before moving on in 1997 to take on the position of Chief Accountability Officer, where he served until 2002.  At this time Phil was offered a position working for the Illinois State Superintendent as the liaison between CPS and the Illinois State Board of Education specifically focused on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) implementation throughout the state.  

As an active member of his community, Phil has also served as President and Secretary of the Beverly Area Planning Association, and has received rewards for service from both the local community as well as the greater city of Chicago. Most recently Phil was honored as an outstanding City of Chicago Employee and Outstanding Educator from the National Conference for Community and Justice.

Steve Kupfer
Northeast Regional President

Steve Kupfer serves as Northeast Regional President for Synesi Associates and Proact Search and is responsible for executing talent management and support strategies in K-12 education institutions and organizations. He was previously a Senior Consultant in the education practice at Public Consulting Group where he worked alongside district leadership to implement web-based special education and response to intervention (RtI) case management modules in some of the largest school districts in the country, including Miami Dade County Public Schools, The School District of Philadelphia, and the Louisiana Recovery School District.

Steve brings practical, district-level experience in organizational development to challenges in K-12 human capital management and support. In his most recent role, he leveraged local leadership to build operational and financial capacity through Medicaid reimbursement programs, mitigating budget shortfalls and sustaining critical student services. Steve has also developed and implemented comprehensive strategies to engage and communicate with key internal and external stakeholders across districts, and has front line experience with the urgency and complexity of the problems school leaders face today.

Steve is a proud product of the K-12 public school system.  He went on to receive a B.A. in political economy from Skidmore College, where he played baseball and was a member of various chamber music groups. He continued on to receive an M.B.A. from Clark University. Steve and his wife, Julie, a Predoctoral Psychology Intern at Northwestern University, are active supporters of the Crones & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA).