Speakers

The speaker application is now closed. The SIIA Education Division will be confirming and contacting speakers on a daily basis.

For questions, please contact Karen Billings.

	Steve Benfield Head of Solutions - Software Group, Promethean Inc. (USA) Steve Benfield joined Promethean in 2012 and is the Head of Solutions - Software Group. Most recently, Steve served as SVP Customer Experience at GlobalScholar and Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Product Strategy for Spectrum K12 School Solutions. Steve has held a series of seniorâ€“level, entrepreneurial roles involving formulating and driving transformative product strategies, complex solution implementations, business development, consultative selling, technology evangelism, product marketing and executive management at cutting-edge technology companies, including Agentis, ClearNova, SilverStream Software/Novell and Bondi Software. He holds Bachelors of Business Administration in Decision Science from Georgia State University as was Decision Science Student of the Year.
	Karen Billings Vice President, Education Division, SIIA Karen Billings has more than 40 years of experience in the education technology industry with positions in management, development, marketing, sales and classroom teaching. At SIIA she drives the association's work with its 190 member companies for whom educational publishing is a primary business. Prior to SIIA, Billings, was vice president, Major Business Initiatives for bigchalk Inc, where she drove relationships with major industry partners to respond to new business opportunities and vice president and general manager of its MediaSeek Division. She worked at Microsoft Corporation, managing K-12 Strategic Relations and at Claris Corporation, where she ran the Worldwide K-12 and Higher Education Marketing Programs. She served as director of sales at Logo Computer Systems, Inc. and as an executive editor in the School Division at Houghton-Mifflin Company.
	Charlene Blohm President, C. Blohm & Associates, Inc. Charlene Blohm is president of C. Blohm & Associates, Inc. (CB&A), a public relations firm specializing in the education and special needs industries. Charlene's expertise in developing and implementing strategic marketing plans has been fine-tuned over the years, and she is now one of the industry's go-to leaders for engaging visibility campaigns. Through savvy media relations and Web 2.0 knowledge, Charlene and the CB&A team connect members of their client family with the people who directly influence the audiences they need to reach -- educators, administrators, parents, therapists, and potential investors.
	Frank Bonsal General Partner, New Markets Venture Partners Frank Bonsal has twenty-five years experience advancing efficacy, innovation and productivity in and around education and the knowledge economy. Frank is a General Partner with New Markets Venture Partners, where his focus is on early stage investments in education technology and service companies. As a long term Partner with Bonsal Capital, and through his role at New Markets, Frank has invested in over twenty private education companies throughout the U.S. Frank's current board service is with BetterLesson, Questar Assessment, Starfish Retention Solutions and Think Through Learning, and previously with Moodlerooms. For 15 years leading up to the private capital pathway, Frank served as teacher, advisor, coach, and administrator to students in middle and high schools. Frank serves on several Mid-Atlantic-based nonprofit education boards, such as The Center for Education Reform, and is a member of the President’s Advisory Council at Stevenson University. He has served on numerous panels and committees on the topic of education innovation, investment and productivity and is a former President of the Alumni Board of Peabody College, Vanderbilt University.
	Karen Buckner Partner and Chief Operating Officer, MK Capital Karen is a Partner and Chief Operating Officer at MK Capital. Karen leads the firm's education technology investment practice. Karen has initiated and managed several venture investments for the Productivity Fund III and the Productivity Fund IV and served as a public equity research analyst in emerging markets at First Analysis Corporation. Her areas of expertise include operational management and business and financial analysis. Prior to founding MK Capital, Karen served as Vice President of Operations at I-Works, a venture-backed internet services company, where she was responsible for building the organization and its related infrastructure. Karen currently sits on the board of directors of TopSchool, Apex Learning, Smoothstone Communications, Retention Education, and Enhancescape. She also holds an observer seat at PECO Pallet. Karen is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Kellogg's Graduate School of Management.
