Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 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 York 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.co.uk.
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 Companies House UK, 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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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 & CEO of DonorsChoose
Charles Best is the Founder & CEO at DonorsChoose.
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About DonorsChoose: DonorsChoose is a nonprofit classroom funding site for public school teachers.
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.
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
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.
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.
Zachary Sims
Co-Founder & CEO of Codecademy
Zach is the cofounder and CEO of Codecademy, the easiest way to learn to code. Since the company started in August of 2011, millions of people have begun learning to program using the site.Codecademy has worked with organizations like The White House, the Government of Colombia, American Express, Rakuten, and more. Zach and his cofounder Ryan have grown Codecademy to 18 full time employees in New York and have raised $12.5m in venture capital financing from top tier investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures, Yuri Milner, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, SV Angel, Richard Branson, Y Combinator, and more. Prior to founding Codecademy, Zach was a student at Columbia University. He has worked in product and business development/strategy capacities at startups including GroupMe (sold to Skype) and drop.io (sold to Facebook). He also has experience in the venture capital industry with AOL Ventures, the venture capital arm of AOL. Zach and Codecademy have been honored by many publications. TIME Magazine called Codecademy one of the “50 Best Websites of 2012,” while TechCrunch awarded Codecademy the “Best Education Startup” Crunchie Award in 2013. Zach has been named to Inc. Magazine’s 30 Under 30 list, along with Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 list. The City of New York named him a New York City Venture Fellow in 2013.
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About Bowery Capital, Codecademy: Codecademy provides an online learning platform that teaches employable digital skills.
Ryan Bubinski
Co-Founder of Codecademy
Ryan and Zach have been working together on Codecademy since 2011, back when they were students at Columbia.He started building web applications at age 13 and hasn’t stopped since, except for an occasional break to practice cooking or spend time with team members and friends.
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About Codecademy: Codecademy provides an online learning platform that teaches employable digital skills.
William McClelland
Co-Founder & Partner of Elizabeth Street Ventures
Co-founder & Partner at Elizabeth Street Ventures, an early stage investment firm focused on the digital consumer and next generation brands Co-founder of Bambike, a bamboo bicycle manufacturer and tour operator with an environmental & social mission based in the Philippines Prior to founding Elizabeth Street, I was a Partner at Grace Beauty Capital, a Managing Director/Portfolio Manager at Ironwood Capital Management and a Tech-Investment Banking Analyst at Lehman Brothers Investor @ Bambike, Birchbox, Costa Brazil, Current, Eloquii, Events.com, Glamsquad, High Court, MM. LaFleur, Parachute Home, Perch Interactive, Pixlee, Primary.com, Ringly, Rothy’s, SKU IQ, Sourceeasy, Supergoop!, ThirdLove, Trendalytics, Vengo. Graduated from Yale University with a BA double major in Economics and Anthropology.
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About Elizabeth Street Ventures: We are an early stage investment firm focused on the digital consumer and next generation brands that improve daily life
Jonathan Ende
Founder of TEDx Wall Street
Jonathan Ende is Founder & CEO at BorrowersFirst.He is also Founder at TEDx Wall Street.
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About TEDx Wall Street: TEDx is part of a revolution in global education made possible by local organizers wanting to engage their communities.
Gayle Jennings O’Byrne
Founder and CEO of iNTENT Manifesto
20+ years of finance, investment banking, philanthropy and lobbying experience. Previously, executive positions in Mergers and Acquisitions, Global Philanthropy, International Government Relations at JPMorgan Chase. Media Manager at Sun Microsystems. Developed and managed investment strategy and corporate relationships. Enjoys valuation, modeling, due diligence and championing founders and startups. Graduate of Wharton School of Business and the University of Michigan School of Business. Attended National University of Singapore and City of London Polytechnic. Conducted academic consulting project in Israel.
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About iNTENT Manifesto, The Prometheus Exchange, WOCstar Fund: iNTENT Manifesto IS an educational and investment platform.
Lalit Ahuja
Founder of Ansrsource
Prior to co-founding ansrgroup in 2003, Lalit served as the CEO of several companies including Datamatics, LG, News Corporation (Star TV) and NDS Ltd. He also held posts as the CEO and chairman of Target Corporation India.
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About ANSR Consulting, Ansrsource, Kyron Global Accelerator, X-10 by ANSR: Multidisciplinary content & project development for higher education & professional training institutes
Byron Hsu
Co-Founder, President, CTO of Paragon One
Founder at Paragon One.
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About Founders Pledge, Paragon One: Paragon One turns company work into scalable remote externships that help students gain hands-on work experience in different industries.
Eric Shoykhet
Founder & CEO of Atom Finance
Eric Shoykhet is the founder and CEO of Atom Finance.
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About Atom Finance: Atom is the modern financial knowledge platform. Our mission is to democratize access to high-quality investment research resources.
Jim Riley
CEO and Co-Founder of tutor2u
Jim Riley is CEO and co-founder of tutor2u, the Exam Performance Specialists. tutor2u was founded with just £2,000 of capital and has never had to raise finance since. It now serves over 2 million website users per month and sells to schools and students in over 100 countries. At the heart of tutor2u’s success has been extensive investment in a powerful web platform supported by innovative use of social media to build user and customer engagement. With many lessons learned along the way, Jim is ideally suited to share his insights with anyone who wants to use social media more effectively to build business revenues and value
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About tutor2u: UK-based educational publishing and training company serving over 25 million user sessions each year.
