Speakers
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Managing Director, Palm Ventures Harold Levy leads the education practice of Palm Ventures, a family office that makes early stage capital investments that have a positive and transformative impact on society. In 2010, US Education Secretary Arnie Duncan appointed him to the Committee on Measures of Student Success. In 2000, Mr. Levy was elected New York Schools Chancellor. During his tenure, he started the Teaching Fellows program, and initiated a math initiative that resulted in the largest one-year gain in standardized test scores. He has served as Executive Vice President of Kaplan, Inc. and as Director of Global Compliance of Citigroup, Inc. |
Additional Speakers | |
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CEO, ClassLink, Inc. Berj founded ClassLink, Inc. in 1998. What began as an endeavor to assist a local school in creating a leading edge technology environment matured into a next generation 24/7 Learning Access solution for the $7 billion U.S. education technology market. Today ClassLink serves over 3,900 schools and 2.6 million students and teachers across the nation with a solution that provides anytime, anywhere access to instructional software and files to students and teachers. Prior to ClassLink, Berj was with Technology Crossover Ventures, a leading mezzanine venture capital firm. Previous to TCV, he specialized in restructurings and attest services for large technology and educational publishing clients with Arthur Andersen. |
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Chief Learning Officer, PNA, Pearson Education Jim Behnke's responsibilities extend across US K-16 and international higher education. He is responsible for managing Pearson’s learning technologies strategy, as well as the development of the technologies that underlie it. For the past three years, Jim has led the development of the pan-Pearson North America technology strategic plan. He has extensive professional experience as an educational publisher, entrepreneur, and general manager. Over the last decade, his work has focused primarily on the development of new product models and programs that harness the unique capabilities of the Web as a medium for teaching and learning. |
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Managing Director, East Wind Advisors With over 13 years of corporate development and investment banking experience, Michael joined East Wind in 2009 from MESA, where he built the firm’s education and business services practice. Michael brings experience as a corporate development officer for a Fortune 500 media company and as an investment banker for traditional and new media companies. He has provided advisory services to numerous clients and financial investors. Prior to MESA Michael was Vice President, Business Development for McGraw-Hill Education. He serves on the board of Teaching Matters, a non-profit organization that partners with educators to ensure that all students can succeed in the digital age. |
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Vice President of InformationTechnology, Excelsior College Dr. Wayne Brown joined the College in September 2008 as vice president of information technology. He earned a PhD in computing technology in education from Nova Southeastern University, and most recently was executive vice president of administration and chief information officer at Johnson County Community College. Dr. Brown earned a bachelor's degree and an MBA with an IT emphasis at Wayland Baptist University. During his 20-year military career, he was recognized as the U.S.A.F. Air Mobility Command Medical Information Systems Officer of the Year. His research interests include chief information officer effectiveness in higher education and technology governance. |
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Chief Marketing Officer, Professional Examination Service Frank Catalano develops and oversees marketing strategy and branding initiatives for Professional Examination Service (ProExam). A long-time industry consultant and analyst, he had worked with a variety of education technology and digital learning companies including Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Apple and MetaMetrics, and was a consulting Senior Analyst for MDR’s EdNET Insight service. Frank also spent four years as Senior Vice President of Marketing for Pearson's U.S. school and assessment businesses. Frank is a well-known speaker, author and media commentator. He writes a column for GeekWire.com, is a contributor to NPR/KQED’s education site MindShift and the edtech site EdSurge, and tweets @FrankCatalano. Frank is a two-term SIIA Education Division Board member in his third year as CODiE Awards emcee. |
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Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Tutor.com George Cigale has served as Tutor.com's Chairman and CEO since founding the Company in 1998. Mr. Cigale has raised over $30 million in venture capital and secured strategic partnerships with top education and media companies. He has assembled an accomplished management team and Board of Directors. Under Mr. Cigale's leadership, Tutor.com has created the leading on demand homework help and online tutoring services, making professional tutors available to all students the minute they need academic help. Mr. Cigale brings over 20 years of experience in education, software, and Internet industries, in executive positions at The Share Group, Adizes Institute, and The Princeton Review. Mr. Cigale served on the Boards of the Education Industry Association from 2001-2006 and Libraries for the Future from 2007 to 2009. |
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Founding Principal, Arc Capital Development Kevin Custer leads Arc Portfolio companies Virtual Expert Clinics, the developer of AutismPro, and Kinderstreet, which provides management software for the childcare market. He took Brainium Technologies public through a reverse-takeover of Canada's seventh-fastest growing public company. At Infonautics, he led the creation of Electric Library, an Internet-based subscription service that grossed over $20 million in its first 30 months. The products of his companies have been installed in about 60 percent of the K-12 schools in the United States, with more than 10 million online users each week. Kevin has chaired both the e-business and the Education Division of SIIA. |
