Speakers
Keynote Speakers
TUESDAY KEYNOTE
Chris Anderson
Editor-in-Chief, Wired Magazine
Chris Anderson is Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, a position he took in 2001. Since then he has led the magazine to nine National Magazine Award nominations, winning the prestigious top prize for General Excellence in 2007 and in 2005, a year in which he was also named Editor of the Year by Advertising Age magazine. He is the author of New York Times bestselling book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, which was published in 2006, and runs a blog on the subject at longtail.com. In 2007, the book won a prestigious Loeb Award as the best business book of the year and Anderson was named one of the “Time 100,” the newsmagazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. His next book, FREE, will be out in spring 2009.
MONDAY KEYNOTE
Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond
Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education and Co-Director of the School Redesign Network, Stanford University; Director of Education Policy Group for the Obama Presidential Transition Team
Linda Darling-Hammond is Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University where she has launched the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and the School Redesign Network. Most recently, Darling-Hammond was a top education adviser to the Obama presidential campaign and head of the Presidential transition's education policy group. Her research, teaching, and policy work focus on issues of school reform, teaching quality and educational equity. She is a former president of the American Educational Research Association and member of the executive board of the National Academy of Education. She has been a leader in the standards movement, chairing both the New York State Curriculum and Assessment Council as it adopted new standards and assessments for students and the Interstate New Teachers Support and Assessment Council (INTASC) as it developed new standards for teachers. From 1994-2001, she served as executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a blue-ribbon panel whose 1996 report, What Matters Most: Teaching for America’s Future, was named in 2006 as one of the most influential affecting U.S. education, and Darling-Hammond was named one of the nation’s ten most influential people affecting educational policy.
MONDAY KEYNOTE
Dr. Mark David Milliron
President and CEO, Catalyze Learning International
Dr. Mark David Milliron is an award-winning leader, author, speaker, and consultant best known for exploring leadership development, future trends, learning strategies, and the human side of technology change. Mark works with universities, community colleges, K-12 schools, corporations, associations, and government agencies across the country and around the world. He serves as Board Chair for the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education and as a Trustee for Western Governors University and Spruce Pine Montessori School. He is also the founder and CEO of the private consulting and service group, Catalyze Learning International (CLI). In addition, he serves on numerous corporate, nonprofit, and education boards and advisory groups; guest lectures for educational institutions nationally and internationally; and authors and moderates the Catalytic Conversations Blog. Mark brings to this work broad experience, having previously served as an Endowed Fellow, Senior Lecturer, and Director of the National Institute of Staff and Organizational Development in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin; Vice President for Education and Medical Practice with SAS, the world's largest private software company; President and CEO of the international education association the League for Innovation; and as Vice President for Academic and Student Services at Mayland Community College (NC).
Featured Speakers, Moderators and Panelists
Berj Akian
President, ClassLink, Inc
Berj is Founder and CEO of ClassLink. Since 1998 ClassLink has been delivering any computer, anytime access to instructional software and files to students and teachers. With ClassLink products and services, school districts deliver 24/7 access to their instructional software investment. Engineered for students and teachers, ClassLink's products are simple to use yet empower student achievement, while lowering the overall cost of technology.
Allen P Angell
President, HAIKU Learning Systems, Inc
Allen Angell is President and CEO of HAIKU Learning Systems, Inc. who's on-demand learning management system Haiku LMSwas an Innovation Incubator at the 2008 Ed Tech Industry Summit. Before starting HAIKU in 2006 Allen wasDirector of Sales for a regional web development firm that specialized in providing complex, custom web-based applications for K12 school districts. Allen has held sales and marketing management positions with various for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.
Bala Balachander
VP/CTO, CTB/McGraw-Hill
Bala is one of the leading publishers of summative and formative assessments. In his current role, Bala is responsible for the technology strategy and software development and execution of products. Prior to joining McGraw Hill, Bala was the Chief Technology Officer at Pearson School Technology, where he managed the development and technology strategy of student information systems, formative assessment, instructional and reporting products. Before working for Pearson, Bala held senior technology and consulting positions with bigchalk, Viacom and Merrill Lynch.
Steve Benfield
CTO & Senior VP, Product Strategy, Spectrum K12
Steve Benfield brings more than 20 years experience as a proven technology visionary, evangelist, architect, and educator. Steve joined Spectrum K12 School Solutions in June 2007 and is responsible for product management, technology innovation, and cultivating strategic partnerships. Most recently, Steve served as CTO of Agentis Software which developed advanced artificial intelligence-based process management systems. Before Agentis, Steve helped establish ClearNova as an early player in the Web 2.0 application development space which led to a successful acquisition by Infor. Steve was also Chief Technology Officer of SilverStream a publicly traded pioneer of Java Application Servers. Steve established SilverStream as a visionary in Web Services and SOA Business Processing resulting in a successful acquisition by Novell. Prior to Silverstream, Steve served in executive management positions for several start-up ventures & IT consultancies.
Ellen Bialo
Interactive Educational Systems Design (IESD)
Ellen Bialo is one of the founders of Interactive Educational Systems Design and EDRoom, recognized in the education technology and publishing communities as a leader in research and analysis, instructional design, and related materials development. IESD conducts research on educational programs and products and provides a variety of consulting services related to their development, evaluation, implementation, and marketing. Clients include education publishers, technology hardware manufacturers, government agencies, non-profit institutions, and school districts. Services include both quantitative and qualitative analyses including focus groups, surveys, in-depth interviews, classroom observations, user testing, competitive landscape analysis, research literature reviews, and analysis of demographic and financial data.
Michaël Bijaoui
Managing Director, MESA
Michaël Bijaoui serves as Managing Director of MESA, focusing on the education and professional publishing markets. MESA is a boutique investment banking firm that serves growth companies throughout the media and entertainment industries. Prior to joining MESA, Michaël was Vice President, Business Development for McGraw-Hill Education. In that role, Michaël led McGraw-Hill Education's global strategy and mergers and acquisitions activities. During his tenure, McGraw-Hill Education completed 13 acquisitions and equity investments in the U.S., UK, and China, as well as two divestitures. Michaël holds an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. He received his bachelor's degree from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris, France.
Charles Blaschke
President, Education TURNKEY Systems
Charles Blaschke is founder of Education TURNKEY Systems, a 40-year old Washington DC-based firm which provides data and analysis about Federal funding policies and K-12 technology spending, including Title I, IDEA/Special Ed, the new ARRA stimulus funding, and other related Federal programs. Blaschke received his Master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy School and maintains close contact with policy makers and influencers to provide reliable insights into the economic stimulus package and the opportunities it offers for software and other publishers.
Tom Boe
Senior Product Manager, PLATO Learning
Thomas Boe is PLATO’s product manager for K-12 learning products, responsible for all K-12 curriculum and assessment. An e-learning professional since 1980, Tom has led development and delivery of products and services for MECC, Sunburst/Wings for Learning, Learning in Motion, The Learning Company, and PLATO Learning. His passion is to improve educational achievement and the educational experience for all students.
Jeff Borden
Senior Director of Teaching & Learning, Pearson eCollege
Jeff has created, taught, and administered several upper and lower division Communication and Computer courses for several Universities and Community Colleges around the country since 1998. Additionally, he has assisted faculty, administrators, and trainers from diverse fields in conceptualizing and designing both on-ground and online courses as well as given direction to schools for total program success. Finally, Jeff speaks around the world with his “Master Teacher” workshops, performs stand-up comedy, gives creativity seminars, and continues to publish within his field of study. Most recently, Jeff has spoken to the U.S. Congress’ Education Committee as he continues to align “academic vision” with Pearson eCollege technology.
Todd Brekhus
President, Digital Solutions, Capstone Digital Publishers
Todd Brekhus is an educational business leader devoted to introducing new technologies to educators and administrators. He was recently hired as President of Capstone Digital Solutions. Capstone Publishers is the largest publisher of school library books. Brekhus is responsible for creating the technology strategy for the K-12 market. Previously, he was VP and Chief Marketing Officer at PLATO Learning. Brekhus was responsible for the Software as a Service (SaaS) product strategy, the entire content library of K-College Courses, the integration of acquired product lines, and bringing new products to market- including the first education program delivered on the Sony PSP a handheld gaming platform. Before coming to PLATO via acquisition, Brekhus was President and COO of Learning Elements, where he was responsible for implementing business strategy. He also built one of the largest teacher internet portals for MCI, MarcoPolo - now called Thinkfinity by Verizon.
Steve Brown
Managing Director, SPB & Co., LLC
Dr. Steve Brown is the Managing Director of SPB & Co., LLC, an educational consulting group specializing in online learning and educational technology. Dr. Brown was previously President and CEO of KC Distance Learning, Inc. (KCDL), the nation's largest provider of online learning to middle and high school students. Under his leadership, KCDL grew to support three brands: Keystone National High School, Aventa Learning and iQ Academy. Passionate about the online environment, Brown also founded and served as CEO of a Seattle-based Internet software company. He was previously senior vice president of a major media company, and spent five years as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. Brown sits on the board of the Portland Children's Museum.
José L. Cabrera
Vice President of Business Development and Marketing, Timecruiser Corporation
José L. Cabrera is responsible for leading the efforts in the marketing of and expansion of channel opportunities for the Timecruiser suite of on Demand enterprise solutions. José brings a wealth of experience from working exclusively in the higher education industry. He began his career in the State University of New York system, serving in residence life and financial aid management roles. He transitioned to the private sector and during the past twenty years he has worked in a variety of senior consulting and management roles with administrative (ERP) and academic solution providers. Before joining Timecruiser, José was the Director of Business Development at Datatel, Inc. where he successfully managed, grew, and nurtured their strategic partner relationships. His earlier experiences include implementing and managing ERP deployments domestically and abroad for SunGard Higher Education, and account management and sales support roles for PeopleSoft. José also built the successful partner program for the e-learning company, formerly known as, WebCT.
Jamie Candee
VP Product Management, Sales & Services Effectiveness, PLATO Learning
Jamie Candee is the Vice President of Product Management and Sales Effectiveness at PLATO Learning, where she leads the organization’s growth and management of its product lines, customer-relationship systems and tools, organizational readiness, and pre-sales engineering. Jamie has been with PLATO Learning since early 2005 and has worked in multiple business lines during the company’s evolution to a Software-as-a-Service provider. Prior to joining PLATO Learning, Jamie held positions in sales, human resources, and consulting for several industries including financial and professional services firms.