Jacqueline Novogratz
Founder & CEO of Acumen
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About Acumen: Acumen is a non-profit venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty.
Charles Bonello
Co-Founder, CEO of Vivvi
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About RTP Ventures, Vivvi: Vivvi provides child care and early learning services for families and tools for recruitment, retention, and productivity to employers.
Ben Newton
COO and Co-Founder of Vivvi
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About Vivvi: Vivvi provides child care and early learning services for families and tools for recruitment, retention, and productivity to employers.
Beri Meric
Founder & CEO of IVY
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About IVY: IVY is a Social University that provides a lifetime of new experiences, friendships, and inspiration.
Mary Miele
Founder and CEO of The Evolved Education Company
Mary E. Miele is the founder and president of The Evolved Education Company (EEC), an innovative private tutoring and education consulting service that focuses on the total education process and prioritizes the complete assessment of all aspects of the student’s Evolved Education Paradigm, which involves examining each student’s academic history, learning style, school and home environment and social, emotional, and physical development to ensure the very best possible school support. As an educator, parent, consultant, tutor, and activist, Mary Miele is involved in every aspect of the New York City educational system, both public and private sectors. Since 1998, she has taught students in areas of math, reading and writing. Mary Miele supervises special education residents at Hunter College and maintains a vast network of business-to business relationships with like-minded companies and educators. Currently as president of EEC, Mary Miele works closely with teachers and specialists to support them in their roles with families while also working with many students, families and schools within executive function coaching, education consulting and test preparation programming. Mary Miele’s passion lies in the behind-the-scenes work that parents and educators do with children to ensure academic, emotional, social and physical health and success, and as such, she also works closely with parents, helping them to support their children’s education. Mary Miele is the author of Supporting School: A Guidebook for Parents and Educators. She holds a BS and MA from New York University Steinhardt School of Education and is a certified K-12 Special Education Teacher and Reading Specialist in New York State and New York City. She is a recipient of a Curriculum Grant Award from The Spence School, an Impact II Grant Award as well as a speaker at The NYU Women’s Initiative, NYC Admissions Solutions, Theraplay NYC, and various NYC Parent Associations.
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About The Evolved Education Company: Provides tutoring and education consulting services for students in PreK through College using a whole child approach.
Neal Shenoy
Co-Founder & CEO of BEGiN
Neal Shenoy is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at BEGiN. Neal manages BEGiN’s purpose and vision, sets its strategy and execution plan, recruits talent and manages strategic relationships with investors and partners. Neal has built a team with deep industry expertise across organizations such as Nickelodeon, PBS Kids, Scholastic, Barnes & Noble, Pearson and Mattel.He has helped guide BEGiN to be one of the largest, fastest growing and most promising platforms for early childhood literacy and language learning, earning recognition from the Aspen Institute, American Library Association, Education World and National Education Association. Neal is also a Co-Founder of SAAVN, the largest streaming service for South Asian music in the world, and a Founding Partner at [212]MEDIA, which builds consumer media ventures in fragmented markets alongside major media companies. Prior to [212]MEDIA, Neal was Co-Founder and President of Simile, a contextual advertising platform in media and publishing. With a B.S.F.S. in International Relations from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University Neal began his career as an Investment Banker in an upstart unit of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette that advised media & telecom companies.
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About [212]Media, BEGiN, HOMER, Speakaboos: BEGiN is an award-winning company offering best-in-class solutions across digital, physical, and experiential learning to kids globally.
Keegan Walden
Co-Founder & COO of Torch
Dr. Keegan Walden is the Co-founder and COO of Torch. In this capacity, he leads a product team focused on building software that uses ongoing feedback and analytics to help leaders recognize and overcome their challenges. He also coaches a select group of C-suite leaders at high-growth startups. Prior to co-founding Torch, Keegan led the outcomes research team at a national provider of behavioral health services (5,000 clients per year), where he studied the role that personality, mindfulness, and psychotherapy play in improving wellbeing over time. Before becoming a psychologist, Keegan spent 11-years in UX design, creating interfaces for complex financial applications. Keegan has served on the faculty of the Department of Psychology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His research has been published in Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience the International Journal of Psychophysiology, among other peer-reviewed journals. He has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University.
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About Torch: Torch is a leadership development platform that provides coaching, software, and feedback to raise performers to the next level.
Chok Ooi
Co-Founder & CEO of Kenzie Academy
Board Member of Concourse Global. Co-Founder and CEO at Kenzie Academy.
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About AgilityIO, Kenzie Academy, Ops Ninja: Kenzie Academy provides a solution to the dramatic shortage of tech talent in the U.S., by reimagining higher education for the tech sector.
Avraham Kadar
Founder & Executive Chairman of the Board of BrainPOP
Avraham Kadar is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the Board at BrainPOP.
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About BrainPOP, Dynamix.tv: BrainPOP is a digital educational content creator that supports teachers and engages students.
