B2E News Alert – Education Business Intelligence

Happy end of the week, friends! Everyone is busy, busy, I know. Take a minute to check in on the scoops for the week….

Pearson has named Peter Cohen as Chief Executive Officer of its U.S. School Curriculum Group. He will oversee Pearson’s Pre-K through high school publishing enterprises in print and digital education. As Peter takes on his new responsibilities, he is moving forward Pearson’s primary mission of creating ground-breaking solutions that will advance student achievement. He was previously Chief Executive Officer of the education services company Educate, Inc., whose businesses and brands include Sylvan Learning Centers, Hooked on Phonics, Educate Online, Catapult Learning, as well as learning companies outside the U.S. Before assuming the CEO role, he was president of Sylvan Learning Centers and its predecessor, Sylvan Learning Systems. Under his leadership, revenues grew from $160 million to $514 million.  He was part of the senior executive team at Sylvan Learning that split the business into two separate companies: Educate, the K-12 focused company, which Peter led, and Laureate, a leader in the post-secondary company. Please join me in congratulating him on his new role!

I know you will want to know the news about George W – that is, our own George W. Warren. Recently with AMD, George has joined K12, Inc. as VP Institutional Business. He reports he is on his third week and loving it! I know the K12 team is very pleased to have him on board. Look for George at EdNET next month and drop him a note now to congratulate him on his new position at gwarren@k12.com.

Math Solutions, celebrating 25 years of leadership in improving K-8 mathematics instruction and student learning, has announced that Christine Willig will join the company as President/Chief Executive Officer, effective September 8th. She brings more than 20 years of education-focused leadership, management, product development, sales and marketing experience to the company. In her previous position, Christine was President of Thinkronize, a leader in the digital delivery of K-12 educational content. Recognized on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies in the United States, Thinkronize is known for its award-winning netTrekker, the country's No. 1 K-12 educational search protocol, which Christine had a major hand in creating. Prior to Thinkronize, she spent 18 years at Thompson Learning/South-Western Publishing Division (now a part of Cengage) in a variety of executive roles. Join me in wishing Christine every continued success! I was told Chris is in China for the Olmpics and she may not see your messages till she starts work on the 8th, but fill her e-mail box with congratulations on her new role at cwillig@mathsolutions.com.

Sharp Brains CEO and Co-Founder, Alvaro Fernandez, has been nominated to participate in a new initiative by the World Economic Forum. Described as "In a global environment marked by short-term orientation and silo-thinking, Global Agenda Councils will foster interdisciplinary and long-range thinking to address the prevailing challenges on the global agenda", Alvaro's specific Council will focus on the Challenges of Gerontology. If you do not know about SharpBrains, I think you should. The organization is a research and advisory firm devoted to helping individuals, companies, health providers, investors and policymakers understand and participate in the emerging brain fitness field through a variety of market-intelligence products and services. Their research is fully independent and really excellent. You can read more at http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/08/01/global-agenda-councils-the-challenges-of-gerontology/, and you can congratulate Alvaro on one more recognition of his most impressive work at afernandez@sharpbrains.com.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has announced the newly elected members and officers of its Board of Directors. The SIIA Board consists of representatives from the association’s 500-plus member companies, who are selected by the overall membership. Board members help determine SIIA priorities and drive the initiatives and projects that are undertaken each year. The newly-elected board members serving through 2009 include: 

• Kenneth Glueck, Vice President, Oracle Corporation 

• Fred Hawrysh, Global Director of Corporate Affairs, Thomson Reuters Corporation 

• Tom Rabon, Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Red Hat, Inc. 

 

The following members were recently selected to serve as officers: 

• Chairman: Robert Merry, Publisher and President, Congressional Quarterly, Inc. 

• Vice Chairman: Stuart Udell, CEO, Penn Foster 

• Treasurer: Tom Rabon, Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Red Hat, Inc. 

• Secretary: Kathy Hurley, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Pearson School Companies 

 

The new board members and officers noted above will join the following representatives, who will continue serving on the SIIA Board of Directors: 

• Cynthia Braddon, Vice President of Government Affairs, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (elected through 2010) 

• Daniel Burton, Senior Vice President of Global Public Policy, Salesforce.com (elected through 2009) 

• Paul Despins, Senior Vice President, Publishing Services and Technology, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (elected through 2009) 

• Joseph FitzGerald, Vice President for Intellectual Property, Symantec Corporation (elected through 2010) 

• Steve Manzo, Vice President of Government Affairs, Reed Elsevier, Inc. (elected through 2010) 

• Randy Marcinko, President, MEI (elected through 2009) 

• Bernard McKay, Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Intuit, Inc. (elected through 2009) 

• Jim Parkinson, Vice President of Developer, Tools and Services, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (elected through 2009) 

• Alan Scott, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group (elected through 2010)

• Tim Sheehy, Director of Electronic Commerce, IBM Corporation (elected through 2010) 

Please join me in commending and congratulating each of these people for their work and for their service on behalf of the industry!