	John Cammack Managing Partner, Cammack Associates LLC John Cammack is the Founder and Managing Partner of Cammack Associates, a holding company with diversified interests in educational technology and brain fitness. In addition, John is a co-founder of Curiosityville, an early education start up located in Baltimore. John also serves as Chairman of the United Way of Central Maryland, a member of the CureViolence and PersonalGenome.org national boards and on the Executive Committee of the Alpha Group. From 1991 to 2009, John was a senior executive at T. Rowe Price and served as Chairman of the Mutual Fund Education Alliance, a member of the Finra Investment Committee, the CFP Board of Standards and the Phi Beta Kappa Investment Committee. John is a graduate of Denison University and received his MBA from Columbia University.
	Luyen Chou Chief Product Officer, K-12 Technology Group, Pearson
	Josh Cohen Managing Partner , City Light Capital Josh Cohen is the Managing Partner of City Light Capital, a firm that he co-founded in 2004. He is currently on the Boards of LicenseStream and City Light Carbon and is an Observer to the Boards of 2Tor and ShotSpotter. He was formerly an Observer to the Board of Arxceo before it was acquired by JCI Group. Josh had previous venture capital experience working with a family office in St. Louis and the SV Group, a private debt fund. Prior to joining the venture community, Josh was the Director of Business Development for Mobility Electronics (NASDAQ: IGOI). While at Mobility, Josh closed several joint ventures, private investments and acquisitions on behalf of the company. He began his career as an investment banker in the technology group of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown in San Francisco. As a banker, he contributed to several public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, including WebEx Communications, Mobility Electronics and the sale of yesmail.com to CMGI.
	Matthew Cohen Managing Director, Cohen Strategy Group Matthew Cohen serves a senior consultant to the WiseChoice Education Network and is the Managing Director of Cohen Strategy Group. Prior, he served as a founding member of the executive leadership team at ConnectEDU. Under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, he was the Special Advisor for Strategic Initiatives at the NYC Economic Development Corporation. An entrepreneur himself, Cohen founded and secured funding for a number of successful ed-tech companies. Cohen began his public service career as Director of Field Operations for US Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro for whom he also served a tour on Capitol Hill.
	Michael Cohn Vice President, GSV Advisors Michael is a Vice President at GSV Advisors, a merchant bank providing merger and acquisition advisory and capital-raising services to clients in the education and business services sectors. Michael began his career in the Industrials Group at Deloitte Corporate Finance, where he worked on a variety of domestic and cross-border financing and M&Atransactions. Michael holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and received a BBA with Honors from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
	Kenneth Eng VP, Business Development, Macmillan
	Atif Filani Co-Founder and Partner, Renovus Capital Partners Atif Gilani is a founding partner of Renovus Capital Partners, an education focused private equity firm, where he is a member of the firm’s investment committee. Mr. Gilani has over twelve years of education sector investing experience. At Renovus Capital, Mr. Gilani is extensively involved in the firm’s investment activities in career colleges, training companies, educational technology companies and outsourced service providers. He currently is a member of the board of directors of EDIC College, a Puerto Rico based career college and The Ariel Group, a Boston based provider of leadership training. Prior to co-founding Renovus Capital, Mr. Gilani was a Managing Director at Leeds Equity Partners, a leading education-focused private equity firm. Mr. Gilani began his career as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch in the M&A group. Mr. Gilani is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerome Fisher Management & Technology program, where he earned a B.S. degree in Economics from the Wharton School with concentrations in Finance and Accounting and a B.A.S. degree in Computer Science Engineering from the School of Engineering & Applied Science.
	Jeremy Friedman CEO and Co-Founder, Schoology Jeremy Friedman is Co-founder and CEO of Schoology, a leading cloud-based collaborative learning platform for K-12 classrooms. As CEO, Jeremy directs corporate strategy, builds strategic partnerships, and ensures the product vision and Schoology platform experience exceeds the expectations of its users – nearly one million educators, students, administrators and parents. Since founding Schoology in 2009, Jeremy has helped navigate the company through financing rounds and successfully prepare for rapid growth, including the support of more than 20,000 schools and districts.
