At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United States based Founder operating in the Education space. If you think a Founder is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Catherine Wood
Founder, CEO & CIO of ARK Investment Management
Cathie registered ARK Investment Management LLC (“ARK”) as an investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2014. Prior to ARK, Cathie spent twelve years at AllianceBernstein as Chief Investment Officer of Global Thematic Strategies where she managed $5 billion. Cathie joined Alliance Capital from Tupelo Capital Management, a hedge fund she co-founded which, in 2000, managed $800 million in global thematic strategies. Prior to her tenure at Tupelo Capital, she worked for 18 years with Jennison Associates as Chief Economist, Equity Research Analyst, Portfolio Manager and Director. She started her career in Los Angeles, California at The Capital Group as an Assistant Economist. Cathie received her Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, in Finance and Economics from the University of Southern California in 1981. In 2016, Cathie received the “Women in Finance – Outstanding Contribution Award” from Market Media.
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About ARK Investment Management: ARK Invest holds a precision lens on thematic investing.
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Austen Allred
Co-Founder & CEO of Lambda School
Austen Allred co-founded Lambda School and serves as its CEO.
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About BloomTech, Lambda School: Lambda School trains people to be software engineers for free in exchange for a share of future income.
Ben Nelson
Co-Founder of Lambda School
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About Lambda School: Lambda School trains people to be software engineers for free in exchange for a share of future income.
Alcyr Araujo
Founder & CEO of Mosyle
Founder & CEO at Mosyle
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About Mosyle: Mosyle is the leader in modern mobile device managment for Apple enterprise and education customers.
Kong Pham
CEO & Founder of Jumpcut
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About Jumpcut: Jumpcut creates captivating online courses.
Mohammed Hisamuddin
Co-Founder & CEO of Entri
Mohammed Hisamuddin is the Founder & CEO of Entri, a Plug and Play test prep platform for teachers and students in India. 70,000 students and 530 teachers have used Entri to improve their learning and teaching so far. 8 million questions have been attempted on Entri by students. We are targeting 1 million students and 3000 teachers in the next 1 year. Entri recently became the first Indian startup to get into LearnLaunch, a leading edtech accelerator based out of Boston. Hisam is currently in Boston participating in the LearnLaunch accelerator until demo day which will happen in September. He previously Co-Founded SMSGYAN, helped it grow to more than 10 million users and answer more than 100 million queries. Hisam and the co-founder’s at SMSGYAN represented India in the finals of DFJ-CISCO Global Business Plan Competition 2009. He was part of iAccelerator ’09 program from IIM-A which incubated and supported SMSGYAN. SmsGyan was rated among the 18 hottest technology innovations from India for 2011 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology – TR35. He was pivotal in opening up the SMSGYAN platform to developers, around 3000 developers created more than 10,000 SMS keyword apps and lead to partnerships with Twitter, Evernote and TrueCaller. He later co-founded Quest app, a P2P answering app which was incubated by 500 startups in San Francisco.
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About Entri: Entri is a vernacular language learning platform for teachers and students.
Eren Bali
Co-Founder of Udemy
Eren Bali is the CEO and Co-Founder of Carbon Health. Eren leads the Carbon team towards his vision to democratize healthcare and make quality care accessible for everyone. Previously, Eren paved the way to make education accessible by founding Udemy, the world’s largest marketplace for online courses, with over 10 million students worldwide. In his youth, Eren was a star mathematician, winning awards in mathematics, physics, computer science and chess including the International Mathematical Olympiads. He still loves chess today and plays to unwind after a long day at the office.
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About Carbon Health, Udemy: Udemy is an online learning platform that helps students, companies, and governments gain the skills they need to reach their goals.
Scott Chacon
Co-Founder and CEO of Chatterbug
Scott Chacon is a Git evangelist and Ruby developer currently as the Cofounder & CEO of Chatterbug. He is the author of the Pro Git book by Apress, the Git Internals Peepcode PDF as well as the maintainer of the Git homepage and the Git Community Book. [Source](http://schacon.github.com/about.html)
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About Chatterbug: Chatterbug building a new way to help you master language skills through adaptive courses.
Russell Belfer
Co-Founder and Engineering of Chatterbug
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About Chatterbug: Chatterbug building a new way to help you master language skills through adaptive courses.
Liz Clinkenbeard
Co-Founder and Chief Communications Officer of Chatterbug
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About Chatterbug: Chatterbug building a new way to help you master language skills through adaptive courses.
Serena Williams
Founder of Serena Williams Foundation
Serena Williams is an American professional tennis player who is currently ranked No. 1 in women’s singles tennis. The Women’s Tennis Association has ranked her World No. 1 in singles on six separate occasions. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she became the World No. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002, and regained this ranking for the sixth time on February 18, 2013, becoming the oldest world no. 1 player in WTA’s history. Williams is also the reigning French Open, US Open, WTA Tour Championships and Olympic ladies singles champion. In 2008 Williams helped to fund the construction of the Serena Williams Secondary School in Matooni, Kenya. She received a Celebrity Role Model Award from Avon Foundation in 2003 for work in breast cancer. Williams has also been involved in a number of clinics at schools and community centers, particularly those which have programs focusing on at-risk youth; she has also won the “Young Heroes Award” from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater L.A. and Inland (2003) and the “Family Circle and Prudential Financial Player Who Makes a Difference Award” (2004). In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Williams, along with other ATP and WTA stars decided to forgo their final day of preparation for the 2010 Australian Open to form a charity event in which all proceeds will go to the Haiti earthquake victims.
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About Bumble, Bumble Fund, Serena Ventures, Serena Williams Foundation: The Serena Williams Fund was established to promote equity; through education, gender, race, disability…
David Rogier
Founder and CEO of MasterClass
David Rogier is the founder and CEO of MasterClass, the streaming platform where anyone can learn from the world’s best across a wide range of subjects. As a kid, Rogier loved learning but often struggled in school. In 2015, he created MasterClass to reinvent the traditional model and provide life-long learning opportunities for everyone. MasterClass has since transformed the online learning category providing intimate access to over 90 of the world’s best practitioners. In 2020, David Rogier was named one of the most influential leaders in media and entertainment on Fortune’s “40 under 40” list and as one of Variety’s Hollywood New Leaders.
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About MasterClass: MasterClass is a provider of an online education platform designed to offer video based vocational courses.
Peter Dodge
Founder and Chief Performance Officer of Hanover Research
Peter is the Founder and Chief Performance Officer of Hanover Research. Hanover is a global information services firm providing knowledge support to more than 1,100 for-profit and non-profit organizations. Through our unique, fixed-cost model, we provide customized, timely, and authoritative research and advice that enables our clients to make informed decisions, identify and seize opportunities, and heighten their effectiveness.
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About Hanover Research: Innovative Market Research – Washington, D.C.’s Hanover Research
Ankur Nagpal
Founder & CEO of Teachable
Founder of Fedora.
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About Teachable: Teachable is a venture-backed company that allows anyone to create and sell online courses.
Deborah Quazzo
Founder & Managing Partner of GSV Ventures
Deborah is the Managing Partner of GSV AcceleraTE, a venture capital fund investing in exceptional entrepreneurs and their companies in the $75B education and talent technology sector. In addition, she is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of the ASU+GSV Summit and Founder and Senior Advisor of GSV Advisors. Now in its 10th year, the ASU+GSV Summit celebrates innovations and innovators across the global “preK to Gray” learning and talent landscape and attracts over 4,000 attendees. Deborah currently serves on the boards of Ascend Learning (a portfolio company of Blackstone and CCCP), Degreed, The Educational Testing Service (ETS), Lightneer, Remind, and Web.com (NASDAQ: WWWW). She is a board observer at CreativeLive and RaiseMe, and an advisory board member of Area9 Lyceum. She is a member of the boards of The Common Ground Foundation, Harvey Mudd College, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, The Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School, The Khan Academy Thought Leadership Council and The Board of Dean’s Advisory Council at Princeton University. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition. She previously served on the board of a number of education organizations including The Chicago Board of Education (CPS) and KIPP: Chicago. Deborah received the 2014 Arnold M. Berlin ’46 Distinguished Service to Princeton Award from the Princeton University Club of Chicago, the 2014 Visionary of the Year Award from CFY PowerMyLearning, the 2016 LEAP Innovator in Education “Champion” Award from LEAP Innovations, the 2016 Inaugural Impact Award from Golden Apple Foundation, and the 2017 Visionary Award from the Association of American Publishers (AAP). Deborah graduated cum laude with a BA in history from Princeton University in 1982 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1987.