Michael Campbell
Director of Marketing, Follett Software Company
Michael Campbell is the Director of Marketing for Follett Software Company, developers of the Destiny K-12 resource management suite and TetraData systems. As an experienced educational marketing leader with 16 years in Marketing Management, Product Marketing, Branding, Product Development and Sales, Campbell specializes in the areas of K-12 and Higher Education technology and publishing, as well as corporate and educational training. Prior to joining Follett Software Company, Michael has held leadership positions in Marketing with InkTree, Inc., Pearson Education, Cengage Learning and McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Frank Catalano
Principal, Intrinsic Strategy
Frank Catalano is a business and marketing strategy consultant, author and veteran media commentator. He has consulted a wide variety of companies, from startup to global, primarily in the education and technology industries. His consulting projects range from developing practical marketing strategies to long-term interim executive assignments and active board participation. Clients have included Apple Computer, Pearson, McGraw-Hill, MetaMetrics, Corbis and many others. Catalano was senior vice president of marketing for Pearson's testing and K-12 education businesses in the U.S., emphasizing branding and marketing best practices for digital and print products and services. He has also been a technology industry analyst and frequent media commentator on tech and marketing trends. He is a well-known public speaker at technology and education conferences and events, is a former news broadcaster, and is co-author of two of the "Dummies" marketing books as well as authoring hundreds of published essays, columns and articles.
Karen Cator
Director Education Leadership, Apple Education, Apple
Karen Cator directs Apple's leadership and advocacy efforts in education. In this role, she is responsible for strategic business development, managing Apple's involvement in education policy efforts, Apple Professional Development, the Apple Distinguished Educator Program and the publishing of media rich teaching and learning practices on the Apple Learning Interchange. Cator came to Apple in 1997 from the public education sector, most recently leading Technology planning and implementation in Juneau, Alaska. She also served as Special Assistant for Telecommunications for the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. Cator holds a Masters in school administration from the University of Oregon and Bachelors in early childhood education from Springfield College.
Karen Coe
President, Key Curriculum Press
Karen joined Key Curriculum Press as a Sales and Marketing Analyst in 1996, and was most recently Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing before taking on her current role. Karen has a degree in Marketing and Education from Saint John's College in York, England. She began her career in publishing at Burlington Books in Athens, Greece, where she became Director of Operations. She moved to California in 1996 and later earned an MBA from Saint Mary's College of California.
Sue Collins
Principal, CollinsConsults
Sue Collins has over 35 years of experience in the education and technology fields. In 2000, President Clinton appointed her to the Web-based Education Commission. In testimony before Congress she has represented both the SIIA and the Web-based Education Commission. She recently testified before the Federal Trade Commission regarding interstate barriers to online courses and worked with the U.S. Department of Education on the National Education Technology Plan. Collins began her career in education as a teacher, before serving as a district- and finally state-level administrator. In the private sector, she has held positions at Apple Computer, Compaq Computer, Jostens Learning, bigchalk.com and served as Chief Education Officer at Apex Learning. Collins is the principal owner of CollinsConsults, providing services to education technology businesses.
William Chesser
VP and GM, Education Solutions, Ingram Digital Education Solutions
William Chesser is both an entrepreneur and educator. He was instrumental in the early design and development of the VitalSource Bookshelf®, which has recently seen triple digit growth in its user base. Prior to moving to VitalSource, Chesser was Assistant Director of Training for the National Paideia Center, and K-12 teacher-training and instructional-development organization in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In that role, Chesser worked with high-profile educators from around the U.S. to develop classroom innovation strategies and techniques and to deliver them to school systems across the country.
Donna Craighead
Senior Analyst, RedRock Reports
Dr. Donna Craighead has over 28 years of educational technology experience. As the Senior Analyst for RedRock Reports, her responsibilities include research, analysis, and synthesis of funding information. She also provides professional development focused on integrating technology, special education, and mathematics. As a professional educator, she was responsible for the development and implementation of a regional service center math curriculum program, taught special education and Title I mathematics, and provided technology education instruction from pre-school through post-graduate level.
Bryan Falcon
Executive Vice President, HAIKU Learning Systems, Inc.
Bryan Falcon's who's on-demand learning management system Haiku LMS was an Innovation Incubator at the 2008 Ed Tech Industry Summit. Bryan has a deep background in business leadership, project management, software architecture and education consulting. Bryan served as President of LightSky, a Midwest regional custom web development firm and has practical experience teaching in the classroom and as a distance-learning consultant.
Ed Fish
President and CEO, ePALS, Inc.
Prior to joining ePals, Ed Fish was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Premium and Subscription Services at AOL, responsible for creating, building businesses for, and launching more than a dozen subscription and free consumer products, including online education products for students and parents. He also served as the Senior Vice President and General Manager for AOL Desktop Messaging, with responsibility for AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and ICQ. Previously, Fish was Director and a President of InterTrust Technologies Corp., the leading digital rights management firm. Earlier, Fish worked with a leading intellectual property law firm, where he focused on technology transactions and intellectual property for emerging technology companies.
Bridget Foster
Manager, Digital Products, Key Curriculum Press
Bridget Foster has over twenty years experience in education and technology. Previously, she was Manager, Technology Products for Key Curriculum Press where she was responsible for managing new product development opportunities, business partnerships and increasing the visibility of technology products in domestic and international markets. As the Director of Business Development for SchoolNet Inc, she managed their SchoolNet Synchronized Partner Program, including instructional content and assessment partnerships, to help develop universal access to their content through the SchoolNet IMS platform. Prior to SchoolNet, she was the Director of Education for PLATO Learning, Inc and she spent seven years as the Director of the California Learning Resources Network. She currently serves on various education association boards and committees including the Software and Information Industry Association and the Consortium for School Networking.
