She Snoops for Scoops: The Personal Side of the EdNET Community
She Snoops for Scoops: The Personal Side of the EdNET Community
Vicki Smith Bigham — Friday, June 15, 2012
Happy, happy weekend, friends! Did you know....today is Smile Power Day. So go ahead and give a big smile to everyone you encounter today. You just might make someone's day! Besides, didn't your mother tell you: A smile uses fewer muscles than a frown. Now, take a minute or two to smile about this week's scoops....
Ch-ch-ch-changes
The talented Rich Seidner, who previously headed up strategic business development for Microsoft's U.S. Education team, has taken on a new role as Director of Education Strategy for Desire2Learn. Rich will be focusing on the company's expanding presence in the K-12 education market and will be evaluating potential alliances and partnerships that support the company's continuing dramatic growth. Send Rich congratulations on his new position at Rich.Seidner@Desire2Learn.com.
Lloyd G. "Buzz" Waterhouse has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of McGraw-Hill Education, effective June 14th. With an exceptional record of leadership, substantial international credentials, significant experience in new technologies and education, and strong operational skills, Buzz will lead the world-class franchise built at McGraw-Hill Education. He brings a deep personal commitment to education and will help MHE focus on scalable digital solutions, educational services, and 1:1 personalized learning.
Buzz's appointment enhances the existing McGraw-Hill Education management team of talented educators and leaders dedicated to student learning, including: Pat Milano, executive vice president and chief financial officer/chief administrative officer; Dan Caton, president, McGraw-Hill School Education; Charlotte Frank, senior vice president, Research and Development; Talia Griep, president, MHE International; Ellen Haley, president, CTB; Brian Kibby, president, Higher Education; Vineet Madan, senior vice president, Strategic Services; Bruce Marcus, chief digital and information officer; Joe Micallef, senior vice president, Finance and Operations; Phil Ruppel, president, McGraw-Hill Professional; David Stafford, general counsel; and Maryellen Valaitis, senior vice president, Human Resources.
Buzz is the former Chief Executive Officer of Harcourt Education and had a distinguished 26-year career at IBM where he held a number of senior positions, including director of strategy, reporting to then CEO, Lou Gerstner. He was also the general manager of E-Business Services and president, Asia Pacific Services Corporation, focused on consulting, education and training. At E-Business Services, Buzz built the company from $1B to $2.9B in revenue, as the organization worked with global customers to solve their e-business needs. Previously, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Reynolds & Reynolds, a company primarily focused on software for the automotive industry. Currently, Buzz serves as a director for a number of companies, including SolarWinds, ITT Educational Services, and Ascend Learning. Buzz holds a bachelor's degree in Finance from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Youngstown State University. Please join me in welcoming Buzz to his new position!
Weld North LLC, an investment company founded by former Kaplan, Inc. CEO Jonathan Grayer in partnership with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) has announced Justin Serrano as Managing Director. With nearly 20 years of experience in the education industry, Justin will be responsible for identifying and managing investments in education, one of Weld North's core areas of concentration. He has held a range of senior management positions throughout his career and joins Weld North from Kaplan, Inc., where he was most recently President of Kaplan K12 and College Prep Programs at Kaplan Test Prep. Justin has deep experience in the K-12 education space, having spent his career to date at Kaplan working with K-12 students and schools, providing state test readiness programs, and college preparation solutions. As President of Kaplan K-12 and College Prep, he was responsible for having driven a new SAT/ACT strategy that propelled Kaplan to the leading market position in 2010. He also spearheaded the development of Kaplan's Smart TrackTM, an adaptive software platform that analyzes individual student performance and prescribes custom learning plans. Previously, he was President of SCORE! Educational Centers, a subsidiary of Kaplan, where he led the development of groundbreaking software that enabled a completely integrated blended learning model featuring adaptive online instruction, automated teacher lesson plans, and real time parent reporting. Prior to his management role at SCORE!, he oversaw Kaplan Test Prep's graduate business where he led the integration of official test maker content into Kaplan's courses. Congratulations to Justin on his new role!
