Learning.com Management Team - backgrounds spanning education and technology fields

Management Team

Featuring strong backgrounds spanning education and technology fields

	William Kelly — CEO and Founder Bill Kelly is the founder and CEO of Learning.com. Since co-founding the company in 1999, Bill has been recognized as a leading innovator in the Educational Technology industry as well as a leading advocate for education in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Bill served on the SIIA Education Division board, and has spoken at several events for organizations and events such as AAP, AEP, SIIA, ISTE, SETDA and EdNet. Bill has received dozens of industry awards on behalf of Learning.com, including three CODIEs from SIIA. He has also been recognized by his local business community, including being named to “40 under 40” by the Portland Business Journal, and receiving the Technology Company of the Year award for “Best Internet Company.” Bill is on the board of the Portland Schools Foundation, and has served on several ad hoc committees and task forces for Portland Public Schools. Prior to Learning.com, Bill was the co-founder and Executive Vice President of Sapient Health Network, which became part of WebMD in 1999. There, he pioneered the development of sustainable online support communities and personalized information delivery. Sapient Health Network was listed as a top Web site by Business Week magazine in 1998. Previous company experience includes Creative Multimedia, Fidelity Capital, and Knight-Ridder, Inc. Bill is a Portland native, and returned to live in the same neighborhood where he was raised. He has four children, all of whom attend public schools and universities in Portland. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Harvard Business School.
	Candace Petersen, Ph.D. — President and COO Candace was most recently vice president and chief strategy officer for InFocus Corporation, a worldwide leader in the projection market. In that role she was responsible for developing and implementing the InFocus strategic plan to pursue growth opportunities in the education market. She has nearly three decades of business experience in high tech and industrial companies, and has held various management positions in corporate strategy, business analysis and marketing, including corporate economist for IBM. Candace, who holds a doctorate in Systems Science from Portland State University, was also a founding partner of Petersen & Prusia, a marketing research and consulting firm for advanced display and emerging high-tech industries, and has for 10 years taught as an assistant and adjunct professor in PSU's School of Business.
	Mark Tullis — VP Strategic Relations For the past several years Mark has worked in business development roles for technology companies including MyFamily.com, Knowlix Corporation, Open Market Inc., and Folio Inc. Mark received his MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University.
	Clark Holmes — VP Finance and Administration Clark has experience in financial management of small start-ups to billion dollar companies. He joined Learning.com from Xerox where he was manager of financial reporting and systems in the office products division. Prior to Xerox, Clark was corporate controller for Card Capture Services, where he played a leadership role in developing processes and systems for their rapid growth. Clark has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Portland State University.
	Steve Gardner — VP Sales and Marketing Steve has extensive experience in education and technology-based enterprises. Before joining Learning.com, Steve was President & CEO of Apta Software, a developer and provider of online financial and human resources management solutions for K-12 school districts. Prior to this, Steve was the Vice President of Instructional Solutions for NCS Learn, a business of Pearson Education, where he was responsible for all marketing, product strategy and business development for a suite of instructional products used by more than 20,000 schools around the world. Steve’s previous experience includes Vice President of Marketing & Sales for NovaNET Learning, and international strategic management consulting for Bain & Company. Steve has a bachelor’s degree from Williams College and master’s degree from the Wharton School of Business.