	Jeffrey Fromm Partner, Corporate & Transactions Group, Dorsey and Whitney, LLP Jeff Fromm is a partner in the Corporate and Transactions Group of the AmLaw100 firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP, where represents growth-stage companies, product and service businesses, and investment groups. He has experience in the U.S. and globally with venture capital, mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, licensing, executive compensation, and general corporate matters. He is a member of Kidron Opportunity Fund, a venture capital fund targeting global investments in a range of technology companies, and has also served as President of KnowledgeQuest Ventures, a financial advisory and management consulting firm serving the education industry.
	Nicholas Gaehde President & Chief Executive Officer, Lexia Learning Systems, Inc. Nick Gaehde is the President and CEO of Lexia Learning, one of the best-known and most highly respected reading technology companies in the world. Headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts, Lexia was founded 28 years ago with private funding and grants obtained from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Today, the company maintains a keen focus on its promise to improve student literacy through the use of technology, and has helped millions of students build reading skills. Prior to joining Lexia in 2005, Nick served as President of Educators Publishing Service, Inc. (EPS), a publisher of literacy solutions for the K–8 market. Before his tenure at EPS, Nick held product management and marketing positions at Vertigo Development Group, Lotus Development Corporation, and New England Business Service. In 2011, his industry peers voted Nick as one of the five “EdNET Leaders to Watch,” recognizing him for his significant contributions to the education industry.
	Neal Goff 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.
	Harris Goodman Director of Sales & Business Development, Late Nite Labs Harris Goodman is the Director of Sales & Business Development at Late Nite Labs. He studied Economics at Yeshiva University as an undergrad, then went on to receive his MS in Biotechnologyat Johns Hopkins University. After working in finance for several years, he realized edtech was where he wanted to be, and he's been focused on fixing STEM education ever since.
	Babur Habib Co-Founder and CTO, Kno, Inc. Dr. Habib, who holds a PhD in Semiconductor physics from Princeton University, is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Kno, where he oversees technology development for multiple devices and platforms. Prior to Kno Babur had a successful career in geeking out by designing embedded processors at Philips Semiconductors and Intel, where he worked on the Pentium II and Exponent, a high-technology consulting firm, where he assisted startup and Fortune 500 companies in implementing technology strategies. In earlier days he was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy, where he developed his interest in the role of science in government policy. His passion for avoiding the working world by spending decades in college and postgraduate programs to obtain a medley of hard to pronounce degrees translates well to Kno’s mission for making education more efficient.
	Idit Harel Caperton President, World Wide Workshop Dr. Idit Harel Caperton is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, innovator and futurist of global learning systems. She is founder and president of the World Wide Workshop, building digital learning platforms. The Workshop’s flagship product, Globaloria, teaches students STEM & Computing knowledge and digital citizenship through game design. As a student at Harvard Graduate School of Education & MIT Media Lab, Idit pursued pioneering R&D work in computation, cognition and education. Her MIT spinoff startup, MaMaMedia, was a groundbreaking creative platform for kids on the net. Her companies and books have won numerous awards, including the Computerworld-Smithsonian Award, AERA Outstanding Book Award, and Jessie McCanse Award for Individual Contribution to Media Literacy. Idit is a learning theorist, education activist and opinion leader, award-winning author and mentor of young entrepreneurs, and she serves on several prestigious higher-education, media, and non-profit boards.
	Charlie Hermes CEO, YourTeacher Charlie Hermes is CEO and Co-Founder of YourTeacher. For the last ten years, Mr. Hermes has been at the forefront of the B-to-C side of education technology, leading YourTeacher while disrupting how math tutoring is delivered to the consumer market. YourTeacher is a digital publisher specializing in middle school, high school and college level math. Its subscription website, MathHelp.com, together with an extensive line of math apps, have provided millions of students with math tutoring, standardized test prep, and homeschooling. YourTeacher is also revolutionizing the textbook industry with a patent-pending math iBooks textbooks for the flipped classroom.iBooks textbooks.
	Jennifer House President, RedRock Reports Dr. Jennifer House founded RedRock Reports to provide actionable funding insights to companies selling to K-12 education. Jenny provides clients with a strategic vision from both business and education perspectives. Her work is informed by years of experience in district administration as well as industry management. At RedRock Reports she focuses on the impact of funding knowledge on sales, advising clients about funding trends and execution strategies via webinars and in-person presentations. Prior experience includes holding management positions at HP and Apple Computer as well as executive positions at Classroom Connect and Tenth Planet.