Jeffrey Fromm
Partner, Corporate & Transactions Group
Jeff Galinovsky
Regional Manager, Classmate PC, Intel Corporation
Jeff is currently a Regional Manager for Intel's Mature Market Classmate PC activities where he focuses on expanding EMPG's education products to Mature Markets. Jeff has been at Intel for over sixteen years where he has held several positions in Engineering and Management including; CPU Product Development, Software Development, Software Engineering Management, Strategic Program Management, Strategic Marketing, and Platform Management. Most recently Jeff has spent the last four years working (and traveling the world) on developing and bringing to market unique platforms for Education Markets. Jeff holds a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toledo and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of California at Davis.
Katie Gilligan
Vice President, Publishing Services, Texthelp Systems
Kate brings over 15 years of experience in Instructional Technology and educational publishing to Texthelp's publishing sector business. With senior positions at Pearson, Harcourt and WRC Media she has built successful national sales teams and launched new electronic products to the K-20 market. Kate is responsible for licensing Texthelp Systems award winning technology to educational publishers in North America.
Bob Ginn
General Manager, Century Consultants, Ltd.
Bob Ginn is General Manager, Century Consultants, Ltd. and Vice President of Educational Services, ASM Research. Prior to joining ASM Research, Bob held senior positions in management and sales at CORE Education and Consulting Solutions, Inc. and KC Management Group. From 1977 to 2004, Bob was with IBM where he worked in the K-12 education space for 14 years in several positions including Principal in IBM's Business Consulting Services (BCS) Strategy and Change Practice. He was also responsible for creating and overseeing IBM's K-12 Internet consulting and services strategy and was recognized by IBM as an Executive Consultant for the Education Industry. Additionally, Bob has managed sales and technical service personnel in the support of small and mid-size companies in distribution, manufacturing, retail sales, medical care and banking.
Lou Gray
Co-Founder & CEO, DreamBox Learning
Lou brings over 17 years of entrepreneurial leadership to DreamBox Learning. Before co-founding DreamBox Learning, Lou was President of UIEvolution, a venture-backed middleware company. As President, he initiated and closed multi-million dollar contracts (e.g., Disney, ESPN, etc.), as well as pursued and successfully negotiated the acquisition of UIEvolution by Square Enix for $58M, thereby providing a substantial return for all shareholders. Post UIEvolution, Lou was an Entrepreneur in Residence at the venture capital firm Ignition Partners. Lou's business experience also includes serving as the Strategic Development Officer for W.R. Grace & Co.; Director of Mergers & Acquisitions for JettAir Holdings (an ROI-producing LBO firm); and a Marketing Associate for Hutcheson Shutze.
Tom Greaves
Chairman, The Greaves Group
Thomas Greaves is recognized as a visionary in the K-12 Mobile Computing space. He has published widely is currently the editor of the SIIA's Mobile Computing Trends Watch report. He holds multiple patents and patent disclosures for student computing technologies and has been involved in hundreds of 1:1 computing projects at district, state and federal levels. Greaves' recent work includes, most notably, the 2006 and 2008 America's Digital Schools surveys, which are among the most widely read and quoted educational technology reports ever produced. Greaves has 40 years experience in the computer industry, including 26 years at IBM. He co-founded NetSchools in 1996 which focused on comprehensive curriculum integrated 1:1 laptop solutions. He founded The Greaves Group, a strategic education consulting organization, in 2003.
Shawn Gross
Managing Director, Digital Millennial Consulting
Shawn Gross is the Managing Director for Digital Millennial Consulting. The firm concentrates on providing education technology consulting services for public and private entities. Gross has developed a unique and comprehensive understanding of Mobile Learning through its anchor initiative named, "Project K-Nect." Prior to this, Gross held a variety of positions in the education technology sector from a number of firms including with Sun Microsystems Apple Computer. As the K12 Market Development Manager at Sun Microsystems' Global Education and Research Division, he was charged with acquiring new partners supporting the implementation of Sun's vision for the worldwide education markets and proposal operations. Gross also served as a government relations liaison for Sun and participated in a number of activities surrounding education technology policy.
Geneva Haertel
Senior Educational Researcher, Director of Assessment Research Center for technology in learning, SRI International
Geneva co-led the development of the PADI online assessment design system an, evidence-centered design approach used by state departments of education to develop and refine their large-scale, math and science statewide assessments, by curriculum developers to design and develop curriculum embedded science assessment tasks, and by a commercial company to identify potential employees with trouble-shooting skills. Geneva has co-edited five books, including a two-volume set on evaluating the effects of technology and written approximately 50 publications on learning and assessment.