Nicole Neal
Co-Founder & CEO of Noodle Markets
Nicole is a visionary leader and pioneer at building transformative educational products. As the CEO of Noodle Markets, she leads the company in its mission to enhance efficiency and transparency within the education landscape by revolutionizing K-12 purchasing. Prior to joining the company, Nicole was the President of the Education Solutions Group at CORE Education Consulting and Solutions, Inc., where she oversaw a staff of 300 employees and managed a portfolio of formative assessment, intervention, and content solutions for districts and states serving the Pre-K, K-12, Employability, Special Education and Higher Education sectors. Nicole also served as the Senior Vice President of Major Accounts and State Services for Pearson Education Inc., one of the world’s largest education publishing and technology companies. Prior to Pearson, she served as Senior Vice President of Client Services for Schoolnet, Inc. Nicole holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Binghamton University’s Watson School of Engineering and an MBA from the University of Maryland University College. When she is not working, Nicole finds great joy in mentoring young girls and spending quality time with her family and friends
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About Noodle Markets: Noodle Markets is K-12’s first digital procurement platform and national marketplace.
Justin Serrano
Founder & CEO of Littera Education
Justin Serrano is the former President of Kaplan’s K12 and College Prep division which provides state test readiness programs and college preparation solutions. As President of Kaplan K-12 and College Prep, Serrano 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 Track™, an adaptive software platform which analyzes individual student performance and prescribes custom learning plans. Previously, he was President of SCORE! Educational Centers, a subsidiary of Kaplan, where he created groundbreaking software that enabled a completely integrated offline/online tutoring model featuring adaptive online instruction, automated teacher lesson plans, and real time parent reporting. Prior to his management role at SCORE!, Serrano oversaw Kaplan Test Prep’s graduate business where he led the integration of official test maker content into Kaplan’s courses. Justin graduated with a B.S. From Cornell University and an M.B.A. From Harvard Business School. He now serves on the board of CFY (formerly Computers for Youth), a non-profit dedicated to bringing technology into low income households in order to help close the achievement gap.
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About Littera Education: Littera Education is an education platform that offers online tutoring to students.
Justin Wenig
Co-Founder & CEO of Coursedog
Justin Wenig is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Coursedog.
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About Coursedog: Coursedog builds software that powers Higher Education.
Nicholas Diao
CTO & Co-Founder of Coursedog
Nicholas Diao is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at Coursedog.
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About Coursedog: Coursedog builds software that powers Higher Education.
Andrew Weinreich
Founder of Andrew’s Roadmaps
Andrew Weinreich is a serial entrepreneur, social networking pioneer, and active presence in NYC’s Silicon Alley for 2 decades. To date, he’s founded 7 tech startups and has been awarded 2 software patents. With his newest company, Andrew’s Roadmaps, he seeks to use his extensive experience of building businesses to provide an unparalleled educational launch pad for Internet entrepreneurs. Within the past year, he has sold 2 businesses, including Xtify to IBM in October 2013, while advising 5 tech startups. He is also currently the co-founder and chairman of Indicative, a data analytics startup.
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About Andrew’s Roadmaps, Habio, Indicative: The premier educational launchpad for early-stage startup founders led by NYC serial entrepreneur Andrew Weinreich.
Dan Cogan-Drew
Co-Founder & Chief Academic Officer of Newsela
Dan brings twenty-plus years of professional experience spent working towards a more perfect union of teaching, learning and technology. Most recently, Dan was the founding Director of Digital Learning at Achievement First Public Charter Schools, where he spearheaded the integration of digital learning technologies across twenty-two schools, including flipped classrooms, mobile learning, and 1:1 computing. He was also a founding member of the Gates Foundation Next Generation Community of Practice, traveling the country to visit sites of innovation and reviewing dozens of software products across K–12 math and literacy. Prior to this, Dan was Director of Programs at the Connecticut Career Choices Program, where he developed blended high school STEM programs and co-authored one of the highest rated applications to the Race to the Top I3 grant program. Before that he taught and developed federally funded professional development programs in the Graduate Department of Education at Tufts University. Dan also rode the dot-com boom as a content producer at Fact City, a search engine startup. He began his education career in Teach for America in Wrightsville, GA, and went on to teach in public and private schools, as well as in the US Navy. He holds a B.A. in English and Spanish from Wesleyan University, an M.A. in English Literature from Brown University, and an M.A. in Educational Studies from Tufts University. Dan is a longtime youth and college coach and two-time world champion ultimate Frisbee player (1999 and 2000) with the legendary Boston club team Death or Glory. He and his wife are raising two Newsela readers in Maplewood, New Jersey.
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About Newsela: Newsela is an Ed-tech startup that takes content from trusted providers and turns it into learning materials.
Matthew Gross
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Newsela
Matthew Gross has a nineteen-year career in the education sector, for-profit and nonprofit entrepreneurship, and product development and distribution. Matthew was Executive Director of the Regents Research Fund, a privately funded affiliate of the New York State Board of Regents and Education Department that helped lead the implementation of Race to the Top–driven education reforms. Reporting to Education Commissioner John King, Jr, Matthew oversaw the organization’s growth strategy, public–private partnerships, talent acquisition, and day-to-day operations. While at the Fund, Matthew led the development of EngageNY.org, a web application providing teachers and administrators with resources for implementation of Common Core state standards and teacher and principal evaluations. Since its August 2011 launch, the site has been viewed over fourteen million times by educators in all fifty states. Matthew played a leadership role in the development of the Regents Research Fellows, a team of nationally recognized thought leaders who help lead the implementation of the Common Core, next-generation assessments, and other education reforms spurred by Race to the Top. Under Matthew’s purview, the Fund raised over $9 million in support from many of the nation’s most respected education funders including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and the Robin Hood Foundation. Prior to joining the Fund, Matthew was Vice President of Planning & Resource Development at Pencil, a national leader in building private-sector partnerships with public schools that improve student achievement. He led a wide array of initiatives at Pencil, including the development of the Pencil Exchange, a social media and relationship-management application for business–school partnerships now used in over 400 schools nationwide. Earlier, Matthew spent several years managing entrepreneurial ventures, including as co- founder and President of out-of-home media company Submedia, which secured over $6 million in venture investment, $2 million in annual bookings, contracts with multiple government agencies, and licensing agreements in Europe and East Asia. Matthew co-holds two patents for Submedia’s technology. Matthew began his career as a Teach for America corps member, teaching music at C.S. 50 in the South Bronx. He serves on the School Leadership Team of P.S. 101 in Queens, which his three boys attend. He holds a B.A. from Columbia University.
