In 2002, Dr. Bryan E. Carlson and his partner Mr. George J. Matthews founded Collegiate Enterprise Solutions (CES), LLC, at which time they acquired The Registry for College and University Presidents.  Under the leadership of Carlson and Matthews as Chancellor, The Registry has experienced sustained growth and expansion. As a result, The Registry has become the premier interim executive placement firm in American higher education.

Dr. Carlson previously served for 23 years as President of Mount Ida College, and successfully led that institution through an extraordinary period of growth and transformation. Mount Ida grew from a small, single-sex, two-year school into the leading two-plus-two baccalaureate coeducational college in the Northeast.

Dr. Carlson also served as the President and CEO of the New England Exchange for Executive Leadership (NEXEL), a Division of the Educational Alliance; and as President of College Bound Selection Service (CBSS).  

Dr. Carlson was elected as a member of three honor societies--Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Delta Kappa, and The Academy. He is an alumnus of Bates College; a cum laude graduate of Northeastern University; and he received an Ed.M. and Ed.D. from Boston University.  Dr. Carlson’s higher education publications include “Presidential Leadership” in Merging Colleges for Mutual Growth (Johns Hopkins University Press); “Bridging the Leadership Gap: Megatrends Impacting our Next Generation of Presidents” in TRUSTEESHIP (Carlson and Matthews); and What Trustees Need to Know (Matthews, Smith, and Carlson).