Mike Hale
Director of Publisher Relations, VitalSource Technologies, An Ingram Digital Company
Mike Hale, PhD, is Director of Publisher Relations for Educational Solutions at Ingram Digital. Prior to their acquisition by Ingram Digital, Hale was Vice President for Curriculum Consulting at Vital Source Technologies, Inc. and in that role he was responsible for developing curricula and customizing resources in specific educational contexts. Hale has a wide range of experiences including: co-founding and directing a successful urban charter school; directing a statewide college access program; securing grants for both research and practice; working with the National Paideia Center facilitating change in schools around the country; and serving as a faculty member at North Carolina Central University and Appalachian State University. He has also published research on school transformation including The Teacher's Guide to Leading Student-Centered Discussions: Talking About Texts in the Classroom
Kelly Hamilton
K12 Market Specialist, ANGEL Learning
Kelly Hamilton, K12 Market Specialist, ANGEL Learning Kelly Hamilton brings more than ten years of practical K12 education experience to her role as K12 Market Specialist at ANGEL Learning. In her role, Kelly manages K12 initiatives and partnerships and collaborates with the K12 customers to foster a collegial, community atmosphere. Kelly joined the ANGEL Learning team in 2008 upon leaving her role as an Assistant Principal for Academic Affairs. Kelly continues to work as a consultant for Indiana University’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy and for the Indianapolis, Indiana, Mayor’s Office for Charter Schools.
Mark Hammer
VP Marketing, CompassLearning
Mark Hammer has over 20 years of experience in education and software marketing. A former educator, Mr. Hammer joined the K12 software industry, first as product manager at COMPanion Corporation, then as VP of Marketing for Sagebrush Corporation. He is currently Vice President of Marketing for CompassLearning. Mr. Hammer has lead re-branding efforts, district-wide adoptions, and unprecedented sales. 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.
Jennifer House
President, RedRock Reports
RedRock Reports is led by Dr. Jennifer House, Ph.D. A noted education market leader, Dr. House is a former school district administrator and educational technology innovator. In addition to tenure with the Cupertino, CA school district, she also held executive positions with Apple Computer, Classroom Connect, and other leading K-12 organizations. Under Dr. House's direction, RedRock Reports has assembled a team of specialists with a broad range of professional experience and industry perspectives.
Kathy Hurley
Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, Pearson School & Pearson Foundation
Kathy Hurley, Senior 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 across Pearson School with sales and marketing on major opportunities as well as the Pearson Foundation on education-related initiatives on a domestic and international scale. She is based in Washington, D.C., where she works closely with education policy associations. In this capacity, she currently serves on several key industry and education advisory boards, including, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), the National School Boards Foundation (NSBF), and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) board where she participates on the International Committee.
Robert Iskander
CEO and Founder, VIP Tone, Inc.
Robert Iskander is the Founder and CEO of VIP Tone, Inc. and serves on the SIIA Ed Division Board. After spending 13 years at Sun Microsystems, including 5 years leading the global education market development and vision, Robert started VIP Tone in April 2000 with the goal of connecting all of the dots for the K-20 education enterprise. VIP Tone's EduTone is the first e-integration platform that connects and provisions education enterprise end-users with a multi-vendor ecosystem of IP-based communications, collaboration, learning and administration applications, through a global identity management utility. Through EduTone, Iskander delivers on his vision of creating an affordable, lifelong and ubiquitous one-to-one platform for students and teachers.
Michael Jay
President, Educational Systemics
As founder of Educational Systemics Inc., Michael Jay and his associates create lasting change in how we learn and educate through their work with corporations and educational institutions. A long time educator, he taught Science in San Jose, California where he also worked in developing the first set of Technology in the Curriculum materials for the State of California. He left the classroom in 1986 to join Apple Computer's Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT) research and development project. 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 remains active in the Software and Information Industry Association, of which he was an Education Board member for eight years – co-chair for three and he has helped guide the development of the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) Association as he is in his tenth year on its executive board and second year as Board co-chair.
Lee Jones
Senior Vice President, College Readiness Products, College Board
Lee Jones oversees strategic planning, product development, and program operations for the College Readiness product lines, including the Advanced Placement Program (AP), SpringBoard. PSAT/NMSQT, and CollegeEd. From 2004-2006, he served as President of Riverside Publishing Company, the testing division of the then-Houghton Mifflin Company, overseeing the integration of the educational technology start-up Edusoft into Riverside, and combining Riverside's formative assessments into the Edusoft delivery platform. Prior to joining the College Board in 1999, he was as a Senior Program Officer with the Board and Testing and Assessment at the National Research Council and directed Congress's evaluation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
William Kelly
CEO, Learning.com
Ron Kleinmen
Framework Architect, School Interoperability Framework Association (SIFA)
Ron is currently the Framework Architect for the School Interoperability Framework Association (SIFA). He previously was Sun's Retail industry CTO, has taught an evening section of Object Oriented Analysis and Design for many years, is the somewhat sheepish holder of several software patents and has been keynote speaker at multiple standard conferences and selected industry events (including SIF and JA-SIG). His current technology focus is on K-12 solutions architecture, SOA, Web Services and massively scalable Java applications.
Sue Koch
VP, Marketing, AutoSkill International
Sue Koch joined AutoSkill in 2005 to develop the K-12 market strategy for the Academy of READING and Academy of MATH product lines. For more than 15 years prior to joining AutoSkill, Ms. Koch held senior marketing and publishing positions at QNX Software Systems (now Harman International) and Telemedia Inc. Ms. Koch has a B.A. Hons in English and Cognitive Psychology from the University of Toronto.
Eileen M. Lento Ph.D.
