William Rick Singer is the chief executive officer and master coach of the private life coaching and college counseling company The Key. In March 2019, he pleaded guilty for organizing the 2019 college admission scandal. ^[1]

Singer was born in Santa Monica, California in 1960. He attended community college in Texas before transferring to Trinity University (Texas), where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in English and physical education in 1986. ^[1]

Singer owns the Edge College & Career Network, also known as The Key, a for-profit counseling and preparation company offering families help in getting students into competitive colleges and universities such as Stanford University, Yale University, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Southern California. ^[1]

In March 2019, Singer pleaded guilty and helped the Federal Bureau of Investigation gather incriminating evidence against co-conspirators. Singer was allegedly paid more than $25 million by parents who, believing their children lacked the grades and test scores to get into elite universities, would be able to guarantee them in. ^[1]