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About Newsela: Newsela is an Ed-tech startup that takes content from trusted providers and turns it into learning materials.
David Klein
Co-Founder & CEO of CommonBond
David is the CEO and Co-Founder of CommonBond, a leading marketplace lender that lowers the cost of student loans for borrowers and provides financial returns to investors. David is responsible for setting strategy on creating a superior borrower experience. Prior to CommonBond, David worked in consumer finance at American Express, as Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development. David started his professional career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. David graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in Politics, Economics and International Business, and attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About CommonBond: CommonBond was founded in 2012 to help relieve the student loan burden, and since then we’ve funded over $4 billion in better loans.
Christopher Grewe
CEO & Founder of American Prison Data Systems
Chris is an entrepreneur with a passionate belief in the power of education to change lives for the better. Chris has more than 25 years of experience leading start-up, turnaround, and mature educational publishing businesses to substantial revenue growth and profitability. He co-founded and was CEO of the Princeton Review in Japan, and has worked since in senior business development and publishing roles at Scholastic, Kids Discover, Triumph Learning, Troll Communications, and MetaMetrics.
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About American Prison Data Systems: American Prison Data Systems utilizes advances in edtech to help make quality education more accessible to incarcerated learners.
Harry Aurora
Founder & CEO of iTutor.com
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About iTutor.com: iTutor offers schools and education institutions cloud-based technology solutions to support teachers and advance student learning.
Nat Ware
Founder & CEO of Forte
Dr. Nat Ware is an award-winning entrepreneur, economist and speaker. At 16, he raised $100,000 to rebuild a school in Mozambique and an orphanage in Thailand. At 19, he founded 180 Degrees Consulting and built it into the world’s largest consultancy for non-profits and social enterprises, with over 120 branches across 35 countries and over 4 million hours of consulting services provided (www.180dc.org). At 21, he taught a postgraduate course on Innovation, Strategy and Global Business. At 25, he did a PhD at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship where he invented a new way to finance education (Tradable Income-Based Securities, or TIBS), as well as new ways to measure poverty, social impact, and government performance. Due to these inventions, which use economic approaches to redesign human systems to improve social outcomes, Nat has been called “the father of social impact economics.” He is a Visiting Fellow at Princeton, Forbes 30 Under 30 list-maker, Australian State Young Achiever of the Year, Asia21 Fellow, Goldman Sachs Global Leader, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, winner of the Oxford Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Award, received the highest scoring speech at the World Debating Championships, and is only-ever Two-Time Global Winner of the St Gallen Wings of Excellence Award. He received ‘No Corrections’ for his Oxford PhD, the Saïd Prize for Top Oxford MBA Student, the Arthur Lewis Prize for Best Performance in Development Economics at Oxford, The University Medal for Top Economics/Business Student at Sydney University, and the Convocation Medal for Best All-Rounder at Sydney University (1/33,000 students). He has also swum the English Channel with friends to raise money for charity, completed a full Ironman triathlon, and given three TEDx talks on that have been viewed over a million times. Nat is currently the Founder/CEO of Forte, an innovative way to finance education at scale at no cost to individuals or governments.
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About 180 Degrees Consulting, Forte: There is a way to finance education and healthcare at no cost to individuals, governments or donors. That way is Forte.
Charlie Javice
Founder & CEO of Frank Financial Aid
Charlie Javice is the founder and CEO of Frank.
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About Frank Financial Aid: Frank is a financial platform that helps college students manage their financial aid and student debt.
Solomon Liou
Co-Founder & CEO of KidPass
Solomon is the co-founder and CEO at KidPass. Solomon is a serial entrepreneur with a background in product, design, and growth. Solomon started KidPass with a group of friends who came from the tech industry, and saw a need as parents to create a better way to discover kids activities.
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About KidPass: KidPass is the new way for parents to discover and book amazing kids activities.
Madjid Salimi
Co-CEO & Co-Founder of AMBOSS
Dr. med. Madjid Salimi is a licensed physician, software engineer and serial entrepreneur. While studying computer science and economics at the University of Cologne, he co-founded and served as managing director of Netempire AG and also co-founded TomPower GmbH und Unit Parktech AG. While retaining his seat on the advisory board of Netempire, he then went on to study Medicine at the Universities of Göttingen, Hamburg and La Sapienza in Rome where he went on to earn his doctorate in medical education. With the additional accreditation of an entrepreneurship development program at M.I.T., Cambridge, USA, Madjid was set on the path to co-founding MIAMED GmbH where he currently serves as Co-CEO and Head of Product Development. Madjid completed his clinical rotations in Surgery at the University of Buenos Aires and Radiology at Mount Sinai (New York) and UCSF (San Francisco) and also spent parts of his education in Brazil, Italy and South Africa. Madjid is also a keen lacrosse player and went on to represent the German national side for several years before also coaching the Italian national team.