Government and Education Strategist, Intel Americas
Dr. Lento develops and implements holistic models to meet the needs of state and local governments as well as school systems in the United States. In the education space, she is an expert at guiding school systems along the technology adoption curve. A retired US Air Force Officer, her previous work includes the Director of Learning Technologies for PASCO Scientific and an Assistant Professor of Research in the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University. Having worked on several large scale NSF and DOE projects, she is dedicated to transforming learning experiences via teaching and learning processes that take full advantage of technology so that all students can achieve the high standards essential for them to be successful. Dr. Lento has won a number of awards as well as published in several peer-reviewed journals.
Robert Levine
President and Chief Medical Officer, ArchieMD
Dr. Robert Levine, ArchieMD's President and Chief Medical Officer, is responsible for the development of the ArchieMD product line, including 3D animations and interactive platforms. A passionate educator, he taught high school science prior to attending medical school. He continues to practice and teach medicine as a Board Certified Emergency Physician at the Jackson Memorial Hospital/University of Miami Medical Center. Dr. Levine currently serves as the principal investigator for a number of government grants designed to create educational innovations and study their effectiveness. Dr. Levine's broad base of scientific knowledge and medical experience enable him to envision the wide spectrum of applications for the ArchieMD products.
Barry Lippman
CEO, LearningExpress, LLC
Barry Lippman founded LearningExpress, LLC in 1995, an online assessment, remediation and test preparation company. Formerly President of Macmillan Publishing Co, as well as President of Macmillan's General Books Division, Mr. Lippman has more than 30 years of experience in the book, education, and information industry. He has served more than half of those years in senior executive positions. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the New York City Board of Education's Virtual Enterprises, and also on their Advisory Council for Occupational Education.
Heather Lloyd
Product Manager, eCollege
Bob Longo
Executive Vice President, Etech Group, North America
Bob Longo is the EVP of "The Americas" for Etech Group, makers of Studywiz Spark a web-based K-12 Learning Environment. Before Etech, he was president of Apple Inc.'s PowerSchool, a K-12 student information systems (SIS) company. (PowerSchool is now part of Pearson). Previously Bob was the CEO of Carnegie Learning, Inc., an education software & publishing company spun-out of Carnegie Mellon University, where he was recognized by Ernst & Young, as an "Entrepreneur of the Year". He co-founded Revive Technologies, was President of Surefind Information Inc., and VP of Business Development for Westinghouse Communications. Bob is currently advising education technology ventures Synaptic Mash, Aquaminds, and Inigral.
Jon Madian
Founder, Smart Learning Communities
Jon Madian, Founder, Smart Learning Communities Jon’s Madian’s quest is to energize the use of ICT and community and corporate talents to create an R&D culture sensitive to student and teacher diversity and our deepest motives for meaningful learning and responsible work. Jon is founder of the leading journal in technology and language arts and of Humanities Software, sold to Renaissance Learning. As public education enters the information age, this author, psychologist, researcher, artist-in-residence, and software entrepreneur is building a self-organizing think tank to catalyze smart educational and business opportunities. Based on insights from a learning genome that informs a new pedagogy of personalized learning, Jon sees Smart Learning Communities as the creative loom that continually weaves quality-learning experiences for students and teachers--and moves education into the information age. Some may know Jon through his work with many of the leading textbook and software publishers during the past 3 decades.
Sonny Magana
Senior Education Strategist, Promethean Inc.
Sonny works with school, district, regional, state and national leaders to effectively integrate Promethean's transformational education technologies with powerful instructional strategies that work to improve student engagement and academic achievement. Sonny has co-authored numerous research projects focused on building sustainable models for integrating technology into curricula, instruction and assessment to meet students' diverse educational needs. Sonny created and served as the Director of Washington's first CyberSchool, a highly successful Alternative Learning Program that continues to meet the needs of at-risk students in the Mukilteo School District. The Milken Family Foundation honored Sonny by presenting him with the Milken National Educator Award in 1997 for his work in advancing 21st Century teaching and learning in Washington State. He was also awarded the Governor's Commendation for Distinguished Achievement in Education in 1998.
David Martz
Vice President of Sales and Business Development, Muzzy Lane
David Martz is Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Muzzy Lane. He manages the sales and distribution strategies for the company's self-published Making History franchise. Martz is also responsible for developing strategic relationships with educational partners who publish Learning Games on Muzzy Lane's Sandstone platform. After ten years with State Street Bank & Trust, Martz entered the world of educational software publishing, as a founding member of Cambridge Digital Media (publishers of Drivin' Route 66 and Making History Interactive) and Endeavor Software (a creator of multimedia programming for the New York Jets Football Club). Martz has also held senior management positions at MediMerge Health Group, European American Capital Corporation and Habama.
Denis Newman
President, Empirical Education
Denis Newman founded Empirical Education in 2003 after a 25-year career in education. To help school districts succeed in their mission, he draws on his awareness of children's learning in the classroom, extensive experience in developing instructional technologies, lifelong commitment to scientific research, and entrepreneurial drive. Dr. Newman has published more than 35 books and articles and has conducted research and development at Rockefeller University, UC San Diego, Bank Street College of Education, and BBN Corporation. He was a pioneer in the application of Internet technologies for student learning, professional development, and school administration, bringing to market the first integrated web server designed for schools. His business career has included senior positions at educational software companies Tegrity and Soliloquy Learning.
Steve Nordmark
Vice President, Product Development, netrekker/Thinkronize, Inc.