	Kathy Hurley Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, Pearson Foundation Kathy Hurley is a 35-year veteran of the education industry. She has served in senior executive positions with PLATO Learning, The Learning Company, Skillsbank, and IBM. She works at the Pearson Foundation on education-related initiatives on a domestic and international scale. In 2003, Hurley was inducted into the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) Hall of Fame for her achievements and service to the education publishing industry. She is based in Washington, D.C., where she works closely with education policy associations. In this capacity, she currently served on several key industry and education advisory boards, including, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) as Board Chairman, the National School Boards Foundation (NSBF), the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET), the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) board where she participates on the International Committee.
	Michael Jay President, Educational Systemics A long time educator, Michael taught Science in California where he also worked in developing the first set of Technology in the Curriculum materials for the State of California. In 1986 he joined Apple Computer's Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT) research and development project. Michael left Apple Computer to pursue the development of a technology of his design that dynamically indicates the relationship between curriculum, curriculum standards, and instructional resources for which he received patents in 1998. As founder of Mediaseek Technologies, Inc. he laid the groundwork for many of the innovations in standards implementation and instructional resource integration that followed. He continued the development of tools for children and educators as Director of Education Business Development at N2H2 and VP and GM of Brainium Technologies in the following years where he worked on challenges associated with sustainable 1:1 computing in schools. Michael and his associates create lasting change in how we learn and educate through their work with corporations and educational institutions. They are presently leading and supporting the adoption by the publishing community of the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative, LRMI, under the auspices of the AEP, the Creative Commons, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
	Joana Jebsen President, O'Donnell Learn Joana Jebsen is the president of O'Donnell Learn, a strategic advisory and market and product development firm specializing in education. Established in 1990, O’Donnell Learn (formerly O’Donnell & Associates) leverages its deep market knowledge to help higher education and K-12 publishing, technology and services companies design, develop and launch better educational products and digital learning experiences. The firm’s services also encompass market research, pilots, efficacy studies, and direct to student marketing and research. Prior to her role at O’Donnell in 2007, Joana served in senior publishing, marketing and consulting roles at Harper Collins Publishers, Questia, Factiva, and Thomson Learning Labs. She has an MBA from the Wharton School.
	Chad Johnson 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).
	David Joseph SVP, Global Strategic Alliances, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt David runs global alliances for digital consumer and mass-market opportunities and M&A at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, bringing more than 15 years’ experience in digital media and e-commerce to the role. He was previously at Morgan Stanley, where he covered the Internet and Interactive Entertainment sectors as a research analyst, and has held leadership roles at Audible.com (acquired by Amazon) and eBay. He also co-founded a mobile search company and advises startups across consumer content, digital publishing, search, and social networking. David received his BA from New York University and MA in International Affairs from Columbia University.
	Laszlo Kopits Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Wireless Generation, Inc Laszlo Kopits is Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Wireless Generation, Inc., which since 2010 has been a part of News Corporation’s Amplify education division. Prior to Wireless Generation, Laszlo served as Vice President and Principal Legal Counsel for Reuters America with overall responsibility for all Reuters commercial transactions in North America. Laszlo began his career in the New York and Budapest offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, specializing in international mergers and acquisitions, privatization, venture capital and technology.
	Barbara Kurshan Executive Director of Academic Innovation , University of Pennsylvania Bobbi Kurshan provides executive level leadership of a series of entrepreneurially focused programs and efforts (such as the Milken-Penn GSE Educational Business Plan Competition) and helps develop new degree and non-degree programs at the Penn Graduate School of Education. Bobbi has been involved with education and technology for over 35 years. Dr. Barbara Kurshan (Bobbi) has had a career as both an academic and award-winning entrepreneur. Kurshan has honed her vision of “what can be” using technology while supporting the growth of new education companies and developing innovative software products. She began her teaching career at Virginia Tech, where she obtained her Doctorate and her MS in Computer Science, and was the Director of Academic Computing and Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Hollins College for many years. Kurshan then became an education entrepreneur, and served as President of Educorp Consultants Corporation and as the EVP of WorldSage, a consortium of for-profit higher education institutions in the EU. As the past Executive Director of Curriki she helped to build one of the most innovative and robust global open source education communities. She has previously served as the Co-CEO of Core Learning an education investment fund and the Chief Academic Officer of bigchalk.