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About GSV Ventures: GSV Ventures is a venture firm investing company.
Tom Davidson
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EVERFI
Tom Davidson picked the “CEO” slip out of the hat at a recent EverFi staff party and has yet to be fired by the Board of Directors. Davidson ran for the Maine State Legislature while a senior at Bowdoin College in 1994 and spent the better part of three terms working to bring education technology to students in the Pine Tree State. As Chairman of the Utilities and Energy Committee, Davidson led a successful effort with Governor Angus King to provide laptops to every Maine seventh grader as well as to create a major expansion of the wiring of schools and libraries across the State. After deciding that he needed to tell his children one day that he actually once earned a paycheck, Davidson left the Legislature in 2000 and began investing in early-stage technology companies in the education and social media spaces. He was a Venture Partner with Village Ventures, a network of venture capital firms across the U.S. Davidson graduated from Bowdoin College devoid of any academic honors of any consequence.
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About EVERFI, GrowthSpur: EVERFI is an education technology company that provides learners of all ages education for the real world.
Jon Chapman
Co-Founder and President of EVERFI
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About EVERFI: EVERFI is an education technology company that provides learners of all ages education for the real world.
Rafael Garcia
Co-Founder & CTO of Clever
Rafael leads the technical team and is in charge of all product engineering. Prior to co-founding Clever, Rafael worked at Jump Trading, where he specialized in machine learning and working with large volumes of data. Rafael holds a BA degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Harvard. He is a native of Naperville, IL, and lives in San Francisco, CA.
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About Clever: Clever is a digital learning platform designed for K12 schools and used by 22 million students and teachers.
Dan Carroll
Co-Founder, Chief Product Officer of Clever
Running technology for a charter school network, Dan saw first-hand how data obstacles were quickly becoming the biggest barriers to innovation in education. Prior to Clever, Dan led technology for West Denver Prep, where he had also taught middle school science as a Teach for America Corps Member. Now, Dan works with schools around the country to use data to aid innovation. Dan holds a BA in Human Evolutionary Biology from Harvard and currently resides in San Francisco.
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About Clever: Clever is a digital learning platform designed for K12 schools and used by 22 million students and teachers.
Rachel Carlson
Co-Founder & CEO of Guild Education
Rachel Carlson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Guild Education, which helps employers design and offer education-as-benefit programs that provide employees with individualized pathways to a degree and earn credit for on-the-job training. Selected as one of Forbes’ 30-Under-30 for Education, Rachel has an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a M.A. in Education and a B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University. Rachel lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, David.
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About Guild Education: Guild Education is a lifelong learning platform that offers classes, programs, and degrees for working adults.
Brittany Stich
Co-Founder and Vice President of Learning at Work of Guild Education
Brittany Stich is the co-founder and vice president of Learning at Work at Guild Education. Prior to co-founding Guild Education, Brittany served as a program director at Quad Learning, Inc. She is a former teacher at Aspire Public Schools and Bay Area Corps member at Teach For America.
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About Guild Education: Guild Education is a lifelong learning platform that offers classes, programs, and degrees for working adults.
Russel Simmons
Founder and Chief of Learnirvana, Inc.
Russ co-founded Yelp Inc. in July 2004 with former colleague and friend Jeremy Stoppelman. Prior to Yelp, Russ was one of the early employees and the lead software architect at PayPal. He led a team of top engineers on critical projects related to security, scalability, stability, and internationalization as the company scaled rapidly. Following his time at PayPal, Russ joined Max Levchin’s (co-founder of PayPal) incubator, where he teamed up with Jeremy. Russ holds a B.S. in computer science from the University of Illinois.
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About Learnirvana, Inc.: Learnirvana, Inc. is a corporation that uses non traditional methodologies to help teach students learn about various subjects.
Genevieve Ryan Bellaire
Founder & CEO of Realworld
Genevieve Ryan Bellaire is the Founder and CEO of Realworld, a company that provides a simple way to navigate adulthood and its life moments, with help from your community. Genevieve has had a broad array of professional experience across business, law, and government. An attorney by profession, she received her JD/MBA from Georgetown University, and worked on strategic partnerships at Goldman Sachs until leaving to found Real World Playbook. Genevieve received her B.A. in Politics-International Relations from Princeton University, where she held numerous campus leadership roles and graduated with Honors in her department. Beyond her work in the entrepreneurial world, Genevieve is passionate about women’s empowerment, education, and national security. She currently serves as a member of the Pencils of Promise Leadership Council, the Acumen Fund Young Professional Committee, and the Washington Institute for Business, Government, and Society.
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About Realworld: The #1 platform to navigate adulthood
Zahra Kassam
Founder and CEO of Monti Kids
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About Monti Kids: Monti Kids helps parents use Montessori educational play from birth to age three.
Daniel Pianko
Co-Founder and Managing Director of University Ventures
Daniel Pianko is the Managing Director at Achieve Partners
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About Achieve Partners, Tiber Health, University Ventures: University Ventures is higher education sector.
Morgan Mercer
Founder, CEO of Vantage Point
Morgan Mercer is the founder of the VR-based enterprise training company, Vantage Point. Vantage Point’s suite of immersive training tools is initially aiming at tackling Anti-Sexual Harassment and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training. Mercer was recently regarded as one of the Top 10 Female Tech Innovators [in history] by TechRadar and has been featured in 4+ dozen publications including WIRED, NPR, The Economist, Vogue and more. Mercer was regarded by the UN Women chapter as a “Champion of Change” in the ‘Era of Equity’.
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About Vantage Point: We create experiences that change the way you think. Vantage Point is the future of workforce learning.
David Kopf
Co-Founder of Remind
Co-founder of Remind101
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About Remind: Remind is a communication platform that helps every student succeed.
Sam Chaudhary
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of ClassDojo
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About ClassDojo: ClassDojo is a school communication platform that teachers, students, and families use to build close-knit communities.
Chad Miller
Founder of Wealth Generators LLC
Chad has been an entrepreneur all of his life, an entrepreneur who could find a need and then find the solution. After a number of successful start-ups, and eventually gaining a fascination with the markets, he became a licensed broker early in his career. He quickly learned the power of investing, and the potential to change lives through changing the financial future of others. This developed a passion for people that can be witnessed everyday by his actions and care for those around him. Doing what is right for others, and doing it in an honorable way is Chad’s priority in life. Prior to founding Wealth Generators, Chad co-founded a brokerage firm which focused on educating others in how to successfully trade in the market and generate personal wealth.
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About Wealth Generators LLC: Wealth Generators is a financial education, research and tools provider for the self-directed investor.
Ryan Smith
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Wealth Generators LLC
Ryan has over 20 years of experience in business management and in the financial markets. His career has been focused on helping people generate wealth in the financial markets, and he has a passion for the common man living the American Dream. Over his career he has impacted tens of thousands in how to change their financial futures, and making their dreams come true. Prior to founding Wealth Generators, Ryan co-founded a brokerage firm and eventually focused of teaching others how to trade in the markets successfully – literally bringing “Wall Street to Main Street.” Building that company to generating over $350 million in annual revenue, Ryan eventually sold that organization and again began refocusing on educating the common man to have uncommon success in the markets.
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About Wealth Generators LLC: Wealth Generators is a financial education, research and tools provider for the self-directed investor.