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Executive Vice President of Corporate Development & Operations, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Gregory DuMont joined Houghton Mifflin Company in 2003 as Corporate Vice President, Controller and has held several leadership positions within the organization over the last 7 years including Strategic & Financial Planning, General Managing a small intervention courseware business within the HMH portfolio and, prior to his current role, holding the position of Senior Vice President, Operations, with company wide responsibilities over the global supply chain services, information technology and procurement functions. Greg began his career in public accounting at PricewaterhouseCoopers working in the New York and London offices as a Senior Manager. |
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Managing Director, First Analysis Corp. Clement Erbmann is a managing director coordinating international activities and focuses on educational and environmental investing. Prior to joining First Analysis in 1989, he worked for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in securities sales, fund management, special equities, and private placements. He serves as an executive member on the board of the Education Industry Association Board, and serves on the Board of Learning.com, AdvancePath Academics and Gapbuster Ltd. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. | |
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Managing Director - Education, Weld North Sari Factor leads the education industry efforts for Weld North LLC, a newly formed investment company founded by former Kaplan, Inc. CEO Jonathan Grayer in partnership with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). Ms. Factor brings thirty years of experience in the K-12 education marketplace and has worked in senior leadership roles at leading education companies including Kaplan, McGraw-Hill, and Houghton Mifflin. Ms. Factor received her B.S. in Education from Indiana University and was awarded her M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. | |
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President, Egremont Associates, LLC Egremont Associates assists clients with digital product development, channel expansion, direct marketing strategy, and development of strategic alliances. Neal founded Egremont Associates after a successful 25-year career in publishing, which culminated in his serving for five years as President of Weekly Reader. In that role, he guided Weekly Reader's transition from being exclusively a print-based publisher to publishing content in a variety of formats--print and digital--distributed through multiple channels. He also served as President of Scholastic Library Publishing and of Prentice Hall Direct and held a number of senior positions at Time Inc.'s Time Life and Book-of-the-Month Club divisions. |
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COO & President, eGenio Education Solutions Mr. Greenberg has expertise in strategic marketing and branding, business development, development of vertical and horizontal distribution channels, new markets, and merger & acquisition strategies for growing companies. In 2009 he co-founded Red Apple Digital, Inc., a software company delivering tools for the 21st century classroom. Prior to Red Apple Digital, Inc, Mr. Greenberg was Executive Director Business Development for Kichler Lighting where he led the new business and channel development, as well as the strategic planning teams. Mr. Greenberg also led a start-up venture in retail financial services, and the startup phase of a technology based grass roots marketing and lobbying group. |
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VP, Digital Markets, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Mark Hammer has over 20 years of experience in education and software marketing. A former educator, Mark joined the K12 software industry first as product manager at COMPanion Corporation, then as VP of Marketing for Sagebrush Corporation. Prior to his work with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Mark was Vice President of Marketing for CompassLearning, where he lead re-branding efforts and new product innovation in the credit recovery & virtual schools spaces. He holds a BA in English and Art History from the University of Kansas and an MA in English from the University of Texas at San Antonio. | |
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CEO & Founder, Big Universe Learning, Inc. Anil Hemrajani, CEO & Founder, Big Universe Learning, Inc. |
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President and Principal Consultant, Hinds & Associates Isabella Hinds is President and Principal Consultant at Hinds&Associates. Most recently, Hinds served as Director of Digital Content at Follett Higher Education Group, responsible for designing and launching a digital strategy for the organization's market leading course materials business. Isabella brought a varied background to that challenge, having headed publisher relations for Blackboard, business development for WebCT, and worked with several major Higher Education publishers on specific strategic projects in market positioning. Isabella also served as Vice President, Publisher Relations at the Copyright Clearance Center from 1987 - 1998. |
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Senior Director, Business Development, Blackboard Inc. | |
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Managing Director, Cherry Tree & Associates, LLC Chad Johnson is a Managing Director in the investment banking practice of Cherry Tree & Associates. Chad has a long and successful track record advising dozens of entrepreneurs in the sale of their businesses, and numerous public and private companies in the acquisition of complementary businesses. His previous experience includes building a successful software firm, managing corporate M&A, and working in a venture capital firm. Chad is a member of the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). |
