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Dr. Rob Abel, Ed.D. is the Chief Executive Officer of IMS Global Learning Consortium, the world's leading nonprofit member consortium developing, supporting, and advocating learning technology standards and best practices. Under Rob's leadership IMS Global has introduced the Learning Impact program, which is setting new benchmarks for high impact applications of technology in support of learning worldwide. Rob is a recognized expert on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for learning, as well as an education industry researcher focused on the impact of education in society. As Senior Vice President at Collegis (now SunGard Higher Education), the leading provider of ICT services to U.S. higher education, he was responsible for online and academic services provided to over 60 U.S. institutions. As Senior Director at Oracle Education he was a leader and innovator in the development of online learning architectures and related standards, including the Reusable Content Object (RCO) strategy. Rob is a member of the IEEE, ACM, ASTD, ISTE, and American Educational Research Association. Rob holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Change from Fielding Graduate University, a Masters degree in Management from Stanford, a Masters degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a Baccalaureate degree in Computational Physics from Carnegie Mellon University. His articles, commentary, and research have been featured by Educause Review, Educause Quarterly, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Greentree Gazette, Campus Technology, The League for Innovation, University Business, and eSchoolNews.

Dr. Malcolm Read graduated in 1973 with a degree in Environmental Science from the University of East Anglia and went on to do a PhD at the University of Manchester on the hydrometeorology of a glacial catchment. He then worked in the Overseas Development Administration before moving to the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) in 1979. He ran the computer department at the Institute of Hydrology before moving into administrative computing to head the Joint Administrative Computing Service of NERC and the, then, Science and Engineering Research Council in 1988.

Since July 1993 Dr. Read has worked for the Higher and Further Education Funding Councils as the Executive Secretary to the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). Apart from his overall responsibility for the Executive he has been particularly involved in ICT policy and strategy development in post 16 education and research. He is also Chairman of the European Networking Policy Group.

As chief executive officer for Blackboard Inc., Michael Chasen has provided the leadership to take Blackboard from a start-up company with just one product and a handful of clients to a publicly held company, with thousands of clients, offering software and services used by millions of people around the world. His expertise managing fast growth Internet software companies coupled with a passion to enhance education through technology has been critical to Blackboard's success.
Chasen, together with Blackboard Chairman Matthew Pittinsky, founded the company in 1997.  Chasen brings a solid mixture of business development and Internet engineering skills to Blackboard, and has extensive experience in educational consulting. During his tenure, he has provided both strategic and tactical direction for every department in the company. Chasen spends his time running the day-to-day business as well as developing and implementing Blackboard's vision and business strategy.

Before founding Blackboard, Chasen served as a member of the Higher Education Practice at KPMG Consulting, the world's largest professional services firm serving colleges and universities. He worked closely with several universities and colleges to implement wide-ranging software systems and also managed high-profile online development projects within the U.S. Department of Education.
Washington SmartCEO selected Chasen as its first “CEO of the Year” in 2006.  Ernst & Young named Chasen and Pittinsky “Entrepreneurs of the Year for Emerging Companies in Washington, D.C.” The Kilby Awards Foundation also honored Chasen and Pittinsky as “Young Innovators” for having recognized and delivered on the demand for a high-quality, easy-to-use, and cost-effective online educational software platform.

Recently named one of DC's most-admired bosses by Washington Techway Magazine, and one of the area's rising stars by Washington Business Forward, Chasen has been featured in print, broadcast, and online media, including CNNfn, Fox News, Sam Donaldson's ABC.com, Internet.com, EXBETV.com, Associated Press, Forbes, PC Magazine, WUSA-TV (CBS), Wired.com, Beyond Computers, Technology & Learning, The Washington Post and The New York Times.
Chasen holds an MBA from Georgetown University and an undergraduate degree in computer science from American University.