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About AMBOSS: Improving healthcare by making medical knowledge universally accessible.
Rahul Siddharth
COO Co-Founder, Board of Verifcient Technologies
Rahul Siddharth is the Chief Marketing Officer of Verificient Technologies. As CMO, Rahul is responsible for the overall branding and marketing strategy, while also supporting our business development efforts. His background experiences in creative consulting, print design, emarketing, web 2.0 strategies, multimedia design, motion graphics, rich-media design, photography, digital video production, advertising, copywriting, marketing, art directing, and project management. Rahul has won seventeen Creative Excellence Awards while working at SCG Creative, Grey Advertising, Bernard Hodes Group (Omnicom), Jack Morton Worldwide (IPG), Zoecom, RSVPdesign, Bayard Advertising and One Source. He has an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design and a BS in Marketing from Fairfield University.
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About Alignkraft, Proctortrack Pro, RemoteDesk- Employee Monitoring Software, Siddharth Creative Group, Verifcient Technologies: Trusted Identity-as-a-Service (TIaaS), platform for identity verification and authentication.
Alexandra Bonetti
Founder & CEO of TalentHack
Alexandra Bonetti is the Founder and CEO at TalentHack.
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About TalentHack: TalentHack is a health platform that connects directly with the fitness professionals and industry.
Cooper Jones
Co-Founder & CEO of Rah Rah
Founder & CEO of Rah Rah Health
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About Rah Rah: Rah Rah is a SaaS platform that helps higher-education campus communities gain access to resources, groups, and events.
Dan Sutera
Co-Founder & President of Impact Network
Dan is a six-time entrepreneur who has taken two tech startups from inception to the ranks of the Inc. 500, founding ShareFile and serving as VP of Product at Yext. Other ventures include Impact Network a non-profit that runs 10 e-learning schools in rural Africa and Impact Enterprises, the first BPO outsourcing company in Zambia.
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About Impact Network, Parallel Markets: Impact Nethey created Impact Network, and began building more schools in rural Zambia to bring educational access to out-of-school children.
Kathryn Cartini
Co-Founder & Partner of Chloe Capital
Kathryn Cartini is the Co-Founder & Partner at Chloe Capital.
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About Chloe Capital, Peacock Media, Republic, Upstate Venture Connect: Chloe Capital is a seed stage VC firm investing in women-led innovation companies across North America.
Nick Hammerschlag
Founder of Martellus Education
Nick Hammerschlag focuses on investments in the Internet and Technology sector. He joined General Atlantic’s New York office in 2013. Previously, Nick worked for OpenView Venture Partners as a Vice President, where he served as a member of the firm’s investment committee and focused on investments in enterprise software. While at OpenView, Nick served as Board Observer of Instructure and Monetate and was closely involved with the firm’s investment in Mashery (acquired by Intel). Nick began his career as an analyst in the Financial Restructuring Group of Houlihan Lokey. Nick earned a B.A. in History from Columbia College.
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About Martellus Education: Martellus Education provides long-term managed services and solutions helping colleges and universities reduce their costs of operations.
Craig Schlanger
Co-Founder of Apple Seeds
Craig grew up in Oceanside, New York and has lived in NYC since 1993. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Craig pursued an equity trading position at Spear Leeds & Kellogg and by 1998 was co-managing the new issue trading department on the NASDAQ desk. In 2002, after Spear Leeds & Kellogg merged with Goldman Sachs, Craig was one of the first to transition onto Goldman’s trading desk in their Biotechnology/Healthcare sector. In 2005, shortly after his sons Sam and Ari were born, Craig left Goldman to eventually take on his current project — apple seeds.
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About Apple Seeds: Apple Seeds operates all-in-one indoor play spaces for families with newborn babies to five-year-olds.
Jose Ferreira
Founder of Knewton
Jose Ferreira is the founder of Knewton and serves on the board. Jose earned his MBA from Harvard. He was formerly an executive at Kaplan, a strategist for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, and most recently, a partner at New Atlantic Ventures (formerly Draper Atlantic), investing in new media and SaaS companies. He currently serves on the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Education & Skills, as well as the advisory boards for Laureate International Universities, Cambridge University Press, and the ASU/GSV Education Innovation Summit.
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About Bakpax, Knewton: Knewton is an adaptive learning technology provider with a mission to bring personalized education to the world.
Spencer Fry
Founder & CEO of Podia
Spencer Fry is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Podia.
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About Podia: Podia is an operator of an online storefront for online courses and digital products.
Nicole Bishop
Founder & CEO of Quartolio
Nicole Bishop is the Founder and CEO of Quartolio.
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About Quartolio: AI-powered platform that accelerates research by connecting the dots across scholarly documents, data, and discussions
Tim Trinidad
Founder, CTO of Schoology
Tim is the Co-Founder of Schoology Inc. and serves as its Chief Technology Officer and Lead Architect. He is responsible for the architecture of the Schoology application as well as the design and scalability of the back-end infrastructure.
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About New York CTO Club, Schoology: Schoology provides a user-centric learning management system that makes it easy to create and share academic content.
Adam Lovallo
Co-Founder of Course Report
Adam is the former head of user acquisition for LivingSocial and LivingSocial’s first intern. He loves dessert but hates the desert.
