Google for Education's global customer success lead Michael Patterson returns to the classroom

After eight years at Google and more than a decade in EdTech, Patterson will take over as Director of Campus Technology and Strategy at Marist High School in Chicago.

Michael Patterson's career spans 20 years across classroom teaching, CDW-G, Google for Education, and now Marist High School. Photo credit: Michael Patterson

Michael Patterson, Global Head of Customer Success at Google for Education, is leaving the company to become Director of Campus Technology and Strategy at Marist High School in Chicago.

Patterson announced the move on LinkedIn, confirming he will start in the role next month and describing it as "a new chapter of my journey, returning to schools and taking all the 'hats', and all the learning and bringing them to continue my goal of positively impacting the learning communities that I'm privileged to be able to serve."

Patterson has spent eight years at Google for Education, where he built the company's customer success program from the ground up and led pre-sales and post-sales strategy across Chrome, Google AI, and Workspace for the K-12 market. Before that, he held roles as Regional Program Manager and Education Software Sales and Strategy Lead.

From the classroom to Google and back

Patterson's career began in the classroom. He spent nine and a half years as a business and technology education teacher at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Illinois, where he also worked as a part-time administrator, co-coordinated the school improvement committee, and coached football and baseball.

He moved into the private sector in 2015, joining CDW-G as a K-12 Learning Environment Advisor before becoming a Business Development Strategist on the education team. During that time, he led a collaboration with CDW's UK team and Google for Education to execute what he described as the first large-scale distribution of Chromebooks into the London Grid for Learning.

Reflecting on his time across both sectors, Patterson noted on LinkedIn: "Three things have continued to ring true: 1) We are all life long learners (whether we like it or not) 2) Every day is full of lessons 3) Every person is a stranger, until you get the chance to meet them."

He added that the past 11 years had represented "a 1/4 of my life" and that he had "learned an incredible amount about myself as a human (my capabilities and my limitations), as a husband and a father (especially managing the co-existence of life and work), and as a co-worker and friend."

Marist High School gains a senior EdTech operator

At Marist, Patterson will oversee campus technology and strategy, bringing experience spanning classroom teaching, enterprise sales, and global customer success at one of the largest EdTech companies in the world. He expressed gratitude to Marist's leadership, writing: "Thank you to Larry Tucker, Meg Mathews Dunneback and the entire Marist team for providing and entrusting me with this opportunity."

Patterson also acknowledged the professional network he has built since leaving Homewood-Flossmoor, stating: "I look forward to tapping into the network of wonderful humans I've been building since I first left Homewood-Flossmoor High School over 11 years ago. Thank you to all who have been a part of the journey with me so far, I'm so grateful for all of you, there is so much more to come!"

Patterson confirmed on LinkedIn that his family are relocating for the role, writing: "My family and I couldn't be more excited to start the next part of our journey at Marist High School Chicago."