Seth Rau

Partner

Email: seth@govtechpartners.com

Seth Rau is an action-oriented national education thought leader who leads GovTech's education portfolio. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Seth has served in education leadership roles in Nevada, Texas, and Illinois. He also launched the Government Affairs vertical at Cartwheel, the nation's largest provider of virtual mental health services to schools.

Seth's broad experience and network serve as an asset to the GovTech team. He began his career as a 5th grade teacher at a charter school in North Las Vegas, Nevada. He saw an education system that was not setting students up for success. As a result, he left the classroom and helped found Nevada Succeeds, an organization that actively lobbied to pass dozens of laws reforming Nevada's education ecosystem.

After the 2015 legislative session, Seth moved to Texas and ran Government Affairs for the San Antonio Independent School District. He led a coalition that passed a landmark policy on district-charter collaboration (SB 1882) that has endured for almost a decade. This legislation led him to join Empower Schools, where he led their national education policy portfolio, designing innovative policies across the country.

In 2022, Seth reunited with his former boss from San Antonio and joined Chicago Public Schools as the Senior Advisor to the CEO. He designed the district's legislative agenda and led all internal policy matters for the CEO. Most recently, Seth founded the Government Affairs team at Cartwheel where he helped establish new statewide partnerships in Arizona and Georgia, as the team expanded from serving 70 districts in 5 to over 350 districts in 16 states today.

Seth holds a degree from Tufts University and an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in the Chicago area, and currently serves as the Chair of the Cook County Board of Ethics.