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About Course Report, MAU Vegas, Thesis Testing: Helping you research the best coding bootcamps
Liz Eggleston
Co-Founder, Editor of Course Report
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About Course Report: Helping you research the best coding bootcamps
Malik Magdon-Ismail
Co-Founder and President of CollegeAI, Inc.
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About CollegeAI, Inc., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: A college recommendation engine that makes college research fast and simple.
Adam Enbar
Co-Founder & CEO of Flatiron School
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About Flatiron School, Flatiron School: The Flatiron School trains highly motivated individuals in web application development. They teach best practices in Ruby, Rails,
Lukas Lampe
Co-Founder of POM – The Peace of Mind Company
Lukas is the Chief Technologist for POMCO. He drives all aspects of product development from design to engineering to production. Lukas also coordinates manufacturing supply chain initiatives and partnerships. He brings prior experience consulting in IT and Strategy projects for startups and Fortune 500 companies. Lukas earned his BA in Computer Science and Business from KIT (Germany) and MBA from Union Graduate College.
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About POM – The Peace of Mind Company: POM Partners provides life and workforce safety solutions through it’s real time security console.
Fredrik Marø
Founder & CEO of Firsthand
Fredrik Marø is the Founder & CEO at Firsthand
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About Firsthand: The #1 Alumni Engagement and Mentoring Platform
Meredith Whittaker
Co-Founder and Co-Director of AI Now Institute
Meredith Whittaker is a Distinguished Research Scientist at New York University, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the AI Now Institute and the Founder of Google’s Open Research group. She has over a decade of experience working in industry, leading product and engineering teams. She co-founded M-Lab, a globally distributed network measurement system that provides the world’s largest source of open data on internet performance. M-Lab provides one of the primary resources for policy makers and researchers investigating issues of net neutrality and network performance. She has worked extensively on issues of privacy and security, advising on both policy direction and technical implementation. She co-founded Simply Secure, helped build and currently advises the Open Technology Fund and led work to strengthen the security of critical internet infrastructure. She has advised the White House, the F.C.C., the City of New York, the European Parliament, and many other governments and civil society organizations on artificial intelligence, internet policy, measurement, privacy and security. She is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the AI Now Institute at N.Y.U., which is a leading university institute dedicated to researching the social implications of artificial intelligence and related technologies in an interdisciplinary context.
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About AI Now Institute: AI Now Institute is a research institute examining the social implications of artificial intelligence.
Taha Bawa
CEO and Co-Founder of Goodwall
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About Goodwall: Goodwall is a social development platform for young people to connect over shared interests and discover opportunities.
Jason Olim
Co-Founder & CTO of ClassTag
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About ClassTag, JustFamily: ClassTag is a parent-teacher communication platform that allows teachers and parents to easily engage with one-another and share resources.
Vlada Lotkina
CEO & Co-Founder of ClassTag
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About ClassTag: ClassTag is a parent-teacher communication platform that allows teachers and parents to easily engage with one-another and share resources.
Marissa Evans
Co-Founder & CEO of Sawyer
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About Go Try It On, Sawyer: Sawyer is an online marketplace to discover and book activities, camps, and classes.
Stephanie Choi
Co Founder & COO of Sawyer
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About Sawyer: Sawyer is an online marketplace to discover and book activities, camps, and classes.
Daniel Shapiro
Co-Founder of Designlab
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About Designlab: Designlab empowers creators to do the work they love, through mentor-led, online design education with a focus on quality and outcomes.
John Paul Benini
Co-Founder & CTO of Elemental Path
John Paul (JP) Benini is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Elemental Path — the company making smart toys smarter through its flagship product, the CogniToys Dino.
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About Care.com, Elemental Path, Majestyk Apps, Queerly Health, Velocimetrics: Voice intelligence platform easily customized to quickly launch voice enabled products. Launched CogniToys in 2015.
Marc-Henri Magdelenat
Entrepreneur – Founder Press4kids – News-O-Matic of Press4Kids
Marc-Henri Magdelenat is a father of three kids and a serial media entrepreneur. He was the founder of TimeToSignOff and ScreenTonic, a mobile advertising pioneer acquired by Microsoft in 2007.He was a former director of the Mobile Advertising Association in North America. After serving as a French Navy Officer and graduating from the Paris Business School, he was an executive at Le Figaro, Unilever, and Coca-Cola.
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About Press4Kids, TimeToSignOff: Educational Apps Publisher, News-O-Matic
Jake Poses
Founder & CEO of Jumprope
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About Jumprope: Jumprope is a platform where users can create, discover, and share how-to videos and tutorials.
Chirag Agarwal
Founder of Exam18
Entrepreneur, Marketing Ops Wiz
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About AppZab, Exam18, Maukaa: Exam18 works with expert High School Teachers to provide personalized exam preparation materials to students in India.
Jay Liddell
Co-Founder of Bleeker
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About Bleeker, MIT Media Lab: Putting you in the driver’s seat of your career.
Cam Snaith
Principal & Co-Founder of Bleeker
Cam Snaith is the co-founder of Bleeker, a company that surrounds elusive talent with essential resources to unlock their extraordinary life’s work. Leaders from around the world trust Bleeker to advance their most essential pursuits. In Bleeker’s early years, Cam moonlighted as a Research Affiliate with the MIT Media Lab’s Social Computing group. Before Bleeker, Cam was a marketing executive at PepsiCo and the National Basketball Association and the founder of an arts-based non-profit. Cam was born in Bermuda and received his MS in Strategic Communication from Columbia University, and an AB in English from Princeton University.