	Vineet Madan 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.
	Martin McKay Chief Technology Officer, Texthelp Systems, Ltd Since 1994 Martin has lead the development of core computing linguistic Intellectual Property in the following fields: Phonetic Spellchecking, Word Prediction, Homophone Detection, Word Syllabification & Pronunciation Tuition. Texthelp Systems provides award-winning literacy software solutions for individuals with reading and writing difficulties, learning disabilities such as dyslexia, or who are English Language Learners. Additionally Martin has filed 4 patents in the areas of Text to Speech implementation in Public Access Terminals, Text to Speech UI Design, Talking EBook Design and Talking Ebook Creation tools. Martin's awards include: Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2004 Runner Up. National Business & Disability Council product of the year 2004. Net Visionary Award for Innovation ( Browsealoud Accessibility product) 2004 Deloittes Fast 50 ( fastest growing companies in Ireland) listing for the past 5 years. New Statesman New Media Award for Innovation 2004 ( Browsealoud )
	Emma Nothmann Sr. Director of Partnerships and Business Development, Edmodo Emma Nothmann leads business development for Edmodo, the leading online social learning platform for the K-12 classroom. In her role, Emma manages relationships with digital publishers and game developers to bring the best interactive content to Edmodo classrooms across the world and provide partners with a scalable distribution channel. Prior to joining Edmodo, Emma led Booz & Company's North American Education Practice as a Principal.
	Shauntel Poulson Associate Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund Shauntel Poulson is an Associate Partner at NewSchools Venture Fund where she focuses on investment strategy, due diligence, and management assistance for the organization’s portfolio ventures. Prior to NewSchools, Shauntel was a Senior Engineer at Procter and Gamble and also facilitated an afterschool program for high school students from underserved communities. Shauntel has worked with education technology companies globally and was an Education Pioneers Fellow at Wireless Generation where she recommended program enhancements for the School of One. Shauntel received her BS in Chemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University.
	Sue Progoff Partner, Corporate Group, NY & DC Offices, Dorsey & Whitney, LLC
	Louis Pugliese Principal, Quantum Thinking Over the past twenty years, Pugliese has developed a strong track record managing growth stage businesses and acquiring and developing a number of education organizations. Lou Pugliese is the former Chairman and CEO of Moodlerooms, the largest global provider of open source software and services for eLearning for the K to Workforce markets. Prior to Moodlerooms, Pugliese was President of Learning Diagnostics Inc., an education a consulting practice providing strategic planning in Business Intelligence in academic and administrative information architecture. He was recently vice president of corporate development and company director at Educational Testing Service (ETS). In this capacity, Pugliese led corporate strategy and growth and strategic alliances for the secondary, post secondary, workforce and international education markets. Prior to his appointment in corporate development, Pugliese served as the vice president of market development, which included marketing, sales, market research, and business development. Prior to this post, he was the CEO of ETS Pulliam, LLC, an ETS K]12 subsidiary, and vice president of elementary and secondary education products and services where he led ETS's elementary and secondary education product development and customer]facing activities. These included professional development, technology products and services and assessments. Prior to ETS, Pugliese was an entrepreneur in residence at Novak Biddle Venture Partners, an equity]financing firm established in 1997 to provide assistance to the management of young, information technology businesses. There he shaped the strategy for private equity investments in early stage educational technology companies. Pugliesefs affiliation with Novak Biddle began with the firmfs early stage lead position in Blackboard, Inc., where he was founding CEO. Pugliese served as vice president and chief operating officer of ETC, a subsidiary of Denver]based Telecommunications Inc. (TCI). Prior to joining ETC, he was director of marketing and sales with Scholastic New Media in New York, and vice president of Turner Educational Services in Atlanta where he successfully launched CNN Newsroom and a variety of other educational ventures. Pugliese is active in the Washington, DC regional and national technology communities and serves on the numerous local and regional boards in education] and software]related businesses. Pugliese also served on George W. Bushfs Presidential IT Steering Committee and the Commission on Technology and Adult Learning. Pugliese is a noted international speaker on educational technology and has addressed a wide range of issues in education and education policy. Lou also serves on the SIIA Postsecondary Board of Directors.