Matthew Milner
Founder, CEO of Crowdability
Matt is a Media & Technology executive with a Wall Street background, and a history of entrepreneurial success. A descendant of Russian immigrants, Matt’s ancestors arrived penniless in the New World and survived by peddling clothes on pushcarts. His great grandfather eventually scraped together enough capital to start a business selling an innovative new product: socks with elastic. With that one small business, he was able to provide for his growing family. Initially, Matt didn’t follow in his family’s footsteps of entrepreneurship. He headed to Wall Street — to global investment banks such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers — to learn how to invest and profit from the financial markets. By the time he was 30, however, he heard the call to start his own company. His first business struggled. Matt burned through his savings and eventually failed. He started a second company that also struggled initially, but this time, he figured out how to “pivot” and change course — and eventually, this company was acquired for a small sum. Relying on this small bankroll and the lessons from his failures and successes, he launched his third startup, a social media company. Finally, he struck gold. Hearst, the global media conglomerate, acquired the company for millions. After joining Hearst’s team to help launch and grow their online businesses, he further codified his rules for building successful early-stage companies. In addition to his work at Hearst, he became a mentor to young technology companies, helping them avoid the struggles that he himself encountered. He also started a venture capital fund and became an investor. In 2013, thrilled by the JOBS Act and the promise of equity crowdfunding to allow a broader range of people to invest in startups, Matt teamed up with Wayne Mulligan to found Crowdability. He wanted to share the knowledge he’d acquired over his career — from his years on Wall Street, to his experiences building, mentoring and investing in startups — to show ordinary citizens how to invest and profit from startups. Growing up, Matt heard inspiring stories about how his great grandfather provided for the family thanks to the power of small business and a little bit of innovation. With Crowdability, Matt aims to spread similar stories — and the power of startups — to everyone. Matt holds a B.A. from Cornell University, and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
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About Crowdability: Crowdability is the source for data, research and education on the emerging equity crowdfunding industry.
Weiting Liu
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Codementor
Weiting Liu is the founder & CEO of Codementor, a live help marketplace for developers. Weiting is a serial entrepreneur and an alumnus of both Y Combinator (YC ’07 SocialPicks, ’12) and Techstars (Seattle ’13 Codementor).
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About Arc.Dev, Codementor, Global Social, Peeridea: Codementor is an online marketplace connecting developers with experts for on-demand 1:1 help via screen sharing, video, and text chat.
Luis von Ahn
CEO & Co-Founder of Duolingo
Louis von Ahn is the CEO and Co-Founder of Duolingo. He is an associate professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, and he’s at the forefront of the crowdsourcing craze. His work takes advantage of the evergrowing Web-connected population to achieve collaboration in unprecedented numbers. His projects aim to leverage the crowd for human good. His company reCAPTCHA, sold to Google in 2009, digitizes human knowledge (books), one word at a time. His new project is Duolingo, which aims to get 100 million people translating the Web in every major language.
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About Carnegie Mellon University, Duolingo: Duolingo is a language-learning education platform that offers 98 total courses across nearly 40 distinct languages.
Darrell Silver
CEO & Co-Founder of Thinkful
Founder of Thinkful (acq by Chegg), Perpetually (acq by Dell).
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About Thinkful: Thinkful provides 1-on-1 learning with industry experts to bring high growth tech careers to their students.
Daniel Friedman
Co-Founder & President of Thinkful
Dan co-founded Thinkful with the belief that great education is built on strong relationships between students and teachers and between peers. Prior to starting Thinkful, Dan was a product manager at Elm City Labs, where he helped entrepreneurs turn their ideas into products and find their first customers. He first started as an analyst at RRE Ventures, a venture capital firm in NYC (and now a Thinkful investor). Dan attended Yale University, but dropped out after two years to join the Thiel Fellowship, a program that pays 20 people each year to leave college and start a company.
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About Thinkful: Thinkful provides 1-on-1 learning with industry experts to bring high growth tech careers to their students.
Garland L. McLaughlin
Co Founder & Principal of Exquisite Conglomerate Communications
Founder at Exquisite Conglomerate Communications
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About Aristotle Asset Holding, Exquisite Coffee, Exquisite Conglomerate Communications, Neos Equity Group, RBR WALLSTREET: The Masters of Digital Demonstrations
Leathia S. Hart
Founder of Exquisite Conglomerate Communications
Founder at Exquisite Conglomerate Communications
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About Exquisite Conglomerate Communications: The Masters of Digital Demonstrations
Leathia S. Hart
Founder of Exquisite Conglomerate Communications
Founder at Exquisite Conglomerate Communications
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About Exquisite Conglomerate Communications: The Masters of Digital Demonstrations
Joshua J. Mark
Author, Editor, Researcher, Co-Founder, Director of World History Encyclopedia
Joshua J. Mark is the Author, Editor, Researcher, Co-Founder, and Director at World History Encyclopedia.
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About World History Encyclopedia: Non-profit organization publishing the world’s most-read history encyclopedia.
Adrian Graham
Co-Founder & CEO of Seesaw
Adrian handles a variety of leadership responsibilities within Seesaw, with much of his time spent overseeing new product development, engineering efforts, and the company’s overall workplace culture.
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About Seesaw, Shadow Puppet: Seesaw is a platform for student engagement.
Carl Sjogreen
Co-Founder & CPO of Seesaw
Carl Sjogreen is the Co-founder and CPO of [Seesaw](http://web.seesaw.me). Before founding Seesaw, Carl was the Director of Product Management for Facebook Platform and Facebook mobile. Carl joined Facebook via the acquisition of nextstop.com, a social travel guide he founded in 2008. Before nextstop, Carl was a Group Product Manager at [Google](http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/google) where he started [Google Calendar](http://www.crunchbase.com/product/google-calendar) and helped it grow into the #1 online calendar product. Carl holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science from Harvard University.
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About SeeSaw, Seesaw, Shadow Puppet: Seesaw is a platform for student engagement.
Ric Elias
Co-Founder & CEO of Red Ventures
Ric attended Boston College and Harvard Business School before beginning his career as part of GE’s Financial Management program. Ric co-founded Red Ventures in 2000, just days before the dot-com bubble burst. The company weathered the storm and by 2007 it was ranked 4th on the Inc. 500 list. In 2009, Elias was a survivor of Flight 1549, an event which drastically changed his life and led to his widely viewed TED Talk “3 things I learned while my plane crashed.” Elias is cited as aspiring to create the “Google of the East Coast” within his company’s culture and facilities. Ric’s leadership style earned him noteworthy recognition in 2011, when he was named an Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year. His inspirational views on both business and family have been featured on CNN, TED Talks and MSNBC. Ric Elias is the co-founder and CEO of Red Ventures, a portfolio of digital companies headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. With over 3,000 employees in 10 US cities, Puerto Rico, the UK, and Brazil, Red Ventures’s digital platform spans across many industries, including home services, financial services, health services, education, and entertainment. Through its influential brands, strategic partnerships, and powerful technology platform, Red Ventures connects millions of people to premium content, intuitive digital experiences, and consumer advice to help make life’s most important decisions. Over the last decade, Red Ventures has compounded growth at over 30%. In 2010, General Atlantic made a strategic investment in the company, and in 2015 Silver Lake also joined as a shareholder. Ric has cultivated an award-winning and technology-centric company culture, ranking as one of Charlotte’s “Best Places to Work” for ten years in a row. A native of Puerto Rico, Ric graduated from Boston College and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. He co-founded Red Ventures in 2000, months before the dot-com bubble burst. The company weathered the storm; by 2007 it was ranked 4th on the Inc. 500 list. Ric’s leadership style has earned him noteworthy recognition; in 2011, he was named an Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year, and in 2016 he was inducted into the Carolinas Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. In 2009, Ric survived Flight 1549, also known as the “Miracle on the Hudson,” an event which changed his life and led to his widely viewed TED Talk “3 Things I Learned While My Plane Crashed.” In 2019, he launched a podcast, “3 Things with Ric Elias,” where he shares conversations and insights with top business leaders, athletes, and remarkable guests. In addition to being deeply committed to his family and Red Ventures, Ric is passionate about creating economic mobility opportunities for underserved groups who have the motivation and work ethic to succeed. In 2013, he founded and funded what is now Road to Hire, a 501(c)(3) that connects young adults with on-ramps to professional development and high-earning careers. Programs provided through the Road to Hire platform include career-readiness classes in Charlotte Mecklenberg Title 1 high schools, digital marketing courses at Johnson C. Smith University, on-the-job training and placement with top employers in Charlotte , and scholarships for high-performing undocumented students seeking college degrees. Additionally, in 2018 Ric launched Forward787, a $100M social enterprise committed to building digital businesses based in Puerto Rico. To date, the program has trained and supported more than 100 Puerto Rican professionals, fueling a new economic growth engine on the island.