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About Bleeker, Bleeker: Putting you in the driver’s seat of your career.
Patrick F. Sullivan
Founder & CEO of Bonsai
Patrick F. Sullivan is the Founder & CEO at Bonsai.
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About Bonsai, CareerWise New York, H2, HERE to HERE, RightsFlow: Bonsai is a 1:1 video chat platform for business and career advice.
Jake Rosenfeld
Founder of Bonsai
Jake is the Co-founder and COO of Bonsai. Prior to starting Bonsai, Jake was an Investor at Correlation Ventures, a venture capital firm with more than $365M under management. While running Correlation’s New York City office, Jake led the firm’s investments in 17 companies, including Overtime, Bravely, and Burrow. Jake serves as an Advisor to the New York Fashion Tech Lab and a Mentor at Techstars.
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About Bonsai: Bonsai is a 1:1 video chat platform for business and career advice.
Patrick F. Sullivan
CEO and Co-Founder of Bonsai
Patrick F. Sullivan is the CEO and Co-founder of Bonsai.
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About Bonsai: Bonsai is a 1:1 video chat platform for business and career advice.
Kenneth Damato
Founder, CEO of DoughMain
Ken has a long history of working for Fortune 100 companies and is particularly proud of his time at GE where he led Marketing for the Lighting division. Following these experiences Ken spent a few years in Private Equity which is where he hatched the plan for DoughMain. Ken and his wife are very proud of their two boys age 12 and 7. Their son Michael is always in their hearts and minds
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About DoughMain: DoughMain is a service provider offering family coordination and financial education solutions.
Okechukwu Linton
Founder of Skymedicine
M.D.|M.B.A. from Harvard who has trained in radiation oncology and internal medicine.
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About Skymedicine: Skymedicine is a web and mobile educational platform for medical students and medical residents preparing for internal medicine.
Michael Nason
Co-Founder & Head of Engineering of Narrator
Michael Nason is Co-Founder / Engineering at Narrator.
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About Narrator, Narrator: Answer data requests in minutes with only one table
Diana Heldfond
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Parallel Learning
Diana Heldfond is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Parallel Learning. She attended Georgetown University.
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About Parallel Learning: Parallel is the first tech-forward provider of learning assessments and support services for students with learning differences.
Paul Gollash
Founder & CEO of Voxy
Paul Gollash has deep experience founding, investing in, and leading tech and education companies. In his current role as CEO of Voxy, a venture-funded edtech company focused on English language learning, he has been at the forefront of the personalized learning movement. Voxy uses mobile and web technologies to teach English to learners around the world, and operates under “the common belief that there is a better way to learn a new language.” Prior to starting Voxy, Gollash worked as a venture investor for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, the organization that created Virgin Mobile, Virgin America, and Virgin Galactic. While at Virgin, Gollash evaluated new business opportunities across a number of sectors, and helped conceive, incubate and launch Virgin Hotels. Before Virgin, Gollash worked as a management consultant, launched a new retail business for GM Europe, and helped start an import/export business in Santiago, Chile, which is where he learned Spanish and developed his passion for travel and language education. Gollash has a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA with Honors from The University of Chicago.
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About Voxy: Voxy is a personalized and adaptive language learning platform.
David Oestreicher
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Manhattan Sports Business Academy
David is widely recognized as a leader in education, media, sports and technology. As Co-Founder & Managing Director of Manhattan Sports Business Academy, he drives the company’s mission to identify, prepare and connect the next generation of sports business executives as conduit for key industry collaborators including CAA, ESPN, MLB, NBA, NFL, Nike, Wasserman and WME | IMG. David also creates, markets and supports award-winning mobile apps for athletes and administrators as Founder & President of REC*IT while providing advisory services for organizations and individuals as Principal of DOC. He was Global Business Development Manager for the NBA and General Manager of ACSF securing revenues totaling over $250M through partnerships with bluechip organizations such as Microsoft, Nike, P&G, PepsiCo and Sprint. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and was honored as top student with a 4.0 GPA in the Integrative Core Program. David has been profiled by SportsPro as one of 10 young leaders in global sports business, spotlighted in The Wall Street Journal, named a Rising Star by numerous industry publications and enjoys guest teaching at Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and Wharton. Apple has awarded REC*IT a Top 5 Free Sports App ranking on iTunes each year since launch and Manhattan Sports Business Academy received over 2,500 applications for 25 positions in 2017 following a feature story by Forbes as the premier innovative career development platform. David is a proud graduate of Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati where he was an honor student and decorated athlete. He loves his family, friends, hometown sports, athletics, teaching and learning.
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About Manhattan Sports Business Academy: Manhattan Sports Business Academy is a summer immersion program designed for college students.
Jonathan Dariyanani
Co-Founder & CEO of Cognotion
Jonathan Dariyanani is a Co-Founder and President at Cognotion.
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About Cognotion, CrowdGather: Cognotion is a provider of cloud-based training programs used to empower allied health professionals.