Steve Nordmark is an innovative leader in educational software development and research with 20 years of experience in corporate consulting and K12 ed-tech. His passion centers on delivering personalized learning environments for all. He currently serves as VP of Technology & Product Development for Thinkronize, Inc., a Cincinnati-based Internet developer of award-winning educational technology products that enhance the education of youth. Steve serves on the Technical and Development Committee and Innovations Working Group within the SIIA Education Division. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from the University of Illinois and a Master's degree in Education from Florida Tech.
David O'Connor
Executive Vice President, School Technology Group, Pearson Education
David is responsible for technology strategy, development, and operations for Pearson's Internet-based platforms that serve millions of students and tens of thousands of instructors in US K-12 schools. Prior to his current position, he was Senior Vice President for Product Development of Pearson's Core Technology Group, serving Pearson's Higher Ed and International businesses. David has previously worked for Apple Computer, Lotus Development (now part of IBM), IMS Global Learning (HE/Int'l eLearning standards organization) and various start-ups.
Carmi Paris
Vice President, Corporate Development, Spectrum K12 School Solutions Inc.
Carmi Paris is Vice President of Corporate Development for Spectrum K12 School Solutions, Inc., a company that specializes in enabling personalized learning for all students through its Student Achievement Management system that includes EXCEED Response to intervention (RTI), EXCEED IEP for Special Needs and EXCEED Service Assurance. In her role at Spectrum K12, she develops and manages collaborative partnerships, channels and strategic alignments with corporations, organizations and school districts that are committed to promoting best practices and the advancement of student achievement. She also serves as a SIIA board member and is co-chair of the Innovations Committee.
Mike Patterson
Senior VP, Assessment Services, Curriculum Advantage
Michael Patterson is an experienced, results-oriented executive with 20 years experience in company leadership. Patterson was a key player on the executive team at Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), offering adaptive assessment solutions for school districts across the country. He spent ten years with NWEA before joining Curriculum Advantage in July 2008. Patterson's initial role is to help guide and manage new product direction and market expansion. Prior to his education experience, Patterson owned a software company serving the Justice and Health Care industries.
Bob Regan
Director, Worldwide Primary and Secondary Education, Adobe Systems, Inc.
Bob Regan is the Director of Worldwide Primary and Secondary Education at Adobe Systems in San Jose, California. In that role, Regan leads programs and strategies for making Adobe products available to schools worldwide, including product development, sales and marketing, and thought leadership. Regan previously served as the product manager for accessibility to launch Macromedia's accessibility effort. He has pioneered techniques in accessible rich media, and has helped to shape standards around disability across the globe. Regan's responsibilities include technical efforts and product development for education and government. He is active in several organizations including the National Council on Technology and Innovation, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the Adobe Education Leaders Program.
John Richards
President, Consulting Service 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.
Liz Riley-Young
Business Manager, SAS Institute
Liz Riley-Young is a Product Manager in SAS' Education Practice. She is responsible for expanding SAS' offerings as hosted solutions for teaching, research and institutional administration throughout the education industry. This approach is in direct response to market voices...an alignment with the 30+ year commitment SAS has made to listening and responding to its customers.
Jim Rosso
Principal, Rosso Unlimited
Dr. Jim Rosso has worked in education for over 30 years, including K-12, postsecondary, adult education, museums and industry. He has taught public and private school. Rosso directed education programs at two science museums, taught adult education for ten years, and taught as an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University and George Mason University. Rosso's industry experience includes working at Microsoft, MediaSeek Technologies and bigchalk. He created and maintains the web site www.birdcentral.net, a site that includes pictures and information about 450+ species of North American birds. As principal of Rosso Unlimited, he works as a research analyst for education companies and produces state funding reports for clients, including SIIA and RedRock Reports. Rosso also served as the Director of External Relations for Project Tomorrow, a national education nonprofit group based in California.
Farimah Schuerman
Managing Partner, Academic Business Advisors
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.
Ferdi Serim
Director, Professional Development Programs Pinnacle/GlobalScholar
Ferdi Serim has served as the Professional Development Director for Pinnacle/GlobalScholar, Board Member of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the New Mexico Public Education Department's EdTech Director, Reading First Director, Program Manager for Literacy, Technology & Standards, Board Member of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), member of the Advisory Board for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, director of the Online Internet Institute (OII); Associate of the David Thornburg Center for Professional Development. He is the author of four books. His students' achievements are documented in the Scientific American, Los Angeles Times, and other media. Ferdi has addressed a broad range of audiences on systemic school reform, including the US Department of Education, National Science Foundation, the Milken Exchange on Educational Technology, the Singapore and Malaysia ministries of education, among others.
Lisa Schmucki
Founder and CEO, edWeb LLC
Lisa Schmucki is the founder and CEO of the edWeb LLC, a professional/social networking website for the education community. The edWeb is an online community where educators can share information and resources, collaborate with peers, and create professional learning communities. Schmucki has 30 years experience in the education industry as a senior level executive and consultant. She is the founder of Bridgepoint Marketing Services LLC and has held previous positions with MKTG Services, Achieve3000, Films Media Group, Peterson's Guides, Macmillan Book Clubs, and Time-Life Books.