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About Red Ventures: A portfolio of influential brands, digital platforms, and strategic partnerships that help people make life’s most important decisions.
Shailu Tipparaju
Co-Founder & CTO of Examity
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About Dallas Venture Capital, Examity, Strateology: Examity is an online exam proctoring company.
Mark Grovic
General Partner & Founder of New Markets Venture Partners
Mark Grovic co-founded New Markets Venture Partners in 2003 and is a General Partner. Mark serves or has served on the Board of Directors for Fishtree, Graduation Alliance, Think Through Learning, MediaSolv (sold to Nasdaq: TASR), Lightningcast (sold to NYSE: TWX), Moodlerooms (sold to Blackboard) and Workspace.com. Mark also serves or has served as a board observer for Aldagen (sold to NASDAQ: CMXI), American Honors College, Andera (sold to NASDAQ: EPAY), Appfluent, BioSET (sold to Ferring Pharmaceuticals), Mashable, Overture Technologies, Paratek Microwave (sold to NASDAQ: RIMM), Questar Assessment and Vision Chain. Mark also co-founded LifeJourney, an online educational company that allows students to test drive real life careers in specific corporations. Mark has been investing in high growth companies since 1992. Prior to New Markets, Mark was a Portfolio Manager for the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF), a $200 million managed emerging market venture capital company, Director of Estonia-based Baltic Small Equity Fund, a Co-Founder and Principal of the Templeton Emerging Europe Fund, as Principal of Templeton Direct Advisors, and a Portfolio Manager of Private Equities at the Calvert Group. Mark is a Senior Advisor to University of Maryland University College (UMUC), advising on corporate development and entrepreneurship, and a Senior Lecturer at the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, where he has taught a Private Equity Clinic for the last 15 years. Previously, he was VC-in-Residence at the Smith School and Deputy Director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. He has earned three awards for his instruction at UMD and at Howard University, plus a fellowship awarded for the innovative use of technology in the classroom. Mark helped to found and served as Board Director of the Baltimore Chapter of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), is Board Chair at Emerson Preparatory High School in Washington, D.C. and serves as on the board of Partners for Affordable Excellence. He is a member of the Industry Advisory Council for the American Public University System and of the Innovation Advisory Board for the Lumina Foundation. Mark is also a member of the Washington Baltimore chapter of the Young Presidents Organization. Mark graduated with Honors from the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in political economies and received a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University, where his focus was in international, tax, and corporate law. Mark has also completed graduate work in accounting and finance at the George Washington University and Pace University, and completed the Private Equity and Venture Capital Executive Program at Harvard Business School. Mark lives in Silver Spring, MD with his wife and two children and is a mediocre musician and triathlete.
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About New Markets Venture Partners: New Markets Venture Partners is an early and growth stage venture capital firm.
Eric Aroesty
Co-Founder & Director of Steady
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About Steady: Steady removes barriers to earn through its income intelligence that supports hourly, 1099 and mixed-earners in earning more.
Adam Roseman
Co-Founder & CEO of Steady
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About Steady: Steady removes barriers to earn through its income intelligence that supports hourly, 1099 and mixed-earners in earning more.
Shereen Anis
Founder of Kid Koderz
Shereen Anis bootstrapped, created and is the Founder of Kid Koderz
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About Kid Koderz, Representation Counts: Technology Education Summer Camp and After School Enrichment Program for Kids/ Teens
Jay Bavisi
President & Co-Founder of EC – Council
Jay Bavisi is the award-winning founder and President of the EC-Council Group, a global leader in cybersecurity consultancy, training, education, publishing, events, and certification. EC-Council was formed following the 9/11 incident and addresses issues of cybersecurity and cyber terrorism which is at the forefront of security of nations at large. EC-Council is the owner and developer of the world famous Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH), Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (C|HFI), Certified Security Analyst (ECSA), Certified Blockchain Professional (C|BP) and Licensed Penetration Tester (LPT) (Master) programs. He is a multi disciplinary cyber security expert that has helped executives of global institutions like the International Telecommunications Union, United Nations, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, National Security Agency, Dow Jones, Lloyd’s, Merrill Lynch, Microsoti Shell, HSBC, Hewleti Packard, IBM, Standard Chartered, American Express, MCIS –Zurich, KPMG, Deloitie Consulting, EY, Trend Micro, IDC, Royal Australian Air Force, China Mobile and AT&T think through their cyber security strategy.
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About EC – Council: EC-Council Offers Online Education
Gautam Tambay
Co-Founder & CEO of Springboard
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About Springboard: Springboard is an e-learning platform that prepares people for modern careers through cutting edge curriculum and mentor guidance.
Hakan Satiroglu
Co-Founder of LearnLaunch Fund + Accelerator
Hakan Satiroglu is the Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at XR Terra.
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About LearnLaunch Fund + Accelerator, Mountain Gap Solutions, Testive, XR InLearning, XR Terra: LearnLaunch Fund + Accelerator invests in and supports entrepreneurs on the mission to positively transform education.
Eileen Rudden
Co-Founder & Board Member of LearnLaunch Fund + Accelerator
Eileen Rudden is the founder of Sankaty Growth Partners, and co-founder of LearnLaunch. Most recently, she served as the Chief Officer of College and Career Preparation for the Chicago Public Schools, where she led the efforts of the third largest public school system in the U.S. to ensure that its 400,000 students are college and career ready. She was a 2009 Broad Fellow and graduate of the Broad Superintendent’s Academy. Rudden is the Board Chair of SoundBite Communications (NASDAQ: SDBT), and former VP and GM of the Unified Communications Division at Avaya, a Fortune 500 business communications provider. At IBM’s Lotus Software unit, Rudden was senior vice president and general manager responsible for Lotus Notes and Same Time, the leading email and collaboration software. She also served as CEO of FairMarket (NASDAQ:FAIM). She is currently Chair of the Advisory Committee on Computing and Information Technology at Brown. She also serves as a board member at The Achievement Network, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, Maria Mitchell Association, and Pew Center on the Internet and American Life. Rudden received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA from Brown University.
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About LearnLaunch Fund + Accelerator: LearnLaunch Fund + Accelerator invests in and supports entrepreneurs on the mission to positively transform education.
Johannes Fruehauf
Founder, President & Executive Director of LabCentral
Johannes Fruehauf is the Founder & CEO LabCentral/Biolabs.He is responsible for all aspects of LabCentral’s operation. Johannes is a physician and successful biotech entrepreneur. Prior to LabCentral, he founded Cambridge Biolabs, a contract research facility serving startup and virtual companies in Kendall Square. He is also a co-founder of ViThera Pharmaceuticals, Deltix and Cequent Pharmaceuticals, and an advisor or board member to numerous life sciences companies and non-profits. Johannes earned his medical degree at the University of Frankfurt and his PhD at the University of Heidelberg (Germany).
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About Arkuda Therapeutics, BioLabs, Cequent Pharmaceuticals, Deltix, LabCentral, Mission BioCapital: LabCentral developing novel cancer treatments: Conkwest, Inc, headquartered in DelMar, California, is opening its research laboratory at
Marina Hadjipateras
Co-Founder and General Partner of TMV
Marina Hadjipateras is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Trail Mix Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund focussed on the future of living well. Prior to co-founding Trail Mix, Marina was VP of Investor Relations for Dorian LPG and a key figure in taking her family’s 200-year old shipping company public in 2014 (NYSE: LPG). She restructured Dorian and oversaw talent, PR and IR, accepting the Tanker Company of the Year award. Marina serves as vice chair of the INTERTANKO Environmental Committee. In 2018 Marina received the NYOT Innovators and Disruptors award for venture capital.