YogiPlay, a personalized mobile learning recommendation engine designed specifically for children, is pleased to announce the appointment of kids media industry expert Scott Traylor, Chief KID, 360KID, as company advisor. In his role as advisor, Scott will provide strategic council related to product innovation, strategic partnerships, and distribution. Scott defines the vision behind the Boston-based digital consulting firm known as 360KID. This youth-focused technology company specializes in product ideation, market testing, and product development as a service to companies interested in engaging kids through interactive media in the consumer marketplace as well as in the classroom. In the early days of 360KID, he was a computer science instructor for 12 years at Harvard University's Extension School, teaching graduate students how best to develop interactive learning products for children. He started the 360KID business over 21 years ago with his spouse, Diana Traylor, who is also a teacher. Together they decided to create the future of interactive learning at a time when the technology was first being considered as a means to deliver educational content. Scott sits on the Board of Directors for The Association of Educational Publishers and is a Board of Trustees member of a summer school/summer enrichment program called Exploration Science for 3rd through 12th graders on the campuses of Yale University, Wellesley College, and St. Marks School in Southborough, MA. He also advises a small number of venture-backed online learning startups and virtual worlds in the K-12 space. Join me in congratulating Scott on his new appointment at YogiPlay at scott@360kid.com.
MOUSE has a lot of news! MOUSE wishes all the best to the departing members of its team and looks forward to keeping in touch as they continue to pursue exciting new opportunities.
Its longest serving board member, Luyen Chou, will complete his tenure on the MOUSE Board of Directors. Luyen has been connected to MOUSE since the days of its founding and has made many valuable contributions through the years.
Michael Rockefeller, Secretary, MOUSE Board of Directors, has served on the Board since 2000 and has also been an incredible asset to the organization.
MOUSE congratulates Krizia Sapida on her recent marriage and move to Barcelona with her new husband while he pursues his business degree.
Samantha Brody will also be leaving MOUSE to pursue her MBA at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business where she will continue to pursue her passion for public service by taking advantage of the resources available at the Duke Center for Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship.
As MOUSE says goodbye to some members of the MOUSE team, it extends a warm welcome to Max Kenned, who has joined MOUSE as Operations Coordinator. In this role he reports to the Executive Director and supports MOUSE's administrative, communications, and development needs. Before joining MOUSE, Max served as Administrative Assistant at the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York (NPCC), an umbrella organization of more than 1,500 nonprofits in the New York City area. Max was also a research assistant at PES Group where he helped to create an online database of community action programs nationwide. While earning his bachelor's degree at New York University, Max served as International Program Assistant at NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He lives in Brooklyn where he pursues his love of animals, music, and homemade ice cream.
All the best to these outgoing and incoming MOUSE team members!
GuideK12, the only geovisual analytics company serving the education market, has announced our friend Chuck Amos as the new CEO for the organization. The company's geovisual analytics software enables school district administrators to instantly visualize information spatially and make faster, more insightful decisions - from boundary analysis and policy changes to resource planning and forecasting enrollments. Chuck is a proven industry executive with over 20 years of success in driving growth and creating new opportunities for companies in the educational technology marketplace. For many years he has been an independent consultant with educational technology companies globally, including GuideK12. Prior to consulting, Chuck served as the CEO of Atomic Learning. Under his leadership, the company grew to become the world's leading provider of web-based software training serving schools globally. Before joining Atomic Learning, he worked as the Central U.S. education regional manager for Apple Computer. Chuck is known in the education marketplace as having a high degree of "leadership agility" and, as a result, his vision for the future of GuideK12 is innovative, purposeful, and compelling. Throughout Chuck's career he has been involved in creating a variety of programs serving the needs of education including statewide implementations of programs; professional development offerings; school networking; technology planning and implementation; and education technology initiatives at the local, state and national level. He has also been actively involved in national education policy with organizations including ISTE, CoSN, SIIA, SETDA, and others. Join me in congratulating Chuck on his new position at chuck@guidek12.com.
Kudos!
The Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) presented its prestigious Member of the Year Award for 2012 to Victory Productions, Inc. during the recent Content in Context Conference. Victoria Porras, President and CEO, accepted the award. Victoria serves on the AEP board and is an advocate for the organization. She has a strong interest in forwarding the goals of AEP's diversity initiative and takes an active part in committee meetings. Victory Productions designed a logo for Innovation Through Inclusion (ITI) and originated the concept of Viewpoints, a page of the ITI website featuring outstanding members of the educational publishing industry who draw upon their diverse backgrounds to enrich the work they do. Please join me in congratulating her and her team on this much-deserved honor at victoria.porras@victoryprd.com.