	Ron Reed Principal, SXSWedu
	Diana Rhoten CSO, Amplify Diana Rhoten is the CSO for Amplify, where she is responsible for internal planning, external communications and partnership development. Amplify is a new business dedicated to reimagining K-12 education by creating digital products and services that empower teachers, students and parents in new ways. Amplify is focused on transforming teaching and learning by creating and scaling digital innovations in three areas: analytics and assessment, content and curriculum and distribution and delivery. Previously, Diana cofounded and codirected Startl, which was dedicated to advising and accelerating for-profit start-ups in the digital learning and education technology markets. Prior to that, she served as faculty at the Stanford University School of Education, program director in the NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure and policy analyst to Governor Weld. She has published extensively on topics related to the sociology of education and innovation. Diana has a PhD and MA from Stanford, an MEd from Harvard, and a BA from Brown. She is both a Fulbright Scholar and a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer.
	John Richards 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.
	Doug Roberts Vice President, Educational Partnerships, VirtualNerd Doug Roberts built on his experiences as part of several successful ed tech startups, including Edusoft and Wireless Generation, to launch Educational Solutions Consulting in 2009. ESC was hired by clients to be a sort of "professional skeptic" and craft realistic models for getting from $0 to $100K Revenue within a year. ESC's clients have included Waterford, Measured Progress, Children's Progress, LinkIt, Engrade, PossibilityU, and Virtual Nerd, who, last winter, asked Doug to join them full-time to build their K-12 institutional business. At VN, Doug leads and develops relationships with both K-12 industry and Local Educational Agency partners, and guides the company's strategy to build the top-line.
	Tim Rogers Vice President, Software Development, Follett Software Company Tim Rogers is vice president of software development at Follett Software Company, after having spent the past 10 years with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Most recently, he served as that companyâ€™s senior director of software product development. During his career, Tim has helped launch multiple software products in new and existing markets, and has authored and negotiated core products technology road maps. He has guided large departments, and also has managed satellite offices as well as offshore resources. Tim earned a bachelorâ€™s degree from the University of Iowa, and a masterâ€™s degree from DePaul University.
	Baran Rosen President, Whitestone Communications Baran Rosen is president of the mergers and acquisitions advisory firm Whitestone Communications, Approaching its 20th anniversary, Whitestone specializes in representing buyers and sellers of companies in the education, publishing, information, Internet and training fields. The firm has completed transactions with such major companies as McGraw-Hill, Reed Elsevier, Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer and Dun & Bradstreet as well as such major private equity funds as Chicago Growth Partners and Great Hill Partners. Baran’s experience includes over 30 years of experience in publishing and information businesses and more than 20 years of experience in handling mergers and acquisitions. Prior to founding Whitestone, Baran served as director of acquisitions for McGraw-Hill and Simon & Schuster.
	Perry Samson Professor, University of Michigan Perry Samson is a Professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan. He holds an Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship at the University of Michigan in recognition of â€œoutstanding contributions to undergraduate education." In 2010 he was named "Distinguished Professor of the Year" in the State of Michigan. He is the co-founder of The Weather Underground, one of the 100 most visited web sites on the Internet. Perry is also the creator of LectureTools, a web application that allows students to synchronize their note-taking with the instructor slides and respond to a wide range of question types.
	Mark Schneiderman Senior Director, Education Policy, SIIA As Senior Director of Education Policy, Mark Schneiderman represents SIIA’s member software and digital content developers before Congress, the Administration, state governments and other national stakeholders on education policies, programs, and regulations that impact technology at all levels of education. Prior to joining SIIA, Schneiderman was Legislative Associate for the Council of Chief State School Officers, where he represented the public officials heading each state's department of education. He serves on the executive board of the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET), and he previously served on boards of the KIPP DC/Key Academy charter school and the Committee for Education Funding (CEF).