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About TMV: TMV is an early-stage investment firm that focuses on the future of living well.
Soraya Darabi
Co-Founder and General Partner of TMV
Soraya is a General Partner and founder of TMV, an early-stage venture firm investing in purposeful startups reimagining the future. TMV backs start-up companies focused on ideas that will reshape industries or inspire new ones. Fund I and Fund II investments focus on: frontier health organizations, marketplaces and design-driven technologies. Soraya is also the host of “Business Schooled – a Podcast by Synchrony,” – a “Top 20 Business Podcast” on Apple – for which she travels the United States interviewing persevering founders who have made it past their startup days. Soraya began her career as Manager of Digital Partnerships & Social Media at The New York Times, where she positioned the global news leader on social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, partnered with startups large and small, and established award-winning campaigns. She went on to co-found the application Foodspotting, named by Apple and Wired Magazine as an “App of the Year,” later acquired by OpenTable, then Priceline. Then Poly & Co, a digital growth marketing agency based in Boston and New York. For her work at The Times and startups, Soraya has been featured on the cover of Fast Company Magazine’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” issue and on the cover of Brand Week’s “Digital Best” issue. Soraya was named an Inc. Magazine “30 Under 30” (2012), Fortune Magazine “40 Under 40: Women to Watch” (2015). She sat on the first digital advisory board of General Electric. She is a World Economic Forum “Young Global Leader,” a six-time mentor to TechStars New York – three-times named a “Mentor of the Year.” Soraya graduated with honors from Georgetown University and completed the Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century module at Harvard Kennedy School. She is currently on the board of directors for the non-profit Yamba Malawi, her 12th year advising the organization.
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About TMV, Zady: TMV is an early-stage investment firm that focuses on the future of living well.
Tess Michaels
Founder & CEO of Stride Funding
Tess Michaels is a serial entrepreneur with experiences from Goldman Sachs and Vista Equity. She is a recipient of the Wharton Deans Award for Innovation and the Penn Alumni Award of Merit. At Harvard Business School she served as a trustee of the Harbus Foundation and as a Senator. Tess was named as a Woman to Watch by the UN Foundation in 2015; she won the Grand Prize at MIT FinTech Competition in 2019, and was honored as a Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2020.
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About Stride Funding: Stride Funding is an outcomes-driven company that provides Income Share Agreements to supplement student loans.
Zac Zeitlin
Founder & Partner of New Ground Ventures
Zac has been an active investor in an exciting group of impact-minded, early stage companies, with a focus on food, health and wellness, education and financial technology. Prior to starting NGV, Zac was a co-founder and head of the Principal Finance business of Silver Point Capital, as well as one of the firm’s six partners. Zac began his career as a private equity investor in the PIA group of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and at TPG Capital. He is a Plan II-Business Honors graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. Zac is the Treasurer and a Trustee of Greens Farms Academy.
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About New Ground Ventures: New Ground Ventures is an investment platform established to fund and support breakthrough companies.
Doug Barry
Co-Founder, COO and CFO of PORTL Hologram
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About MSMCi, PopJax, PORTL Hologram: PORTL Hologram offers at-home hologram machines.
David Nussbaum
Founder and CEO of PORTL Hologram
David Nussbaum is the Founder and CEO at PORTL Inc.
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About PORTL Hologram: PORTL Hologram offers at-home hologram machines.
Anthony Morrison
CEO / Founder of Morrison Publishing, LLC
Anthony Morrison created the Success Connection in order to create a more rewarding relationship with his students. While the Internet is a great thing it also removes personal interaction which is something Anthony really enjoy. Through Anthony Morrison’s Success Connection training he is able to get to know his students, listen to their comments.
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About Morrison Publishing, LLC: Morrison Publishing provides digital training products for people around the world created by founder and CEO Anthony Morrison.
Tim DeMello
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Gradifi, Inc
As the founder, CEO and chairman of Gradifi, Tim leads the vision for Gradifi and finding the solution to paying down student loans. He has over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience and has founded 7 start-ups including Replica, Streamline.com, Ziggs.com and Spotlight Media. Many of Tim’s ventures have gone public or been acquired by companies like Peapod, Reputation.com and Mattel. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Tim began his career as a stockbroker in Boston. Tim was also a long-serving member of the Board of Trustees at Babson College, where he earned his B.S. in Finance. Tim initiated important philanthropic programs at Babson including the Founder’s Fund, which has generated over $3 million in cash proceeds for the college. He has spoken at numerous Inc. Magazine and Fast Company conferences and was selected by Inc. Magazine as a top entrepreneur in the “Birthing of Giants” program. He is an active competitor in open water swim races, road races and the sport of triathlon. He and his wife Lauri Pearson DeMello split their time between Austin and Boston and have three children.
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About Gradifi, Inc: Financial tech company providing a unique series of programs and sponsorships to accelerate student loan paydown
Frank Yeary
Founder of WriteLab
Frank Yeary is executive chairman of CamberView Partners, a leading source of independent, investor-led advice for public companies. He was Vice Chancellor of his alma mater, University of California, Berkeley, from 2008 to 2012 and prior to this appointment was Global Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at Citigroup Investment Banking. Until its sale in 2015, he was also Chairman and Co-founder of Level Money, Inc., a financial organization helping the next generation of young adults achieve financial balance. As vice chancellor at UC Berkeley, Yeary led the development of a new sustainable financial strategy, designed and implemented the university’s first comprehensive middle-class financial aid program and initiated and oversaw the implementation of one of the largest re-engineering and cost reduction efforts ever undertaken by a public university. In addition, for nearly two years he acted as chief administrative officer managing a portfolio including finance, human resources, labor relations, internal controls and intercollegiate athletics. Prior to his appointment at UC Berkeley, Yeary held various positions in the investment banking division of Citigroup. During the period 2004 to 2008 he was Global Head of Mergers & Acquisitions where he significantly restructured the department, nearly tripled revenues and led the firm from the fifth to the second largest M&A business, as ranked by global M&A volume. Prior to 2004 he was global head of the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) investment banking practice at Salomon Smith Barney. Yeary received a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Berkeley in history and economics. He is on the boards of directors of eBay, Inc and Intel Corporation.
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About WriteLab: WriteLab is an online writing platform offering immediate, objective, and constructive responses to any writer’s prose.
Donald McQuade
Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer of WriteLab
Donald McQuade is the Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer at WriteLab.
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About WriteLab: WriteLab is an online writing platform offering immediate, objective, and constructive responses to any writer’s prose.
Vikas Gupta
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Wonder Workshop
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About Wonder Workshop: Wonder Workshop provides a platform that makes programming fun and accessible for children while they play.
Sylvain Kalache
Co-Founder of Holberton School
I am an Entrepreneur and a Software Engineer who has worked in the Tech industry for more than a decade. I love building communities and products that scale. I am currently the Co-Founder of Holberton School, a two-year program training highly skilled full-stack software engineers. Inspired by Progressive Education, our curriculum is based on a peer-learning and project-based approach. What regular schools call cheating, we call it collaboration. The school is free until students find a job, and our application is only selection students based on their motivation. Our diverse group of students (40% women, 50% POC as of today) are becoming highly skilled Software Engineers. The type of Software Engineer who work for prestigious companies such as Google, Tesla, Dropbox, NASA, LinkedIn, Apple… Through my work, I had the chance to partner with leaders in technology including LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Yahoo! Founder Jerry Yang, Docker founder Solomon Hykes, and Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel. But also sports and entertainment leaders like Grammy-Award winner NE-YO, actress Priyanka Chopra and New York Jets NFL player Kelvin Beachum. Prior to Holberton School, I joined SlideShare in 2011 as a DevOps Engineer to support the infrastructure that served 3 billion slides every month. I was part of the team who contributed to the acquisition by LinkedIn in 2012, where I worked for 3 years. I have a Master in Computer Science from the school SUPINFO, I studied in France, China (Hebei University of Technology) and the US (Dominican University). I moved 13 times for the first 21 years of my life, I am since then living in San Francisco.