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President Chief Potential Officer, Full Potential Associates Michael has been in the education technology marketplace since 1985 developing and delivering technology solutions for universities, public and school libraries, publishers, and classrooms of all types. In 2008, Michael started Full Potential Associates which is a strategic consulting firm specializing in the blend between education, publishing, and technology. Before 2008, Michael spent over 15 years working in various capacities for Follett Corporation. Michael was founder of Follett Digital Resources and one of the chief architects of Follett Corporation's digital strategy. Michael is a frequent speaker and panelists at events ranging from SIIA and AEP events to the London and Frankfurt Book Fairs. |
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Manager, Business & IT Markets, American Public University System | |
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President & Publisher, District Administration Magazine Daniel E. Kinnaman is President of Professional Media Group, publisher of District Administration and University Business, the leading publications for education executives in K12 and Higher Education respectively. Mr. Kinnaman has more than 15 years experience as a teacher and school administrator. He is also an award-winning writer and columnist, and an internationally known keynote speaker and developer of professional development programs for education leaders. Mr. Kinnaman has also served as a consultant to numerous companies on how to establish and grow business in the education market. |
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Group President for Higher Education, Professional and International, McGraw-Hill Education Hendrik J. Kranenburg joined McGraw-Hill Education in 2005, and has focused on developing business models to address the impact that new technologies and globalization are having on education. As Group President for Higher Education, he has steered both the Education and Publishing organizations through a transition to subscription-based models and has overseen the creation of an international education services division. Prior to joining McGraw-Hill, Mr. Kranenburg spent 25 years with Standard and Poors: first as a sovereign credit analyst in London in 1984, and then as head of Investment Services from 1999 onwards. He currently lives in New York. |
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Senior Vice President, New Ventures & Strategic Services, McGraw-Hill Education Vineet oversees McGraw-Hill Education’s strategic planning, reengineering, major partnerships, market development, venture investments, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and an internal research and development function. Prior to his current role, he led McGraw-Hill Higher Education’s Learning Ecosystems group, focused on developing breakthrough digital products and services to optimize faculty, student and institutions. Earlier, he served as vice president and global head of strategy and corporate development for McGraw-Hill Education. In that role, Vineet helped direct the company’s digital transformation leading product and market strategy efforts across K-12, assessment, higher education and international resulting in the launch of new digital products and services. Vineet currently serves on the Board of the Education division of the Software Information Industry Association (SIIA) and was previously a Board observer at HotChalk. |
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Consultant, Paula Maylahn Consulting Paula Maylahn is an independent education industry consultant. McGraw-Hill, Cengage, and Oxford University Press are recent clients as is SIIA, where she currently directs postsecondary programming. Formerly a Senior Vice President at Pearson, Paula oversaw cross-company strategic communications and international marketing for school products. In addition to her K-12 work, Paula held a variety of management roles in Pearson’s Higher Education Division where she helped formulate digital publishing standards in such problem-prone areas as advanced mathematics, chemical notation, and molecular modeling. Paula is the author of "In-Stock Date for the eBook Promise is Still NYP" in SIIA’s publication THE EXPERTS' GUIDE TO THE POSTSECONDARY MARKET. |
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President & CEO, Triumph Learning In 1999, Myron founded Educational Tools, Inc. Under his leadership, Educational Tools has grown from a small start-up to a highly profitable leader in the educational publishing industry. In October 2010 Haignts Cross Communications acquired and named Myron Pincomb President/CEO of Triumph Learning. Myron's background includes 17 years of starting, building, and running highly successful companies in the fields of industrial chemistry, technology, and education. In 2005, he founded Literacy 20/20 (www.literacy2020.org), a non-profit focused on developing and improving the literacy rates of children age 3-10 in at-risk communities across the country. |
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Chief Information Technology Officer, Baltimore City Public Schools Michael Pitroff has served Baltimore City Public Schools for thirty-nine years. This period includes nine years teaching Secondary Mathematics, eight years as a mathematics and educational technology specialist and supervisor, and thirteen and one half years as Director of Instructional Technology, Information Technology, Library Services, Distance Learning and Media Services. He was also Principal/Director of Digital Harbor High School in Baltimore City Public Schools for over four years and spent two years as the Director of Information Technology Department in Classroom, School, and Teacher Support Services. During the 2008-09 school year, he served a dual role as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Information Technology Officer. |
