Board of Directors

Sohaib Abbasi has served as Udemy’s Independent Chairman of the Board since July 2023. Sohaib is a seasoned enterprise software industry veteran. He served as the chairman and chief executive officer of Informatica from 2004 to 2015 where he led revenue growth from $200 million to over $1 billion. From 1982 to 2003, Sohaib served in various roles at Oracle Corporation, during which time the company grew from a small startup to a $9 billion multinational industry leader. Sohaib currently serves as Vice Chairman of Elastic Software and as Chairman of Forecast.app. Sohaib previously served on the boards of several companies, including Red Hat, McAfee, and New Relic. He is a senior advisor at TPG Capital and Balderton Capital. Sohaib holds both a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Greg Brown has served as Udemy’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of its board of directors since March 2023. Greg joined Udemy in December 2020 as President of Udemy Business. Prior to Udemy, Greg served as the Chief Executive Officer of Reflektive, a performance, engagement and analytics solution platform, from August 2019 until December 2020. Before that, Greg was Senior Vice President of International Business at Blackhawk Network, a global payments provider, from August 2017 to August 2019; Chief Revenue Officer for Achievers Solutions, a developer of cloud-based employee engagement software, from February 2013 to August 2017; and Chief Revenue Officer for Extole, a developer of an online advocate marketing platform, from April 2011 to February 2013. Greg earned a B.S. in business administration from California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo.

Eren Bali co-founded Udemy in January 2010 and has served as a member of Udemy’s board of directors since then. Mr. Bali also served as Udemy’s Chief Executive Officer from January 2010 to April 2014. Mr. Bali currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Carbon Health, a technology-enabled healthcare provider, which he co-founded in October 2015. Mr. Bali serves on the boards of directors of various private companies. Mr. Bali received a B.S. in computer engineering and mathematics from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.

Heather Hiles has served as a member of Udemy’s board of directors since August 2020. Mx. Hiles currently serves as the managing partner of Black Ops Ventures, a seed-stage venture firm funding Black founders. Mx. Hiles previously served as the founding Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer of Calbright College, an online community college focused on preparation for jobs in the technology industry, from January 2019 to March 2020. Prior to that, Mx. Hiles was the Deputy Director of Postsecondary Success Solutions at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world, from October 2016 to November 2017. Mx. Hiles previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Pathbrite, a digital portfolio platform used by colleges and universities, from their founding of Pathbrite in February 2012 until Pathbrite’s sale to Cengage Learning in November 2015. Before that, Mx. Hiles served as Chief Executive Officer of SFWorks, a nonprofit they founded that trained and placed people on welfare into living-wage jobs, from 1997 to 2001. Mx. Hiles currently serves on the boards of directors for several private companies, including Black Girls Code. Mx. Hiles received a B.A. in development studies and ethnic studies from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.B.A from Yale University.

Jeffrey Lieberman has served as a member of Udemy’s board of directors since February 2015. Since 1998, Mr. Lieberman has worked at Insight Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm, where he currently serves as managing director. Mr. Lieberman previously served on the boards of directors of HelloFresh SE from 2014 to 2021,  Qualtrics International from 2017 to 2019, Shutterstock from 2007 to 2016, Mimecast from 2012 to 2020, and Cvent from 2011 to 2016. Mr. Lieberman received a B.S. in systems engineering and finance from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Lydia Paterson has served as a member of Udemy’s board of directors since December 2019. Ms. Paterson is currently the Chief Financial Officer of OLX Group, a global online classifieds marketplace and a subsidiary of Prosus. Prior to that, Ms. Paterson served as the Vice President, Global Finance and Corporate FP&A for PayPal, an online payments company, from August 2012 to May 2016, and in various finance executive roles at eBay, a multinational e-commerce platform, from March 1999 to August 2012. Ms. Paterson currently serves on the boards of directors of several private companies. Ms. Paterson received a B.B.A. from Simon Fraser University.

Natalie Schechtman has served as a member of Udemy’s board of directors since May 2022. Natalie is currently Chief People Officer of Inspire Brands, a multi-brand global restaurant company. Prior to Inspire Brands, Natalie served as Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer of Advance Auto Parts, a leading automotive aftermarket parts provider, from 2016 to 2023. Before that, Natalie served in a series of ascending human resources leadership roles at PepsiCo from 2006 to 2016. Natalie previously worked as an employment attorney with the law firm Brown Raysman from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, she served in recruiting and talent management roles with The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. from 2001 to 2003 and Gundersen Partners, LLC, from 1995 to 2000. She currently sits on the boards of the Advance Auto Parts Foundation, the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Human Resources Advisory Board for the Poole College of Management at North Carolina State University. Natalie received a B.A. in speech communication and rhetoric from Ithaca College, an M.A. in human resources and international communication from American University, and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.