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About Forbes San Francisco Business Council, Holberton School, While42: Holberton School is a project-based alternative to college for the next generation of software engineers.
John Richards
CEO / Founder of Startup Ignition
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About Alianza, BrandWatch Technologies, Brigham Young University (BYU), Domo, FundersClub, Kickstart, Mercato Partners, Startup Ignition, Stevie Awards, Transcriptic: Startup Ignition entrepreneurship bootcamp is aimed at anyone wanting to quickly assimilate the knowledge and practical.
Candice O’Denver
Founder and President of Balanced View
Candice O’Denver is an innovator in the practical application of philosophy as a means to benefit all. She is the inventor and founder of Balanced View, a standardized education in the nature of mind used throughout the world. Balanced View’s unique methodology applies algorithms to reach the consistent result of the beneficial empowerment of mind, speech, body, qualities and activities. Comprehensive order becomes spontaneously obvious through recognizing intelligence as inexhaustibly open in a vast space that is not restricted by the body. When Candice O’Denver was 7, a Bermuda neighbor read her “Awareness Nakedly Seeing” from the Oxford University translation of “The Tibetan Book of the Dead.” The clear perspective of mind as an inexhaustible open intelligence was newly invigorated in within her upon hearing this important text. It gave Candice O’Denver the courage to continue in her firmly held belief that everything is beneficial by nature. Candice found no distinction between Tibetan timeless awareness and the Christian God that was so important to her family. She learned that each culture has its own system for bringing out the best in people, and that each system is a perfect fit for that particular culture. Candice O’Denver felt a strong urgency to bring unity to the people of the world through a standardized means of bringing out the best in people which is Balanced View In Bermuda, European Catholic pageantry and British royals were blended with celebratory Caribbean Christianity and early steel drum music — the roots of reggae, rapped out on large discarded oil cans. Every night, the sound filled the air from nightfall to 2am, becoming the vibration of the Caribbean countries and their people, including Candice. Although the 50s occured after World War II, Jewish people were not permitted entry to the country or its lodging through a variety of devious means. Candice O’Denver’s parents gave refuge to visitors and immigrants who were not allowed in Bermuda, giving all 6 of their children a rich background in international community and friendship. Candice O’Denver studied in a Yale mathematics program for gifted children. At the age of 18, she attended a UCLA international program for young philosophers where she focused on the pragmatic application of philosophy to be of immediate, permanent benefit. Bypassing undergraduate school, Candice was accepted into and completed graduate school, studying both critical theory and fine arts with a variety of professors at California College of the Arts, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. Early in childhood, Candice O’Denver was introduced to computer science and the use of original algorithms to reach consistent results. In the seminal years of computer history, her father began the high level design of the first international computer network for food distribution. He later led the team that developed and implemented this system when technological innovations matched his aspirations. Inspired by her father’s drawings of bar codes and stories about a future of food distribution to everyone in the world based on the bar code, reducibility became Candice O’Denver’s innate way of problem-solving. Candice O’Denver is particularly interested in utilizing the philosophy and mathematics of computer science as the basis for a revolution in social science, particularly philosophy of mind, which always has been left to vague levels of abstraction with no result of permanent benefit. Candice applies precise levels of organization and explanation used in computer science to arrive at specific results in the philosophy of mind. Advancing theories of information, reducibility, organization, and explanation, Candice has developed a comparative analysis and then a comprehensive map of all known systems of education in the nature of mind and in human nature. Candice O’Denver is very involved in the Massive Vibe Project. The lyrics that we’re putting out there in the Massive Vibe project are very special lyrics and will the very core of people. We want these lyrics always to be very, very special direct communications of open intelligence. Nature’s vast, open intelligence speaking to everyone everywhere so that everyone everywhere is very simply, yet radically, developing a universal revolutionary language that has never existed before between beings of all kinds.
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About Balanced View: A global grassroots movement empowering people to use their innate power for the benefit of all.
Reshma Saujani
Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code
Reshma Saujani is the Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, a national non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology. Through its Summer Immersion Programs and Clubs, Girls Who Code is leading the movement to inspire, educate, and equip young women with the computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities. Started in 2012, the organization has grown to reach 40,000 girls in every state by the end of 2016. This year, Girls Who Code will run 78 Summer Immersion Programs and 1500 Clubs. The results speak for themselves: 90 percent of alumnae have declared or intend to declare a major or minor in computer science. Reshma began her career as an attorney and activist. In 2010, she surged onto the political scene as the first Indian American woman to run for U.S. Congress. During the race, Reshma visited local schools and saw the gender gap in computing classes firsthand, which led her to start Girls Who Code. Reshma has also served as Deputy Public Advocate for New York City and ran a spirited campaign for Public Advocate in 2013. Reshma’s TED talk, “Teach girls, bravery not perfection”, has more than one million views and has sparked a national conversation about how we’re raising our girls. She is also the author of the groundbreaking new book, Women Who Don’t Wait In Line. Reshma is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and Yale Law School. She’s been named one of Fortune’s World’s Greatest Leaders, Fortune’s 40 under 40, a WSJ Magazine Innovator of the Year, one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in New York by the New York Daily News, CNBC’s Next List, Forbes’s Most Powerful Women Changing the World, Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People, Crain’s New York 40 Under 40, Ad Age’s Creativity 50, Business Insider’s 50 Women Who Are Changing the World, City & State’s Rising Stars, and an AOL/PBS Next MAKER.
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About Girls Who Code: Girls Who Code works to educate, inspire, and equip young women with the skills and resources to pursue academic and career opportunities.
Michael Choi
Founder, CEO of Coding Dojo
Michael Choi is the Founder and CEO of Data Compass. He is an entrepreneurial engineer with deep experience training and managing talented teams, founding and building new companies.
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About Coding Dojo, Data Compass: Coding Dojo is a bootcamp that helps students transform their lives through programming literacy.
Alex Johnson
CTO & Co-Founder of Plotly
Alex is Plotly’s CTO and the instigator of Plotly.js. He also consults for Microsoft Research and the Center for Quantum Devices at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, focusing on data acquisition for quantum computing experiments. Alex holds a BS in Physics from Harvey Mudd College and a PhD in Physics from Harvard University. He has 20 peer reviewed publications, including 2006 paper of the year in Science, and other top journals including Nature, Physical Review Letters, and Journal of Power Sources. He has previously worked in the fields of semiconductor optics, quantum information, magnetic resonance imaging, hydrogen fuel cells, and photovoltaic power.
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About Plotly: Plotly is a data science and AI company that makes it easy to create and deploy interactive web apps in any programming language.
Nick Grandy
Co-Founder of Outschool
Nick Grandy is the Co-Founder of Outschool. He leads product and support. He was previously product manager at Clever, first engineer at Airbnb and worked as a high school physics teacher in Brooklyn. Nick holds an AB in Astronomy from Harvard and an MSc in Computer Science from Oxford.
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About Outschool: Outschool is a marketplace of live online classes for kids that connects learners, parents, and teachers together.
Mikhail Seregine
Co-Founder of Outschool
Mikhail Seregine is the Co-Founder of Outschool. He leads engineering and design. He’s previously worked to design and build Google Consumer Surveys, Social Gold payment services, and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Mikhail holds a BS in Computer Science from Stanford.
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About Outschool: Outschool is a marketplace of live online classes for kids that connects learners, parents, and teachers together.
Amir Nathoo
CEO and Co-Founder of Outschool
Amir Nathoo is a Co-Founder and CEO at Outschool.
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About Outschool: Outschool is a marketplace of live online classes for kids that connects learners, parents, and teachers together.
Bhavin Parikh
Co-Founder & CEO of Magoosh
Bhavin is co-founder and CEO at Magoosh, a company that creates web and mobile apps to help students prepare for standardized tests such as the GRE, GMAT, SAT, and TOEFL. He received his BS in Economics and Computer Science from Duke University and his MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Bhavin loves advising startups on growing their ideas and teams. He used to play ultimate frisbee; now he eats gelato.