Fabrizio Cardinali is the CEO of Giunti Labs (www.giuntilabs.com), Europe's leading online and mobile learning content management solutions (LCMS) provider. Giunti Labs' learn eXact LCMS suite now also includes the Hive Digital Repository product line, recently acquired by Giunti Labs from the Australian Company, HarvestRoad. Fabrizio is one of Europe's leading e-learning experts and author of numerous papers in international journals and conference proceedings. In addition, he serves as Chair of the European eLearning Industry Group (ELIG), a group which encompasses all major EU stakeholders in the learning industry innovation cycle (www.elig.org). He is also Global Strategy Advisor to MIT's Open Knowledge Initiative; a Member of the European Commission Experts Group on eContent, and a Member of several EU Study Groups on the future of learning resources' digital marketplaces. He has given invited speeches at the Italian, Polish and Hungarian Ministries of Education and to the Russian State Duma Group on eLearning.

Dr. Nicholas H. Allen, Provost Emeritus & Collegiate Professor, University of Maryland University College

Nicholas H. Allen was the first provost and chief academic officer of University of Maryland University College (UMUC) from 1998 until his retirement from that post in 2007; he was Interim President while the University searched for a new president in 2005. During these years of dramatic growth in online education, Allen provided academic leadership and strategic direction to UMUC's worldwide operations as the institution emerged as the 12th largest public university in the United States and one of the world’s major virtual universities with online enrollments reaching 177,000 in 2007.  Dr. Allen is a Collegiate Professor in the University’s Graduate School of Management & Technology.

Allen first joined UMUC in 1987 as a senior faculty member and director of general management and executive programs in the university’s Graduate School.  He became Dean of the school in 1991 and led it through a time of significant program innovation and expansion, now reaching over 15,000 graduate students.  Prior to UMUC, Allen served 23 years in various leadership positions with the U.S. Coast Guard, a public, humanitarian agency of some 40,000 members. Among those assignments he commanded two cutters and was a program manager at the Coast Guard Institute, responsible for the professional qualification courses and service-wide promotion examinations for the Coast Guard enlisted workforce.

He received his BS degree from the U.S. Coast Academy, MBA from Oklahoma City University, and MPA and DPA degrees from The George Washington University.

Nick is a frequent and strong voice for continuing and higher education, and an advocate for using technology and process reengineering to achieve access to high quality, affordable education on a scalable basis.  In addition to his role on the Executive Strategic Council of the IMS Global Learning Consortium, he currently serves on the Commission for Lifelong Learning of the American Council of Education, and on the Interim Board of Trustees for the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE).

He received his BS degree from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, MBA degree from Oklahoma City University, and MPA and DPA degrees from the George Washington University.

Erlend Øverby has been active in international standardisation since 1997, where documentformats was the main focus. Since 2000 he has been active in working with learning technologies as a co-founder of Webucation AS - a Norwegian based learning technology company (merged later with Corpversity AS and Learnways AB) since 2000 he has been managing the Norwegian efforts and participation in international standardisation of learning technologies. Since 2004 he has been convenor of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC37/WG7. Currently he is CEO of Hypatia AS a Norwegian based consulting company.

Gary Driscoll is the Executive Director of the Assessment Technologies Group at ETS. He has directed a wide variety of key strategic ETS assessment technology efforts that encompass: scoring, item banking, test assembly, natural language essay scoring, web based constructed response scoring, state-of-the-art score reporting, automated Score Report QC, statistical analysis, and computer based test delivery. These technologies touch virtually every test that ETS creates, administers, and scores. Gary has been awarded three educational technology patents based on his work in these areas. Gary also directs the software development efforts for several ETS commercial products including CriterionSM, ProofWriter™, and e-rater®.

Gary was a Learning Impact 2007 Platinum Award winner. He is a member of the IMS Global Technical Advisory Board. He was an Expert Panel member at alt-i-lab 2003 and a Demonstrators Evaluation Committee judge at alt-i-lab 2006. Gary has served as an ETS’ Global Institute faculty member. He holds degrees from the College of New Jersey (BA), and Rutgers University (M.Ed.).