Elisabeth Stock
CEO & Co-Founder of CFY
Elisabeth Stock built CFY from a nascent non-profit in 1999 into a national leader in the K-12 digital learning space. Recognized as an expert in her field, Elisabeth is a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow and a life-long Ashoka fellow. She has given a TEDx talk and high-level briefings at the White House, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Federal Communications Commission, and she has served as an advisor to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the NYC Department of Education. Elisabeth has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on National Public Radio and has published Op-Eds in media outlets such as Education Week and the Huffington Post. In 2001, she was honored by Crain’s New York Business as one of 40 New Yorkers under 40 shaping the city. From 1996-97, Elisabeth served as a White House Fellow in the Office of the Vice President, where her experience as the principal architect of a government-wide education technology program led her to launch CFY a year later. Elisabeth was a high school teacher for two years while a Peace Corps volunteer and later worked for the World Bank on appropriate technology in Africa. She also worked at the Vera Institute of Justice and helped the Open Society Institute start the After-School Corporation. Elisabeth served as a member of the MIT Board of Trustees (1997-2002) and is the youngest individual ever to be appointed to the MIT Executive Committee (2000-2002). Elisabeth has earned four degrees from MIT. She also holds a patent for a medical device.
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About CFY, PowerMyLearning: CFY is a national nonprofit organization that helps students, teachers and parents use digital learning to improve educational outcomes.
Peter Bell
Founder/CTO of CTO Connection
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About CTO Connection, CTO School: Engineering leader? Connect with and learn from your peers!
Guy Halfteck
Founder & CEO of Knack.it
Guy Halfteck is Founder & CEO at Knack.it.
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About Knack.it: We’re reimagining how people discover their potential, from education to work to innovation.
Ron Boire
Co-Founder of Ferguson Noonan Foundation
Ronald Boire is the Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. Boire was previously President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Sears Canada (SCC.TO, SRSC). Prior to serving as President & Chief Executive Officer of Sears Canada, Inc., Boire had a broad range of experience in retail and technology. He held the position of Executive Vice President, Chief Merchandising Officer and President, Sears and Kmart Formats at Sears Holdings (SHLD). Boire also served in other executive positions including President and CEO at Brookstone, Inc., where he lead a turnaround of Brookstone’s performance through improved operations, product development and marketing. While at Toys “R” Us he served as President, North America from 2006 through 2009. Boire has extensive experience in consumer electronics where he has been involved in some of the most important product launches over the past 25 years. He was Executive Vice President, Global Merchandise Manager for Best Buy (BBY), responsible for managing Best Buy’s $30 billion U.S. Business Teams, global technology and vendor management, global sourcing and private label development. Before working at Best Buy, Boire served in a variety of increasingly senior roles during a 17-year career at Sony Electronics Inc., including President of Sony’s Personal Mobile Products Company where he was responsible for Sony’s Audio and Mobile Electronics products in the U.S. and President of the Consumer Sales Company responsible for sales and distribution in the U.S. Boire is the Co-founder, along with his wife, of the Ferguson Noonan Foundation, a 501(c)3 charity focused on educating underprivileged children and former Vice-Chairman of the National Board of Directors of the Multiple Sclerosis Society where he served as Chairman of Finance Committee and was a member of the Executive and Compensation committees. Boire currently serves as a Director of the Retail Council of Canada and was previously a Director of the Retail Industry Leaders Association. Boire has dual MBAs from Columbia Business School and London Business School. Boire is married to Faith Ferguson, they have five children and live in Warwick, NY.
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About Ferguson Noonan Foundation: Ferguson Noonan Foundation, a 501(c)3 charity focused on educating underprivileged children.
Wilder Rumpf
Founder & President of FinTron Invest
Wilder Rumpf is the Founder and President at FinTron Invest.
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About FinTron Invest: Fintron accelerates financial freedom and security through better education, affordable financial products, and philanthropic programs.
Lauren Perkins
CEO & Founder of Perks Consulting
Lauren Perkins is known for bringing her passion, drive, and commitment to every aspect of her personal and professional life. She is a serial entrepreneur, thought leader, and CMO known for creating high-performance teams and helping companies achieve aggressive growth goals. Her latest venture, FlyFit, combines her loves of fitness, adventure, and performance to create the first wellness and fitness studio that provide instructor-lead and interactive workouts to international airports. It is also the first startup to fully adopt her signature “Think like a Brand. Act like a Startup.™” operating model, which places customers at the center of the business strategy. She has spent a decade refining the model with growth-stage companies, acting as an interim CMO for startups, scale-ups, and corporate innovators through her marketing and growth advisement firm, Perks Consulting.
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About FlyFit Global, Perks Consulting: Digital Brand and Marketing Consultancy
Danny Feltsman
Founder and CEO of lifeArk
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About lifeArk: lifeArk helps parents share life experience and establish meaningful, lasting, and significant relationships with their kids
Michael Li
Founder & CEO of The Data Incubator
Michael Li founded the Data Incubator (http://www.thedataincubator.com), a New York-based training program that turns talented PhDs from academia into workplace-ready data scientists and quants. The program is free to fellows, and routinely accepts just 1% of applicants. Employers engage with the Incubator as hiring partners. Previously, he worked as a data scientist (Foursquare), Wall Street quant (D.E. Shaw, J.P. Morgan), and a rocket scientist (NASA). He completed his PhD at Princeton as a Hertz fellow and read Part III Maths at Cambridge as a Marshall Scholar. At Foursquare, Michael discovered that his favorite part of the job was teaching and mentoring smart people about data science. He decided to build a startup to focus on what he really loves. Michael lives in New York, where he enjoys the Opera, rock climbing, and attending geeky data science events.
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About Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Pragmatic Institute, TechCrunch, The Data Incubator, Venture Out Startups, VentureBeat, WIRED: The Data Incubator is a full-stack data science education company. Delivering the most up to date data science curriculum available.