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About Magoosh: Magoosh provides online test prep that makes studying for standardized tests accessible, effective, and enjoyable.
Jonathan Hefter
Founder, President of Neverware
Jonathan Hefter is a technology entrepreneur and CEO of Neverware, based in New York City. He is paving the way for innovative technologies that help solve the current business and educational computer procurement model by way of perpetually extending the life and performance of existing PCs, eliminating the need to purchase new hardware. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania – Wharton with a degree in finance in 2009, Hefter spent a year teaching himself the basics of virtual computing while developing the Neverware’s prototype in his parents’ basement.
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About Neverware: Neverware develops desktop operating systems designed to optimize security and manageability.
Gary Tuerack
Founder and Chief Visonary of The National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS)
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About The National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS): The NSLS is the nation’s largest and only accredited leadership honor society with more than 1.5 million members.
Charles Best
Founder of DonorsChoose
Charles Best is the Founder os DonorsChoose.
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About DonorsChoose: DonorsChoose is a nonprofit classroom funding site for public school teachers.
Ryan Delk
CEO & Co-Founder of Primer
Ryan Delk is the CEO and Co-Founder at Primer. He was the COO of Omni before that.
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About Primer: Primer is an online community where 7-14-year-olds spend their time coding video games.
John Freddy Vega
Co-Founder & CEO of Platzi
John Freddy Vega is the Co-Founder and CEO of Platzi.
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About Platzi: Platzi is an effective online education platform that offers classes on marketing, programming, business, and design.
Christian Van Der Henst
Co-Founder of Platzi
Christian Van Der Henst is the Co-Founder at Platzi.
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About Platzi: Platzi is an effective online education platform that offers classes on marketing, programming, business, and design.
Liz Wessel
Co-Founder & CEO of WayUp
Liz Wessel loves helping people get hired. She is the Co-Founder and CEO of WayUp, the go-to platform used by millions of early-career professionals to get hired, and by thousands of employers to scale their early career recruiting without scaling their recruiting teams — all with an emphasis on diversity and candidate experience. Founded in July 2014, WayUp is a venture-backed startup based in NYC that has raised over $30M and was named by CNN as one of the 30 most innovative companies changing the world. WayUp has worked with top companies — including Fortune 500s, startups, and nonprofits — to help them reach, recruit, and engage with the next generation of talent. Liz has been featured as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30, named one of the “18 Coolest Women in Silicon Valley” by Business Insider, and one of New York Business Journal’s “Most Influential Women.” Liz has been a featured speaker at TedX, the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit, TechCrunch Disrupt, SXSW, and several other notable events. Before founding WayUp, Liz worked at Google as a Product Marketing Manager in California and India.
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About WayUp: WayUp connects students with jobs during and after college — from summer internships to part-time gigs to full-time jobs after graduation.
JJ Fliegelman
Co-Founder & CTO of WayUp
Co-founder & CTO of WayUp.
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About WayUp: WayUp connects students with jobs during and after college — from summer internships to part-time gigs to full-time jobs after graduation.
Aaron Skonnard
Co-Founder and CEO of Pluralsight
Aaron is a co-founder of Pluralsight where he serves as the Chief Executive Officer. Aaron has spent years developing course materials and teaching professional developers throughout the world. He has presented at many popular developer conferences like PDC, TechEd, and VSLive! Microsoft recognized Aaron as an MVP in the “Connected Systems” developer community for eight years. Aaron has written numerous books, articles, and whitepapers including the Essential XML Quick Reference (Addison Wesley, 2001), Essential XML (Addison Wesley, 2000), and his popular columns in MSDN Magazine. Aaron lives in Utah with his wife Monica and five children Michelle, Michael, Nathan, Gisela, and Emma.
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About Pluralsight: Pluralsight is a technology learning platform for software developers, IT admins, and creative professionals.
Andrew Lockhart
Co-Founder, Board Member & Chief Executive Officer of Fathom
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About Fathom: Fathom develops a coding automation platform designed to expedite medical coding practice.
Salman Khan
Founder & CEO of Khan Academy
Sal started Khan Academy in 2005 to help his cousins (and soon other people’s cousins). In addition to setting the vision and direction for Khan Academy, he still makes a lot of videos (although he’s not the only one anymore). Sal holds three degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard.
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About Khan Academy, Khan Lab School: Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization that provides a free world class education for anyone, anywhere.
Eduardo Hauser
Founder and CEO of STUDIGY, INC.
Eduardo A. Hauser is CEO at Gem Shopping Network.
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About Gem Shopping Network, REELR.TV, STUDIGY, INC.: STUDIGY offers middle and high school students affordable, accessible and engaging education in the palms of their hands.
Andrew Clapham
Co-Founder of QPay
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About QPay: QuicklyPayit is a payments platform for students and societies in Australia.
Nicholas Negroponte
Chairman & Founder of One Laptop Per Child
Nicholas Negroponte is the chairman of One Laptop per Child, a non-profit organization whose mission is to create and distribute a low cost laptop to millions of children in poor countries around the world, ultimately revolutionizing how these children are educated. A prototype was unveiled by Kofi Annan and Mr. Negroponte at the World Economic Forum in 2005. The project is funded by Google, Red Hat, AMD, Brightstar Corporation, News Corporation and Nortel Networks, among other companies. Mr. Negroponte is currently on leave from MIT, where he was co-founder and director of the MIT Media Laboratory and the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Technology. An Internet pioneer, he is author of the 1995 best seller, Being Digital which has been translated into more than 40 languages. In the private sector, Mr. Negroponte serves on the board of directors for Motorola, Inc. and Ambient Devices. He has provided start-up funds for Wired magazine, Zagats, Ambient Devices and management’s first venture, thePit.com.
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About MIT Media Lab, One Laptop Per Child: ONergy is a Renewable Energy venture passionately committed to sustainability and equity – providing complete energy solutions.
Sepideh Nasiri
Founder & CEO of Persian Women In Tech
Sepideh (“Sepi”) Nasiri is an award winning serial Entrepreneur with 16 years of experience working in the Tech Industry, the Founder of Persian Women In Tech, the former Vice President at Women 2.0 and a life-time advocate for women, diversity and inclusion. Mrs. Nasiri started her career as a Co-founder and Managing Editor of a digital and print Los Angeles Magazine and later joined a number of successful startups in Silicon Valley. In 2014, she was recognized by San Francisco Business Times/Journal “40under40” and Diversity Journal’s 2014 “Women Worth Watching”. Currently, Mrs. Nasiri advises early stage startups including at global initiatives such as WeMENA (a program by the World Bank) and mentors globally many female entrepreneurs and founders in technology serving as an advisor to initiatives such as TechWomen, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
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About Persian Women In Tech: Persian Women In Tech supports Iranian women in Tech/STEM from all across the Globe’s landscape.
Kirill Makharinsky
Co-Founder, CEO, President & Board Member of Enki
Kirill is the CEO and Founder of Enki, a tech-enabled skills training company. Previously, Kirill cofounded Emerging Travel, a leading online travel agency; and Quid, an intelligence tool for strategy teams. Both companies have over $40M annual net revenue each. Kirill is an Oxford University alum where he graduated with a double first in Mathematics and as the #1 UK Graduate of the Year.
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About Emerging Travel Group, Enki: Enki is maximizing employee potential through modern, tech-enabled skills training.
David Hannes
CEO & Founder of Loved
Founder at Loved.
