Home » Meet our Team

Susan Cates

Susan E. Cates is president and associate dean of Executive Development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Prior to joining UNC, Cates was a partner with Best Associates, a private equity firm with investments primarily in the education sector, based in Dallas. A North Carolina native, Cates earned her MBA from Kenan-Flagler, where she was a Julian Robertson/Tiger Fellow and a Dean’s Scholar. She received her BA from Duke University in public policy studies, where she was a Benjamin N. Duke Leadership Scholar.

At Best Associates, Cates specialized in for-profit education. Since 2004 she has led the identification, acquisition and oversight of multiple domestic and international companies operating in the education sector. Her work involved projects in Brazil, China, Colombia and the United States.

Prior to joining Best Associates, Cates was part of the founding team of ThinkEquity Partners, where she headed the education investment banking practice with responsibility for business development, client relationships and deal execution. She was a principal of the boutique investment bank in New York, which she co-founded with former colleagues from Merrill Lynch & Co. She worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch in New York, as well as in corporate lending at Wachovia Bank in Atlanta.

Email: SEC@unc.edu