More updates on friends....
If you read last week's scoops—and I sure hope you did!—you saw my closing comment that I consider you all friends and hope to continue to get your personal and professional news! I had a lot of nice notes about that. One in particular made me smile:
Susan Graham, Director of School Relations, AcademicMerit, LLC, wrote me the nicest message, saying that once again, she had to laugh when she read the week's scoops and especially my last paragraph about friendship in this industry. She pointed out that though she has perhaps met me only once in the last eighteen years, she does enjoy a weekly "coffee break" with me as she reads over the scoops. I love that! And let me share some of Susan's news....
Professionally and personally, her life sounds fantastic! She is celebrating a year at AcademicMerit during which time (from 2011 - now) the company has earned a 2011 CODiE award and 2012 EdTech Digest Cool Tool Award—all for their Professional Development Solution and Assessment Solution. Working with schools from Maine to New Jersey to California, it's been a whirlwind of a year for her. She has been so busy, she has not taken any personal time during this year but has one week she is taking in August. She'll be getting married in August to her long-time love. They are having a small family-only celebration on Popham Beach (which she adds is the most beautiful beach in Maine where much of the movie "Message in a Bottle" was filmed). Susan said she has managed to blow through the "Bride's Checklist" of items usually executed between 3-12 months out in 3 weeks (Do you think she should reconsider a career as a wedding planner?)! Their wedding party will be in the spirit of their love of the children in their lives. Her 14-year-old niece will be her maid of honor, and her 8-year-old step-daughter-to-be will be her bridesmaid. Her fiancé's 10-year-old son will be his best man and her 11-year-old nephew, his groomsman. They are looking forward to quite a party! Join me in wishing Susan all the best on her joyful news at sgraham@academicmerit.com.
Ken Kay, Chief Executive Officer, EdLeader21, dropped me a note to say that he and Valerie Greenhill, Chief Learning Officer, are excited about their new book, "The Leader's Guide to 21st Century Education: 7 Steps for Schools and Districts", which has just been published by Pearson. The book is available from Amazon, and Ken promises it will make very good summer reading for our friends in the industry as well as leaders in K-12 education. Go pick up a copy for yourself! Ken also shared that EdLeader21 now has 91 schools and districts from 30 states as members of its professional learning community for leaders—great progress! Send best wishes and continued success with their important work to Ken and Valerie at KKay@EdLeader21.com.
And Warren Miller, Vice President, Sales, at Penda Learning, also dropped me a nice note and, knowing how much I love pictures, included one of his three "babies"—19, 17, and 14. His three teenage daughters are beautiful! Look for Warren at ISTE or drop him a note now at wmiller@pendalearning.com.
Don't you dare miss out on EdNET savings—act now!
Be reminded that there is just one week left to take advantage of the EdNET 2012 early-earlybird discount. June 22nd is the deadline! Register now to save $500 with the early-earlybird rates or save an extra $100 with multiple registrations. You know you want to be in Baltimore September 30th-October 2nd for the not-to-be-missed program and networking opportunities. And it will make me smile to see you there! Come on, make the Snoop smile!
That's the scoops for this week, friends! Daughter Amanda and I plan a garage sale tomorrow and hope to clear out a lot of stuff! There will be a family get-together on Sunday to celebrate Father's Day for George and our son-in-law Patrick, my mother's 86th birthday and also Patrick's birthday! This will be my first Father's Day since we lost my dad, and we will miss and remember him, but we have many blessings to celebrate. This weekend, as we take time to celebrate fathers, I am wishing a happy Father's Day to all of you fathers out there. Some of you are blessed by fathers still with you, some are blessed to be fathers (or maybe fathers to be), and some, like me, cherish memories of fathers no longer with us, but we all stop to give thanks for our fathers and those who have been like fathers to us. Make yours a special weekend, everyone, and remember to smile! Till next week...Vicki, the Snoop