	Farimah Schuerman Managing Partner, Academic Business Advisors, LLC Farimah Schuerman is a specialist in the business of educational technology. During her career, she has helped hundreds of education companies bring new products to market while ensuring that product quality is maintained at the highest level. Farimah has provided guidance in the areas of sales, marketing, product development, business development and many other pivotal areas. Farimah has been active within SIIA's Education Division the past few years; serving on the Education Board, as co-chair of the Postsecondary Committee and on the Steering Committee for the Ed Tech Business Forum and the Ed Tech Industry Summit, at which she has presented in years past.
	Tatiana Sehring Senior Manager, Corporate & Strategic Relationships, American Public University System Tatiana Sehring is the Senior Manager, Corporate & Strategic Relationships at American Public University System. She has over ten years of combined experience in strategic partnerships, business development, and marketing in a variety of industries. At APUS, she has developed long-term relationships with key industry and corporate partners. Currently, she represents the university as a thought leader in the industry at a variety of speaking engagements. Her past experience includes managing, developing and maintaining partnerships on environmental projects with major US corporations such as Bank of America. She has also coordinated program outreach for programs in Latin America, Andean Region, and Europe in her roles for the Environmental Export Council (EEC). Tatiana holds a M.B.A. from American Military University and M.A. in International Commerce and Policy with a concentration in Business, Marketing, and International Trade from George Mason University. She received her Bachelor’s in Communications from Fundacao Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP), in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
	Cheryl Smith Vice President, Government Relations, Kaplan Inc. Cheryl L. Smith is Vice President for Government Relations at Kaplan, Inc. Prior to joining Kaplan, Ms. Smith served over 25 years in various leadership roles advising key policymakers in the U.S. Congress and at the state level on education and workforce budget and policy issues. Most recently, she served as staff director of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations in the U.S. House of Representatives, with responsibility for the largest domestic appropriations bill exceeding $150 billion. Other career highlights include serving as staff director of the Subcommittee on Employment and Productivity of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in the U.S. Senate and advising the Governor of Virginia on state funding for elementary, secondary, and higher education. Ms. Smith is a graduate of the Averell Harriman College for Policy Analysis and Public Management, State University of New York at Stony Brook, New York. She also attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
	Thomas Squeo Chief Product Officer, Pierson Labs Mr. Squeo is a results-oriented, Agile technology executive, consultant and change agent, focused on enterprise and customer empowerment, innovation and excellence in product management and development. His contributions to both the education and human capital management industries benefit from a grounded vision of the enterprise, consumer technologies, and their creative employment. Thomas is a recognized expert in eLearning, assessment & publishing technologies, leveraging strategically aligned and tactically delivered mobile and traditional Netcentric technology solutions. He is a dynamic thought leader and innovator with deep experience in enterprise and education solutions.
	Ken Stern Director, Strategy and Analytics, McGraw-Hill Educatio, The McGraw-Hill Companies
	Scott Traylor CEO, Chief KID, 360KID For the past 21 years Scott Traylor has defined the vision behind the Boston-based digital development and consulting firm known as 360KID. His youth-focused company specializes in product ideation, market testing, and product development as a service to companies interested in engaging kids through a variety of different media platforms used in the consumer marketplace as well as in the classroom. Scott is actively involved in research, writing, and speaking about user engagement through new technologies, social media, and various consumer-based delivery systems. Scott is also on the Board of Directors for The Association of Educational Publishers as well as a Board of Trustees member of a summer school/summer enrichment program called Exploration School (explo.org) for 3rd through 12th graders on the campuses of Yale University, Wellesley College, and St. Marks School in Southborough, MA. Scott also advises a small number of venture-backed eLearning startups and virtual worlds in the K12 space. He is also a frequent contributor to Children's Technology Review magazine.