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President, Consulting Services for Education John Richards, Ph.D., is President of Consulting Services for Education, Inc. (CS4Ed). CS4Ed works with publishers, developers, and educational organizations in business development, strategic planning, market research, and developing and launching award-winning products. He is the author/editor of 3 books, over 60 articles, has been responsible for the development of over 1,000 educational products, and is currently Adjunct Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. |
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CEO, School of One, New York City Department of Education Joel Rose founded School of One in 2009, as an initiative within the NYC Department of Education that leverages a combination of live, online, and collaborative learning to provide students with instruction that is personalized to their particular academic needs and learning preferences. Previously, Rose served the New York City Department of Education as the chief executive for human capital, a strategic consultant and as chief of staff to the deputy chancellor for organizational strategy, human capital and communications. Rose’s 14 years in education began with Teach For America as a corps member. He was a senior executive at Edison where he was associate general counsel, chief of staff and vice president for school operations. |
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Chief Technology and Business Development Officer, Victory Productions Doug focuses on the intersection between personalized learning, game-based learning, and formative instruction; at Victory Productions he develops new technologies to support this area and matches capabilities to client needs. He has over 25 years' experience in software development and strategy consulting - from running his own ed-tech strategy and technology consultancy for ed-tech since 2007 as well as VP Development at Learning.com, CTO at several financial services and enterprise software firms, and Principal Consultant at Microsoft. In the mid-90s he co-founded Addison Wesley Interactive, delivering some of the first Web and Java-based products in higher ed. He began his career starting a CS Department at a New England prep school after earning degrees in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania and SUNY Stony Brook. He also co-authored Mathematica in the Laboratory published by Cambridge University Press and has contributed to papers and books on scientific visualization. |
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Assistant Professor of the Practice, Vanderbilt University Andy Van Schaack is a professor at the Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University and the Senior Science Advisor at Livescribe, Inc. His NSF-funded research focuses on developing and delivering technologies that increase the effectiveness, efficiency, and accessibility of teaching and learning. With one foot in academia and the other in industry, he understands the challenges associated with conducting scientifically rigorous research within the time schedule (and the budget) of a for-profit corporation. Dr. Van Schaack earned his Ph.D. in instructional technology from Utah State University where he also worked as a licensing associate in the university's Office of Technology Commercialization. |
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Director, Intel Capital With over 10 years of experience in venture capital, Sita Vasan has closed more than 65 venture capital investments in the digital media, enterprise software, semiconductor, and wireless sectors. She is board observer for Pando Networks, Tutor.com, HealthiNation, Tabula Digita and TRA. Prior to Intel Capital, she worked at the International Finance Corp/The World Bank, where she headed up the Client Derivative team and worked in project finance for telecom/infrastructure in Latin America, Eastern Europe and India. She was also the Vice President at Banque Indosuez Paris, at Bank of Tokyo in London in corporate finance/syndication, and at Orion Royal Bank in New York and London. |
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Managing Director, DeSilva + Phillips, LLC Robin has worked on more than 35 transactions in the education sector since 1999, and has initiated or been involved in both US and international mergers and acquisitions activity. A number of Ms. Warner’s deals have been education technology transactions including the sale of Educational Tools, Inc. to Triumph Learning, a subsidiary of Haights Cross; and the sale of Renzulli Learning to CompassLearning (Marlin Equity Partners). Robin has also held key positions in publishing, including : Executive Vice President/Publisher at Golden Books andVice President of Marketing at Simon & Schuster for both their Adult Trade Paperback and Children’s Divisions. |
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Managing Partner, Academic Business Advisors, LLC Mitch Weisburgh is co-founder and managing partner of Academic Business Advisors. He writes the PILOTed blog at http://academicbiz.typepad.com and has spoken at a number of past conferences on how to start a business, education technology, open source, how to market and sell in education, investing in education and raising money. Weisburgh was Founder, President, and CEO of Personal Computer Learning Centers of America, Inc, and subsequently Chief Technical Officer of College Pilot.com, where he successfully designed, developed, launched, and managed an online learning management system and SAT preparation course. |
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Director of Strategic Initiatives, Headsprout Early Reading Joyce Whitby - currently at Headsprout Early Reading |
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Chief Executive Officer, Knovation (formerly netTrekker) A driven leader of Knovation for over 12 years, Wilhelm is more than a pioneer in creating personalized learning solutions. Wilhelm co-founded netTrekker, Knovation's legacy brand and company, in 1999. With the introduction of netTrekker Search, Wilhelm led an industry-wide transformation in the delivery of digital content to all stakeholders in K-12 education. Prior to co-founding netTrekker, the corporate legacy of Knovation, Wilhelm spent more than a dozen years principally consulting with Fortune 500 businesses on improving how they buy and deliver employee benefits packages. |