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About Loved: Loved is the platform that empowers kids to save, invest and learn guided by family & friends
Mario Morino
Founder of Venture Philanthropy Partners
Mario Morino is Founding Chairman of Venture Philanthropy Partners and chairman of the Morino Institute. His career spans more than 45 years as entrepreneur, technologist, and civic and business leader. He also has a long history of civic engagement and philanthropy in the National Capital Region and Northeast Ohio. He is the primary author of the book Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity (2011), which is informing efforts in more than 60 countries to increase the impact of nonprofits, foundations, and public-sector entities. In the early 1970s, Mario co-founded and helped build the Legent Corporation, a software and services firm that became a market leader and one of the industry’s 10 largest firms by the early 1990s. He retired from the private sector in 1992. Since then, he has sought to “level the playing field” for children of low-income families, focusing almost exclusively on economic, social, and educational issues. Mario has benefited from a 25-year relationship with General Atlantic LLC, one of the leading global growth equity firms providing capital for companies in markets with high growth potential, typically driven by globalization, industry consolidation, technology, demographics, liberalized markets, and other transformative factors. After serving as a Special Advisor and a member of its Executive Advisory Board, he continues as an investor in the firm. In his philanthropic work, Mario founded the Morino Institute in 1994 to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship, advance a more effective philanthropy, close social divides, and understand the relationship and impact of the Internet on our society. In the 1990s, his efforts focused on the application of the Internet in communities and, in particular, opening up new technology-enabled learning opportunities and centers for children and youth of low-income families. Concurrently, he played a leadership role helping the National Capital Region understand and advance its position as a world center in information technology and telecommunications. In 2000, Mario co-founded Venture Philanthropy Partners as a philanthropic investment organization that concentrates investments of money, expertise, and contacts to improve the lives and boost the opportunities of children of low-income families in the National Capital Region. He has been one of the leaders in adapting the relevant principles of venture and growth equity investment firms and applying them for investing in the nonprofit sector to build stronger, high-impact, lasting nonprofit institutions. He also helped bring together and continues to advance a growing community of high net worth families in and around the nation’s capital. Mario serves as an advisor to General Atlantic, LLC; a member of the advisory board of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Institute; an honorary trustee of The Brookings Institution; an Emeritus Trustee of Case Western Reserve University; and on the boards of the Lawrence School and Saint Joseph Academy. Mario received his B.B.A. from Case Western Reserve University in 1967.
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About Venture Philanthropy Partners: VPP makes the future brighter for youth living in the National Capital Region by tackling the largest barriers
Hadi Partovi
Founder and CEO of Code.org
Hadi Partovi is an entrepreneur and investor, and CEO of the education non-profit Code.org. In 2013 Hadi and his twin brother Ali launched the education nonprofit Code.org which Hadi continues to lead full-time as CEO. Code.org has established computer science classes in 15% of US classrooms, created the most popular curriculum platform for K-12 computer science, and launched the global Hour of Code movement that has reached over 100 million students. A computer science graduate of Harvard University, Hadi began his career during the browser wars in the 1990s, when he was Microsoft’s Group Program Manager for Internet Explorer. In a second stint at Microsoft, he was General Manager of the MSN portal, delivering its first year of profit. As an entrepreneur, Hadi was on the founding teams of Tellme Networks and iLike, which were acquired by Microsoft and MySpace, respectively. Hadi has served as an early advisor to numerous startups including Facebook and Dropbox, and as a tech investor his portfolio also includes airbnb, Uber, Zappos, IndieGogo, Change.org, and others. Aside from his investments, Hadi also serves as a Director on the boards of TASER International and Convoy.
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About Code.org: Code.org is a non-profit foundation focusing on developing computer programming education in the U.S.
Kimbal Musk
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Big Green
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About Big Green, Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation, Square Roots Urban Growers, The Kitchen Restaurant Group: The Kitchen Community believes that every child deserves the opportunity to learn, play and grow in a healthy community.
Tracy Day
Founder & CEO of World Science Festival
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About World Science Festival: World Science Festival brings together students of science and the arts to produce live and digital content to a broad general audience.
Jack Herrick
Founder and CEO of wikiHow
Jack Herrick is a serial entrepreneur and current CEO and Founder of wikiHow. Jack founded wikiHow, which is like Wikipedia for how-to. Jack started and self financed wikiHow from inception to it’s current position as one of the most popular sites on the web receiving over 25 million unique visitors per month. Prior to wikiHow, Jack was co-CEO of eHow. With Josh Hannah, Jack purchased eHow in 2004. Between 2004 and 2006 eHow grew 30x in traffic and revenue and became the largest pure play how-to site on the web. Demand Media acquired eHow in 2006. In 2002 Jack co-founded Luminescent Technologies with Dan Abrams, Eli Yablonovitch, and Stan Osher. Luminescent is a computational semiconductor lithography company that has raised over $25 MM in venture capital. From 1999-2001 Jack was CEO and co-founder at BigTray, a Sequoia funded e-commerce company. BigTray was sold in 2001 and remains the largest online vendor of restaurant equipment and supplies.
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About Signpost, wikiHow, wikiHow: wikiHow is a web- and wiki-based community that provides its users with a database of how-to guides.
Suren Markosian
Co-Founder & CEO of Epic
Suren is the CEO and co-founder of Epic!, the first all-you-can-read e-book service built specifically for school-aged readers. He is a successful, serial entrepreneur and founder of several consumer tech startups, including CrowdStar, which rose to become one of the largest social gaming companies with over 200M users, second only to Zynga. Having created and successfully scaled large entertainment and e-commerce businesses to serve hundreds of millions of customers, Markosian is an expert in product design, gamification, technology, scalability, consumer growth and marketing.
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About Epic: Epic is an internet company that specializes in books, eBooks learning, and educational technology.
Kevin Donahue
Co-Founder of Epic
Currently, he is the co-founder of Epic!, the first all-you-can-read e-book service built specifically for school-aged readers.
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About Epic: Epic is an internet company that specializes in books, eBooks learning, and educational technology.
Michael Bronner
Chairman & Co-Founder of Upromise
Michael Bronner is the founder and chairman emeritus of Digitas and Upromise. Digitas is a global interactive marketing agency employing over 3,000 people. Digitas was purchased by Publicis Groupe in 2006. Upromise was founded by Michael to help make college more attainable for middle class families. Upromise is the largest private source of college funding in America, with 10 million families enrolled in the free service. Upromise was purchased by Sallie Mae in 2006.
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About Digitas, Unreal Brands, Upromise: Upromise is a U.S. loyalty program that provides credit for college students and family members to make it easier to pay for college.
David Bailey
CEO & Co-Founder of BTC Media
As Chief Executive Officer of BTC Media LLC, David Bailey is an industry leader in the digital currency and blockchain space. After founding yBitcoin, the world’s leading publication about digital currency, David launched BTC Media, a corporate group including Bitcoin Magazine (bitcoinmagazine.com), the world’s first information outlet and news desk dedicated to digital currency, and Distributed (Distributed.com), a leading source for banking and corporate information on distributed ledger technology.
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About Bitcoin Magazine, BTC Media, BTC Media, Distributed, UTXO Management, yBitcoin: BTC Media is Bitcoin media group, providing education and information through its family of products and services.
Jordana Stein
Founder & CEO of Enrich
Jordana Stein is an expert on financial aid and student debt for GoGirl Finance. She founded SpareSugar, which explains the ins and outs of student loans in no-nonsense terms. She’s also got a strong command of economic and financial policy as she is a speechwriter for the Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). She’s got a Masters from London School of Economics and Sciences Po.
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About Enrich: enrich is a private professional network for senior leaders share knowledge offline with trusted peers.
Jonathan Finkelstein
Founder & CEO of Credly
Jonathan Finkelstein is founder and CEO of Credly. The company’s enterprise-class digital credential platforms enable thousands of organizations to recognize, reward and market skills and achievement. As founder of LearningTimes, Jonathan’s work has helped hundreds of mission-driven organizations produce and launch innovative online programs, products and platforms that have impacted the lives of millions of learners. Jonathan is also the founder of the popular open source BadgeOS project. Prior to LearningTimes, Jonathan was co-founder and Sr. Vice President of Product Development at HorizonLive (now Blackboard). Jonathan is author of Learning in Real Time (Wiley), contributing author to The Digital Museum (AAM), and recently co-authored a report for the US Department of Education on the potential for digital badges. Jonathan is a frequent speaker on digital credentials, Open Badges, and the future of learning and workforce development. Jonathan graduated with honors from Harvard University.
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About Credly: Credly is a platform for verifying, sharing, and managing digital badges and credentials.