	Brian Vogelsang Director, Product Management , Qualcomm, Inc. Brian Vogelsang is director of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT). As part of the QCT Ecosystem team, he is focused on working with application developers on new business, partnership, and innovation opportunities for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile processor which is powering a new generation of advanced smartphones, tablets, and other smart devices. Vogelsang came to his current role from Qualcomm Internet Services (QIS), where he was responsible for overseeing product development for Plaza Retail, a complete, flexible and scalable application store solution that enables Developers, Operators and OEMs to create and manage a rich, highly personalized shopping experience across diverse platforms, devices, and networks. Vogelsang has over 19 years of experience in telecommunications and information technology. Since joining Qualcomm in 1994, he has held senior management and product strategy roles in engineering, product marketing, information technology, business development, and product management. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Vogelsang was chief technology officer for AXNET Communications, Inc., a regional Internet services provider. Vogelsang holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Redlands.
	Robin Warner 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.
	Ken Wasch President, SIIA Ken Wasch's involvement in SIIA is based on both personal and professional interests. His long-standing interest in computers and software, coupled with the industry's need for a central trade association, led him to establish the Software Publishers Association (SPA) in 1984 with an initial group of 25 software firms. Wasch has led the association from its infancy to its merger with the Information Industry Association in January 1999, resulting in the formation of SIIA.
	Mitchell Weisburgh 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.
	Mark Williams Vice President Business Development, Kno, Inc. Mark is responsible for Knoâ€™s publisher, institutional and enterprise relationships. Bringing over 15 years of experience in enterprise sales, solution development and customer success to Kno. Mark was most recently SVP Global Accounts at Intralinks, a leading cloud based content management and secure collaboration provider. Prior to IntraLinks Mark held prominent sales management roles with a number of enterprise software companies including SAS, Opera Software and Chordiant Software.
	Christine Willig Senior Vice President/STEM, McGraw-Hill School Education Group As Senior VP of STEM, Christine currently leads all product development and marketing for PreK-12 curriculum and instructional materials in math, science, engineering, and health for McGraw-Hill Education. Prior to joining McGraw-Hill, Chris served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Math Solutions, the leading provider of mathematics teacher professional development in the U.S. She led Math Solutions through a successful acquisition to Scholastic, Inc.
	Linda Winter President/Owner, Winter Group Linda Winter leads Winter Group, a creative services and strategic research firm focused on the education and related publishing and technology markets. Winter Group’s portfolio of capabilities includes complete campaign planning and execution, messaging, positioning and branding, and high performance promotion development. From creating integrated digital and multimedia marketing to direct sales support including conference strategies, webinars, and lead generation programs, we develop deliver our clients’ marketing and sales messages directly to the education market’s buyers and decision-makers to support high stakes growth, positioning, and sales objectives.
	Matthew Witheiler Principal, Flybridge Capital Partners Matt is a Principal at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and experience broadly cover companies and technologies across the information technology sector including education technology, financial technology, digital media, and consumer internet. Matt currently represents Flybridge Capital Partners on the board of Convoke Systems and serves as an observer on the boards of DataXu, Sand 9, Saving Star, Simple Tuition and a portfolio company working in stealth. He previously sat on the board of Ready Financial. He also sits on the board of The Capital Network and is a Founding Executive Committee Member of FirstGrowth Venture Network, a network of venture and angel investors supporting first and second time entrepreneurs building exciting companies in the New York area.
	Anne Wujcik Education Research Analyst, MDR Anne Wujcik has more than 25 years of education and publishing experience. She is an Education Research Analyst in MDR’s Market Research department, using her market experience to inform quantitative and qualitative research projects and conducting focus groups nationwide. As Managing Editor of the EdNET News Alert, Anne is responsible for strategic positioning and content development for the news alert services, policy analysis and tracking education market trends. Previous positions include Managing Editor, Nelson B. Heller & Associates; Principal, Wujcik & Associates; research position with SIIA, LINK Resources and TALMIS; Executive Editor, Early Childhood, Follett Publishing Company; Early Childhood Program Specialist, Georgia Department of Human Services. Anne began her career as a classroom teacher at the primary level. She has a Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education and additional years of teaching at all levels of the elementary school program.