I am happy to share the news that Cuesta Technologies has received an honor by being listed by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Silicon Valley's most important business weekly, as a top Web Developer for the 10th year in a row. This list is published once each year. There are usually around 25 developers on the list, but Cuesta is the only developer to find a place on the list for the last 10 years running. Web development companies come and go, but our friends at Cuesta are proving to have longevity in Silicon Valley and beyond. VP of Education for Cuesta, Laurie Swiryn, will be at EdNET and would love to meet with anyone who wants to discuss past, present or future Web experiences or work for their company. And you can drop her a note of congratulations on Cuesta’s much deserved recognition at laurie@cuesta.com.

Dr. José Cossa, Research Analyst for Higher Education at Hezel Associates, is author of the recently published book, Power, Politics, and Higher Education in Southern Africa: International Regimes, Local Governments, and Educational Autonomy. The book focuses on perceptions of power dynamics in negotiations by Global International Regimes and Regional International Regimes. The book is available through Cambria Press online, http://www.cambriapress.com, as well as through most fine booksellers.  

And have you had a chance to see the two PSA videos produced by the Consortium for School Networking (COSN) and the Pearson Foundation? “Changing to Learn, Learning to Change” delivers a clear message that education must rethink learning environments. The five-minute video, previewed in Singapore during the Pearson International 2008 Conference on Science & Mathematics hosted by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the Pearson Foundation, shares the views of an international panel of key educators and thought leaders. Together, their voices document the need for all educational stakeholders to develop contemporary classroom practices that incorporate technology to individualize and maximize student learning. “Empowering the 21st Century Superintendent” collects the voices of U.S. school superintendents on the integrated role of technology and education. The four- minute video presents superintendents' personal thoughts about their own roles as catalysts for 21st-century learning. They are each excellent—well done and thought-provoking. Since they are non-commercial in nature, they are useful tools for opening discussion on these important topics. Check these and other videos on the CoSN YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/CoSNLeader. I also understand there will be CDs available for those of you interested in having them at EdNET next month. 

I enjoyed visiting this week with the loved and respected David Thornburg, head of the Thornburg Center. Dave has started a new STEM venture to bring these needed skills to middle- and high-school students through an extracurricular program - the Thornburg Center for Space Exploration (http://www.tcse-k12.org). He has four schools in Illinois and is ready to expand nationwide. Because this project entails inquiry-driven project-based learning, as recommended in major STEM reports like Rising Above the Gathering Storm, his team provides extensive face-to-face staff development and ongoing support to the schools involved. In addition to this project, David still enjoys consulting for schools and education-related organizations and companies. He would love hearing from you directly at dthornburg@aol.com.

I wanted to send my personal congratulations to the EdNET Industry Awards finalists that were identified this week….

EdNET Impact Award, for positive impact on education

• Cambium Learning Technologies


• Key Curriculum Press


• Scientific Learning Corporation

EdNET Pioneer Award, for contributing to the growth of a portion of the education market

• Curriki


• MIND Research Institute


• SMART Technologies

EdNET Rookie of the Year Award, for the most promising start-up venture

• Anti-Defamation League a World of Difference Institute


• Saywire.com


• Sebit, LLC

I know from the judges’ input that this year’s submissions were of a very high quality and that the competition was extremely strong. Thanks to all who submitted nominations and special congratulations to these most worthy finalists. We will look forward to the EdNET Awards luncheon and announcement of the winners in Boston on September 16th.

LOOK WHO'S COMING TO EdNET!

The Snoop has been watching the EdNET online networking directory of registered conference attendees already planning to join us in September! In coming weeks, I will share with you some of the organizations with whom EdNET attendees will have the opportunity to connect. Or check the website to view the complete list (updated weekly) of those firms at http://www.qeddata.com/Conference/EdNet/YrCurrent/WhoShouldAttend.aspx. Wow – what an impressive list! 

Be sure you are registered to attend and that you have completed your own profile in the online password-protected directory of registrants so EdNET attendees can connect with you! It will be a great conference, I promise you! Remember too that to have your profile included in the printed directory for attendees onsite, you must complete it by MONDAY, AUGUST 18TH (I completed mine yesterday!) – once you have registered, use the password you receive to log in to the directory at https://www.qedconference.com/login.aspx. The online directory will continue to be accessible for searching and editing your own record throughout the year.

It is really hot here in Houston as we make it through the end of surviving the summer. But I know it is not just hot in my part of the country. I was speaking with our friend Geoff Fletcher, 1105 Media (gfletcher@1105media.com) this week, and he said they are facing 90 degree weather for the next few days in the Seattle area. I told him I bet he did not have air conditioning either. Well, he had to confess he did not know it till last year when he and wife Terry returned from a trip. The house sitter told them it got so hot, she had to turn on the air conditioning. Geoff said he told her they built the house so he knew they did not have an air conditioner. The house sitter proceeded to show how she turned the thermostat to cool, turned it on and that the house got cooler – if he didn’t want to call that air conditioning, she didn’t care. What a hoot! So Geoff will be staying cool through the heat in the northwest – I hope you are staying cool wherever you are! 

Have a terrific weekend, friends…Vicki, The Snoop

To comment on this story, login or create an account below.

• Existing Users
• 
  Your Email Address:
  
  
  Password:
  
  Forgot your password? click here.
  
  

• Create an Account
• 
  Creating an account is FREE and gives you
  access to all of the B2E News Alert articles.
  
  Click here to create an account.