Dr. Rob Abel, Ed.D. is the Chief Executive Officer of IMS Global Learning Consortium, the world's leading nonprofit member consortium developing, supporting, and advocating learning technology standards and best practices. Under Rob's leadership IMS Global has introduced the Learning Impact program, which is setting new benchmarks for high impact applications of technology in support of learning worldwide. Rob is a recognized expert on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for learning, as well as an education industry researcher focused on the impact of education in society. As Senior Vice President at Collegis (now SunGard Higher Education), the leading provider of ICT services to U.S. higher education, he was responsible for online and academic services provided to over 60 U.S. institutions. As Senior Director at Oracle Education he was a leader and innovator in the development of online learning architectures and related standards, including the Reusable Content Object (RCO) strategy. Rob is a member of the IEEE, ACM, ASTD, ISTE, and American Educational Research Association. Rob holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Change from Fielding Graduate University, a Masters degree in Management from Stanford, a Masters degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a Baccalaureate degree in Computational Physics from Carnegie Mellon University. His articles, commentary, and research have been featured by Educause Review, Educause Quarterly, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Greentree Gazette, Campus Technology, The League for Innovation, University Business, and eSchoolNews.

Dr. Saxton is an innovative champion of expanding access to higher education around the world. She is the Chief Academic Officer for Laureate Education, where she leads Product Strategy and Development, Regulatory and Institutional Oversight, and Innovation, Research and Development. Prior to joining Laureate, she was Vice President for Strategy and Product Development and Dean of Students at Kaplan University. Dr. Saxton previously served as the Dean of the College of e-Learning at Lynn University in Florida, and was the Dean of the School of Business and Technology at Capella University in its very early years. She formerly was President and CEO of Computing Solutions Inc., an internet-related education company that provided consulting and networking for large technology users and vendors via conferences and expositions around the country. Dr. Saxton also served in the Entrepreneurial Services Group at Ernst & Young, providing consulting services to key international clients. Dr. Saxton holds a Ph.D. in Business and Human Services from Capella University, formerly The Graduate School of America. She earned her M.B.A. in Finance from Boston University, and her B.A. in Mathematics from Wellesley College. She also attended the U.S. Naval Academy, Georgia State University for a M.Tx. and Columbus University for an M.Ed. Dr. Saxton has appeared before the U.S. Congress to promote legislation that would broaden access to higher education. She also is the author and editor of several articles, case studies and books on corporate strategy, virtual teams, leadership, online teaching and learning methodology, and organizational management. She has taught more that three dozen masters and doctoral courses and mentored over 100 doctoral students.

Professor Denise Kirkpatrick is Pro Vice-Chancellor Learning, Teaching and Quality at The Open University.  Her portfolio includes strategic leadership of the University's distance learning design, development and delivery.  She leads the research of technology enhanced  learning and teaching, and for overseeing Quality Assurance policy, practice and standards.

Professor Kirkpatrick was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at La Trobe University in Australia and has worked in a number of Australian universities, leading and managing distance learning operations and as an academic.  She has a PhD in teaching and learning and has worked extensively in the area of teaching and learning policy and practice, with an emphasis on the use of new media in on and off campus learning.

Denise’s recent research investigates the ways Millennials approach learning and ways of creating effective and engaging learning experiences for these students.  Her previous research has investigated effective design for learning with new technologies and student engagement in e-learning.  She developed the award winning Mekong e-Sim, an online role play simulation which was used to teach students in Australian and Malaysian universities and was a member of the team responsible for the CATS project - Creating Accessible Teaching and Support - a suite of projects to support staff teaching students with disabilities.

Denise was President of the Australasian Council on Open Distance E-Learning (ACODE) for four years and led the establishment of ACODE benchmarks for technology supported learning and the introduction of the ACODE Learning Technologies Leadership Institute. Denise has worked as an educational consultant in Australasia, South East Asia and Africa. She is a member of the Executive Board of ICDE (International Council on Distance and eLearning, Pearson Strategic Advisory Board and the Advisory Board of the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education.

