Ellucian names Josh Rice Chief Commercial Officer to lead SaaS and AI growth push
New commercial lead will oversee revenue, services, and customer success as higher ed institutions continue shift to cloud platforms.
Josh Rice, Chief Commercial Officer, Ellucian
Ellucian has appointed Josh Rice as Chief Commercial Officer, tasking the former Shopify executive with leading its global commercial operations as the company looks to expand adoption of its SaaS and AI-powered platform across higher education.
Rice reports to President and CEO Laura Ipsen and leads a unified commercial organization spanning revenue operations, solutions consulting, services, and customer success. The move comes as institutions continue transitioning to cloud-based systems and vendors compete to position AI-enabled platforms at the center of campus operations.
Focus on SaaS adoption and customer lifecycle
Ellucian says Rice will play a role in scaling adoption of Ellucian Student and its wider AI-powered platform, with a focus on connecting the customer journey across sales, implementation, and ongoing support.
Ipsen says Rice “brings a powerful combination of global experience, operational excellence, and a deep understanding of how to align teams around customer outcomes,” adding that “as institutions accelerate their transition to SaaS and reimagine how they serve students, Josh’s leadership will help us move with speed to deliver value across the full customer lifecycle.”
The company says the commercial team will focus on helping institutions implement and use its platform more effectively, particularly as demand grows for integrated systems that support student services, administration, and data-driven decision-making.
Background spans Shopify, Workday, and major cloud platforms
Rice joins Ellucian from Shopify, where he most recently serves as vice president of global sales, leading customer success, solutions engineering, and sales functions.
He has also held leadership roles at Workday, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services, including positions focused on customer engineering, business development, and AI and machine learning.
Ellucian says Rice brings experience in building and scaling customer-facing teams and using AI to support operational transformation.
The appointment comes as higher education providers continue to adopt SaaS-based systems and explore AI tools for areas including student engagement, enrollment management, and institutional analytics.
Ellucian, which works with around 3,000 institutions globally, has positioned its platform around data integration and AI capabilities across the student lifecycle, from recruitment and enrollment through to alumni engagement.
