Jamie Beaton

Jamie John Beaton (born 1995) is a New Zealand entrepreneur who founded an education mentoring enterprise, Crimson Education, at age 17.

Since founding the firm, Beaton had acquired several other enterprises which operated in partnership with Crimson Consulting.

Beaton's business, Crimson Education, helps to prepare students for admission to prestigious universities and was founded in 2013 with co-founders Fangzhou Jiang and Sharndre Kushor.

The business attracted investments of approximately NZ$1.4 million.

Hedge fund managers Julian Robertson and Chase Coleman, as well as Alex Robertson and Soichiro Fukutake were the primary initial investors.

In 2016, the enterprise was valued at over NZ$75 million, with Beaton owning just under half of its shares.

In the same year, at age 20, he graduated from Harvard University with a master's degree in applied mathematics.

In 2022, a venture capital fund valued Crimson at US$550 million.

Beaton was born and raised in Auckland, where his parents were property managers.

His mother separated from his father while she was pregnant with Beaton.

Beaton's father was not involved in his upbringing.

Both parents later remarried.

Beaton joined Young Mensa and became its national coordinator.

He also attended King's College on an academic scholarship.

According to Beaton, he then applied to 25 of the top universities in the world and received an offer from each.

Beaton went on to study and complete six degrees, including a bachelor's degree and master's degree from Harvard University (graduating in 2016) and a DPhil from Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar.

He took three years to complete his bachelor's and master's degrees in applied mathematics from Harvard, with the typical time to complete the course being five years.

He also earned two degrees from Stanford University and he received a master's degree in global affairs from Tsinghua University in Beijing.

He is completing a seventh degree at Yale Law School.

As of 2016, the enterprise was valued at over NZ$75 million with Beaton owning just under half of its shares.

Crimson Education is mostly branded on Beaton, using him as a role model to prospective applicants of prestigious universities.

Customers of Crimson Education have reported paying tens of thousands of dollars for tutoring services when attempting to gain entry to an Ivy League school.

In 2021, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joined the advisory board of the business.

, the business had 630 fulltime staff and more than 3,000 tutors and mentors.

In the same year a capital raise by a venture capital fund valued the company at US$550 million.

In 2017, Crimson Education was involved in a breach of contract litigation with a former employee.

The matter was eventually subject to a confidential settlement.

In 2018, the University of Auckland filed a suit against a Crimson Education subsidiary, alleging breach of copyright.

The suit was eventually settled.

In January 2021 it was reported that a $10-million High Court lawsuit had been filed by a competitor of Crimson involving allegations of employee poaching.

Beaton had also filed a civil assault claim against the owner of that competitor.

Crimson Education chose not to comment on the assault claim filed by Beaton.

Regarding the litigation, Crimson stated it was not unusual for companies like Crimson to "experience some commercial litigation".

In May 2022, media reported that the parties reached a confidential settlement.

Beaton was in a relationship with Crimson Education co-founder Sharndre Kushor.

Beaton and Kushor met during their secondary education at a Model United Nations conference.

Together, they went on to represent New Zealand's model United Nations youth delegation in The Hague.

they were no longer in a relationship.

After losing the 2020 election, the centre-right New Zealand National Party announced a review into its election campaign, and Beaton sat on the review panel.