Llorenç Valverde , Vice-rector of Technology at the Open University of Catalunya (UOC)

Llorenç Valverde is the Vice-rector of Technology at the Open University of Catalunya (UOC), a fully online university with more than 40.000 students, several undergraduate and graduate degrees and a PhD program on Information and Knowledge Society (IKS). He is also a tenured Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence full professor at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) since 1989.
Professor Valverde has conducted extensive research in Artificial Intelligence, some of it during his stays at the University of California at Berkeley and  some other other universities and research centers. He is a member of the Editorial Committee of several scientific publications in the field.

More recently, his focus has been in the  IKS area, assessing companies and institutions such as the Government of the Balearic Islands and the Council of Mallorca, and helping them define and develop strategies for IKS.

Professor Valverde has been the Head of the Computer Science Department at the UIB from 1995 to 2004. He has also been the technical director of the digital edition of the journal  Diari de Balears (1998) and, during 2005, he was the executive director of FOBSIC, a Foundation dedicated to the Obervation and monitoring the IKS in Catalunya. He actively collaborates with several media, has a weekly column on technology issues on a newspaper and has published two books on the subject.

At the Open University of Catalunya (UOC), he leads several teams in the design and development of e-learning technologies as well as being responsible for setting the direction and leading all technology resources at the University.

 

A panel of experts on SOA and learning technologies will address the state of SOA and impact, or lack thereof, that SOA is having on learning technologies and thier use. Panelists include:

Maruja Gutierrez-Diaz has degrees in architecture and in urban planning from the School of Architecture, (Polytechnic University - Madrid, 1971). She was a Postgraduate Researcher at the Planning Research Unit, University of Edinburgh; specialist in computer-aided planning techniques. After some years as Consultant, she was appointed as Head of the Centre for Information and Documentation of the Madrid Regional Government, in charge of both technical and citizen oriented information systems. 

She joined the European Commission in 1988, as specialist in new technologies. First, as Deputy Head of the Central Library, in charge of its modernisation and networking. Since 1995, as Head of the Publications Unit, member of the Europa server launching team and of the interinstitutional editorial board. In October 1999, she became Head of the new unit Multimedia - Culture, Education, Training, in charge of the eLearning initiative and today she is Head of Unit Lifelonglearning: Innovation and Creativity.

Mark Stiles, Head of Learning Development and Innovation at Staffordshire University, has been involved with the use of technology to support learning for more than 20 years, and has led research and development work in strategy, policy, systems development and interoperability, and pedagogy. Mark also led the development of one of the first UK virtual learning environments, COSE, and has been involved in projects making use of IMS specifications since JISC first became involved in the consortium's work. Mark, Deputy Chair of the JISC Learning and Teaching committee, is also Chair of the JISC-CETIS Board. Mark's current work focuses on the support of work-based learning, and the tensions between issues of control and innovation within organisations deploying learning technologies. At Staffordshire, Mark holds a Professorial Chair in Technology Supported Learning.

Fabrizio Cardinali is the CEO of Giunti Labs (www.giuntilabs.com), Europe's leading online and mobile learning content management solutions (LCMS) provider. Giunti Labs' learn eXact LCMS suite now also includes the Hive Digital Repository product line, recently acquired by Giunti Labs from the Australian Company, HarvestRoad. Fabrizio is one of Europe's leading e-learning experts and author of numerous papers in international journals and conference proceedings. In addition, he serves as Chair of the European eLearning Industry Group (ELIG), a group which encompasses all major EU stakeholders in the learning industry innovation cycle (www.elig.org). He is also Global Strategy Advisor to MIT's Open Knowledge Initiative; a Member of the European Commission Experts Group on eContent, and a Member of several EU Study Groups on the future of learning resources' digital marketplaces. He has given invited speeches at the Italian, Polish and Hungarian Ministries of Education and to the Russian State Duma Group on eLearning.

Dr. Dae-Joon Hwang is a Professor in the School of ICT of Sungkyunkwan University. Previously he was the president of KERIS (Korea Education Research and Information Service), a leading Ministry of Education-affiliated organization in the educational and research field.