Kyleen Shen
Senior Product Manager, Empirical Education
Burck founded SMARTHINKING in 1999 to provide an online tutoring service that would help schools increase student success and student retention. Since then, SMARTHINKING has grown to serve over 300 high schools and colleges and over 150,000 students. SMARTHINKING services are also provided to students purchasing selected Pearson, Cengage, Houghton Mifflin, and Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins textbooks. SMARTHINKING is a 2006 Codie Award Winner and has had numerous studies document dramatic increases in student performance in math and writing as a result of using SMARTHINKING's services.
Doug Stein
Principal, MemeSpark LLC
Doug founded MemeSpark LLC in 2007 to solve business strategy and technology challenges. Doug has 22 years' experience in software development and strategy consulting, including 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. 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.
Trace Urdan
Managing Director, Signal Hill
Trace Urdan has covered the for-profit education industry as a research analyst for twelve years and has twice been cited as an All-Star analyst by the Wall Street Journal. Urdan is well-known as the editor of a weekly industry newsletter and is widely-cited as an expert on the topics of for-profit education and e-learning. He recently testified before the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Prior to joining Signal Hill, Urdan headed education research for Robert W. Baird & Co. Before beginning his career as an investment research analyst with DB Alex Brown, Urdan held senior management positions within Time Inc. and KPMG Peat Marwick.
Phil Vahey
PhD, Senior Research Scientist, SRI International
Dr. Phil Vahey is a Senior Research Scientist with SRI's Center for Technology in Learning (CTL). Dr. Vahey is researching innovative ways to teach and assess student understanding of important mathematics, including the most effective use of interactive representations, the use of data in cross-disciplinary learning activities, and methods of using advanced technologies such as speech recognition software to assess students' speech about mathematical models. Dr. Vahey is also researching ways to assess groups as they engage in innovation practices using Virtual World environments.
Pat Walkington
Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Sebit LLC
Pat Walkington is Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Sebit, LLC, developers of the award-winning Adaptive Curriculum. She has over 20 years of experience creating, leading and growing the educational divisions of technology companies including Commodore Business Machines, The Learning Company and Broderbund Software. As an Industry Consultant she has planned and executed strategies and programs in Sales and Marketing for a large number of companies in our industry. Walkington also co-founded Making It Happen a non-profit that recognizes outstanding educators in technology, and she currently serves on the SIIA Education Board.
Mitchell Weisburgh
Author of SIIA Postsecondary Market Report and Managing Partner, Academic Business Associates
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.
Lee Wilson
Author of Best Practices in Using EduGames and Simulations in the Classroom and Principal, Headway Strategies
Recently Lee joined PCI Education Publishing as their President & CEO. PCI serves the special needs market. Lee has been a Senior Marketing, Sales, and Business Development Executive at Harcourt, Pearson, Apple, and Chancery Software. At Headway he consulted on strategic direction, marketing programs, and sales management. For the past 4 years he has focused on virtual worlds, video games, and Web 2.0 technologies for learning. He currently serves on the board of the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP), is a former board member and chair of the Education Division at SIIA, and was one of the founding board members of the Schools Interoperability Framework. He blogs at www.education-business-blog.com.
Bruce Wilcox
K12 Strategy and Sales Director, SMARTHINKING Inc.
Bruce Wilcox has a 22-year career in the development of instructional technology for elementary, secondary and adult learning settings. Prior to SMARTHINKING, as CEO of Project Inkwell, Wilcox led an industry standards consortium advocating innovation and 1:1 learning in the K12 arena. As VP of eBusiness for Harcourt Inc, Wilcox developed Harcourt's eProduct development and sales strategy. Wilcox's career spans early involvement in the development and sales of computer-based instructional programs for elementary and secondary education, diagnostic/prescriptive programs for adult learners in need of basic skills enhancement, startup and founder roles in education technology companies along with senior management roles at Simon & Schuster (now Pearson) and more recently with Harcourt Education Group.
Eric Wong
Chief Executive Officer, PLANETii
Eric Wong joined PLANETii as the CEO in 2007 and helped guide the company to the successful launch of its math formative assessment product in North America. In partnership with Encyclopdia Britannica, Britannica SmartMath was introduced earlier this year for both the school and direct to consumer markets. Later this year, Britannica and PLANETii will also be launching the first fully integrated line of print/web based workbooks at all major North American retailers. Before joining PLANETii, Eric worked for Squirrel Systems in charge of all professional services, product development, sales, marketing and contract administration for the company's service division. Eric has also worked in various technical and management positions in North America for CIBER, Inc., Chrome Systems and Electronic Arts Canada.
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 and Managing Editor of The B2E News Alert. As a Research Analyst, she uses her market experience to inform quantitative and qualitative research projects and also conducts focus groups nationwide. As Managing Editor of the B2E News Alert, she is responsible for strategic positioning and content development for the newsletter and news alert services, policy analysis and tracking education market trends.
Duncan Young
Vice President, Education Services at Scholastic Education
Duncan Young is Vice President, Education Services at Scholastic Education. He manages the national implementation, training, and professional development organization for Scholastic Education, supporting the successful implementation of READ 180, System 44, and other technology based learning programs. Previously, Young was General Manager, Scholastic Digital Learning Solutions where he oversaw product development, marketing/sales support, and operations for Grolier Online, Scholastic BookFlix (a 2008 CODiE award winner) and the upcoming Expert Space. He also served as Director of Strategy and Business Development for Scholastic Education. Prior to Scholastic, Young was a management consultant with Bain & Co., and a meteorology and oceanography office in the United States Navy.