Over past twenty years he has been actively working as an expert on computer architecture (dataflow machine design), parallel processing, multimedia framework design, CSCW, cyber education system, and intellectual property right management. He also has more than 20-year experiences in both doing research and teaching students in Korean Universities. He has been with the faculty of School of EE & CE, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea since March 1987. During the period of Feb. 1997 - Jan. 2004 he took in charge of Provost of SKKU Information and Communication Center and also he served as Provost of Admission. In addition, he spent one year as a visiting professor at MIT and four months as an invited researcher at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, U.S.A. And also he served as an exchange professor at University of California, Irvine, U.S.A. (2001.3-2001.8)

Dr. Hwang has extensive experiences in Cyber Education. During the years 1998-2001, he consulted on cyber education for Ministry of Education and Ministry of Unification of Korea government. At the same time, he worked as a chairman of Planning and Administration Committee of Open Cyber University and his effort contributed to OCU's earning the reputation as a leading cyber university during that time. And also he served as one of national evaluation committee members on ICT utilization in primary and secondary schools for more than four years. He was actively involved as a board member of IVILLE Int'l Inc., in LA, U.S.A., and IVILLE SOFTWARE Inc. in Seoul, Korea, which were co-founded based on his Korean and U.S Patents on cyber education system and platform technology in September 1998. He invested his time about 2 years as a research staff of the committee of Education and Research of World Trade Center Association to design Cyber Education Platform of World Trade Center University operated by WTCA in NY, U.S.A..(1998.9-2001) Especially he recognized as one of the expert with dignity on e-learning and regarded as a key person who paved a way of adopting cyber education into Korea. On recognition of the activities and contributions, he received the Presidential Award from Korean Government in June 1999.

Dr. Hwang earned his bachelor's degree in Computer Technology from Kyung Pook National University, and his master's and doctoral degrees in Computer Science from Seoul National University.

Dr. Rob Koper is Dean (hoogleraar-directeur) of the Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies (celstec.org), this is the new name for the Educational Technology Expertise Centre (OTEC) of the Open University of the Netherlands.

He is responsible for the development of Educational Modelling Language (EML), currently an open standard through the IMS consortium (IMS Learning Design) and he leads or participates in a variety of EU-funded R&D projects. He is the co-ordinator of the EU Integrated Project TENCompetence (http://www.tencompetence.org), aiming at the development of an Open Source Infrastructure for Lifelong Competence Development.

He serves and served in a variety of editorial boards, programme committees, and was responsible for the organization of a large number of international conferences, seminars and workshops in the field. Most recently the IEEE ICALT conference. and has (had) numerous roles in management and advisory boards, like the National Assessment Agency, the Digital University Consortium, the local government, standardisation bodies like IMS, CEN/ISSS.

He publishes regularly in scientific journals and books. Recent co-edited books are: Integrated eLearning, 2004. London: RoutledgeFalmer; and Learning Design: modelling network-based education and training, 2005. Heidelberg: Springer. Some recent special issues he co-edited are: British Journal of Educational Technology; Educational Technology & Society; Interactive Learning Environments, International Journal of Learning Technologies, International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning.

Dr. Oksana Malysheva is a partner with Hamilton White Group LLC, a New York based private equity firm with offices in New York, Chicago, Washington, Phoenix, and Geneva and investing in educational and business services opportunities globally. Dr. Malysheva is currently leading acquisition of the regionally accredited school and a ramp-up of the leading educational consultancy.

Dr. Malysheva is a former head of Marketing Strategy and Operations for Motorola’s mobile device unit where she oversaw strategy and effectiveness of product roll-out (including iconic RAZR) as well as managed and directed global marketing budget. Dr. Malysheva had also worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Co, and Mitchell Madison Group where she had advised Fortune 50 companies on business growth, new business entry, turn around, and cost containment.

Dr. Malysheva holds Ph.D in physics from the University of Pennsylvania and BS/MS from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. She had eight years of years of college teaching and tutoring experience, and won “Best Women in Science” fellowship for her graduate research.

Dr. William H. Graves, as senior vice president for academic strategy, is a member of the executive team at SunGard Higher Education. He is also professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) where, after earning a mathematics Ph.D. from Indiana University, he served as dean for general education, interim vice chancellor for academic affairs, senior information technology officer, and founder and director of the Institute for Academic Technology (a UNC/IBM alliance).

Starting at UNC and now at SunGard Higher Education, Graves has helped pioneer technology-enabled strategies for measurably improving upon and accounting for institutional performance in higher education, especially academic performance. On this evolving theme, he has published over 80 articles and books (see the bibliography below), given hundreds of invited presentations, and advised hundreds of institutions.

Graves is a co-founding board member of both the National Center for Academic Transformation and the Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness, and serves also on the Tenth Anniversary Commission of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the National Advisory Group for the Lumina Foundation’s Making Opportunity Affordable initiative. He participated in the Department of Education’s March 2007 national summit, A Test of Leadership, and served on its Enhancing Accessibility, Reducing Costs, and Promoting Productivity working group. He has served on the boards of the IMS Global Learning Consortium, EDUCAUSE, Coalition for Networked Information, and CAUSE. He helped launch Internet2 and EDUCAUSE’s National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (now the Learning Initiative) and chaired the latter's planning committee from 1994-2004.

While on leave from UNC in 1997, Graves founded and directed the nonprofit Collegis Research Institute. He then retired from UNC in 1999 to found (and chair the board of) Eduprise, an academic technology services firm which subsequently merged with Collegis. The resulting privately held company was acquired in 2004 by publicly traded SunGard Data Systems and is now part of privately held SunGard Higher Education, the world’s largest technology-related business focused solely on higher education. The company provides institutional software solutions, technology management solutions, and a range of consulting services designed to meet academic and business needs specific to higher education.

 

Dr. Arthur J. Lendo has been President and Professor of Management, Peirce College, Philadelphia, PA since 1991. His 15 year tenure places him among the most experienced (top 10%) college presidents in the country. He shepherded the College through a charter change from two-year to baccalaureate status; established the successful Peirce Corporate College; and created the acclaimed Peirce Online which offers accredited degrees completely online. The College is now an international institution with degree-seeking students enrolled from 43 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and 30 foreign countries.

President Arthur J. Lendo has received numerous awards during his 38-year career. Dr. Arthur J. Lendo holds a B.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, M.Ed. from The American University and Ph.D. from Boston College as well as certificates of advanced graduate study from Harvard University, The Aspen Institute, and Oxford.

His professional background includes administrative and faculty positions at The American University (DC), Boston College (MA), Northeastern University (MA), and Saint Joseph's University (PA) plus Fortune 500 technology experience with Sperry UNIVAC (now UNISYS). He presented a major policy paper at Oxford University in July 2004 regarding asynchronous online learning which received wide distribution.

Christopher Cassirer joined Capella in 2005 and currently serves as president of Capella University, a position he assumed in May 2008. He was also elected to Capella University's Board of Directors in October 2008. He joined Capella University's School of Human Services as a faculty director in 2005 and was appointed dean of the school in 2006. Previously, Cassirer was an associate professor and director in the Department of Health Services Management and Leadership at The George Washington University from 2003 to 2005; chair of executive studies and associate professor of healthcare management at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management from 1999 to 2003; co-founder and CEO of the Partnership for Patient Safety in Chicago from 1999 to 2000; and assistant vice president for knowledge services with MMI Companies Inc. from 1998 to 1999. Cassirer earned his Doctor of Science in Health Policy and Management and completed his post-doctoral training at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He earned a Master of Public Health in Health Policy from the Yale University School of Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University.

Dr. Saxton is an innovative champion of expanding access to higher education around the world. She is the Chief Academic Officer for Laureate Education, where she leads Product Strategy and Development, Regulatory and Institutional Oversight, and Innovation, Research and Development. Prior to joining Laureate, she was Vice President for Strategy and Product Development and Dean of Students at Kaplan University. Dr. Saxton previously served as the Dean of the College of e-Learning at Lynn University in Florida, and was the Dean of the School of Business and Technology at Capella University in its very early years. She formerly was President and CEO of Computing Solutions Inc., an internet-related education company that provided consulting and networking for large technology users and vendors via conferences and expositions around the country. Dr. Saxton also served in the Entrepreneurial Services Group at Ernst & Young, providing consulting services to key international clients. Dr. Saxton holds a Ph.D. in Business and Human Services from Capella University, formerly The Graduate School of America. She earned her M.B.A. in Finance from Boston University, and her B.A. in Mathematics from Wellesley College. She also attended the U.S. Naval Academy, Georgia State University for a M.Tx. and Columbus University for an M.Ed. Dr. Saxton has appeared before the U.S. Congress to promote legislation that would broaden access to higher education. She also is the author and editor of several articles, case studies and books on corporate strategy, virtual teams, leadership, online teaching and learning methodology, and organizational management. She has taught more that three dozen masters and doctoral courses and mentored over 100 doctoral students.

Greg Butler is currently responsible for education audience and government relations development for Microsoft Education Product Group through supporting strategic partnerships and programs that align Microsoft’s Citizenship activities and Commercial efforts. Through this role Greg works with key global organizations such as UNESCO, World Bank, European Union and OECD. After spending 15 years as a teacher, principal, technology consultant and university lecturer, Greg founded two successful companies and a not-for-profit organization. He joined Microsoft in 2001 to lead all academic programs for Microsoft in the US, moving on to the role of Worldwide Director for K12 Strategy, Solutions and Programs. Greg’s most significant accomplishment during this period was playing a leadership role in the design and implementation of Microsoft’s Partners in Learning initiative. This initiative continues to be a major focus of Microsoft’s Citizenship efforts, with an investment of nearly US$500M and 100 dedicated people for worldwide implementation. Following on, Greg was appointed NSW Public Sector Director for Microsoft Australia. In this role he lead Microsoft’s Education, Government and Healthcare teams in NSW, working with government to improve student outcomes and government services through the use of technology. Greg is passionate about partnerships as a model to tap into the power of ICT to transform learning, engagement and improving student outcomes. He also loves spending time riding his motorcycle.

As Vice President of Product and Strategy at Pearson eCollege, Kendrick McLish leads the vision, planning and strategy for Pearson eCollege’s suite of eLearning tools.  Today, more than 650 education programs deliver their online programs using the Pearson eCollege eLearning solution. Pearson eCollege has integrated a feature-rich, intuitive teaching platform, designed and built to strict quality control standards. In addition, Pearson eCollege integrates self-service administrative tools, such as sophisticated tracking and reporting tools for continuous operational improvement, with technical and academic consulting services to augment the skills of existing academic institution staff.

As a Pearson company, eCollege is part of the largest supplier of educational content, support systems and products in the world. Through strategic alliances and organic growth, Pearson has put in place all the pieces necessary to create the world's leading education technology company. With Pearson eCollege, institutions receive the support of systems engineers, IT specialists, product managers, trainers, course developers, instructional designers, multimedia consultants, operational support and help desk representatives. All of these services are provided from a single company, Pearson eCollege.

Mr. McLish leads the product development of Pearson eCollege’s SaaS, cloud-computing eLearning platform. In partnership with dozens of Pearson Education entities and business partners, Pearson eCollege is redefining K-12 and higher education offerings with world-class collaboration, personalization, analytics and assessment tools. Previously, Mr. McLish was Pearson eCollege’s Director of Account Management and Operations, working directly with some of the largest online education programs in the world. Prior to Pearson eCollege, Mr. McLish worked for Routledge, an academic publishing division of Thomson, Inc. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Vermont and a Master of Business Administration from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Frank Menchaca is executive vice president of Publishing.

Mr. Menchaca began his career with Gale in 1994 and was most recently publisher and vice president, History, Social Science, Science and Spanish. He has held various positions of increasing responsibility since joining Gale, including vice president and publisher of four Gale imprints: Charles Scribner's Sons, Macmillan Reference USA, Schirmer Reference and Twayne Publishers.

Mr. Menchaca's professional activities are many. He currently serves on the Friends Foundation of the Detroit Public Library. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Electronic Publishing. He has contributed articles to scholarly journals and books in the field of digital information and libraries. He is also a frequent speaker and has given talks at the University of Oklahoma, the University of Michigan and the Committee for Institutional Cooperation. Mr. Menchaca has taught classes in publishing and information technology at Pace University and the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

In addition to being a publishing executive, Mr. Menchaca is a published author and translator. He has written and published poetry, criticisms, reviews and video scripts. He won the Thomas Wolfe Awards for Poetry in 1982 and 1983. His books of poetry include Nicolo G---- and the Days of November (1991) and AL (1999).

He earned his M.A. in English Literature, with Honors, from Yale University, and a B.A. in English and Spanish Literature, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from New York University.

Dr. Rob Abel, Ed.D. is the Chief Executive Officer of IMS Global Learning Consortium, the world's leading nonprofit member consortium developing, supporting, and advocating learning technology standards and best practices. Under Rob's leadership IMS Global has introduced the Learning Impact program, which is setting new benchmarks for high impact applications of technology in support of learning worldwide. Rob is a recognized expert on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for learning, as well as an education industry researcher focused on the impact of education in society. As Senior Vice President at Collegis (now SunGard Higher Education), the leading provider of ICT services to U.S. higher education, he was responsible for online and academic services provided to over 60 U.S. institutions. As Senior Director at Oracle Education he was a leader and innovator in the development of online learning architectures and related standards, including the Reusable Content Object (RCO) strategy. Rob is a member of the IEEE, ACM, ASTD, ISTE, and American Educational Research Association. Rob holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Change from Fielding Graduate University, a Masters degree in Management from Stanford, a Masters degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a Baccalaureate degree in Computational Physics from Carnegie Mellon University. His articles, commentary, and research have been featured by Educause Review, Educause Quarterly, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Greentree Gazette, Campus Technology, The League for Innovation, University Business, and eSchoolNews.

Jim Behnke is Chief Learning Officer for Pearson. His responsibilities with Pearson extend across the company's U.S. K16 business to international higher education. He is responsible for managing Pearson's online learning strategy and the technologies that underlie it, including a suite of formative assessment programs that are groundbreaking in their ability to improve student outcomes and institutional productivity. These programs, known as the MyLabs, were used by 3 million students around the world in 2007.

Behnke has extensive experience as an educational publisher, entrepreneur, general manager and a developer of educational software. Over the past decade, his work has focused primarily on the development of new product models and programs that harness the unique capabilities of the Web as a medium for teaching and learning.

Joel Greenberg is the Open University's Director of Strategic Development, Learning and Teaching Solutions. He has a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Manitoba, an MSc in Control Engineering and a PhD in Numerical Mathematics from the University of Manchester. He joined the Open University in 1978, initially as a Software Designer developing educational software applications. He is currently directing the work of a team of media specialists and technical staff on a number of projects which continually reassess the design, development and delivery of learning media products. He is also responsible for key production and information systems activity which underpin both strategic developments and core media production. He is directing a number of new initiatives as part of the University's growing use of its new virtual learning environment as a primary delivery medium. Current projects include the development of a new learning content management system for the Open University's learning and teaching materials, the new virtual learning environment built on open interoperability standards and the University's Open Content Initiative. He has written and published extensively about computer animation, multimedia developments and new learning and teaching models at the Open University and been invited to speak at a number of international conferences.

Mark Stiles, Head of Learning Development and Innovation at Staffordshire University, has been involved with the use of technology to support learning for more than 20 years, and has led research and development work in strategy, policy, systems development and interoperability, and pedagogy. Mark also led the development of one of the first UK virtual learning environments, COSE, and has been involved in projects making use of IMS specifications since JISC first became involved in the consortium's work. Mark, Deputy Chair of the JISC Learning and Teaching committee, is also Chair of the JISC-CETIS Board. Mark's current work focuses on the support of work-based learning, and the tensions between issues of control and innovation within organisations deploying learning technologies. At Staffordshire, Mark holds a Professorial Chair in Technology Supported Learning.

John Harwood Senior Director, Teaching and Learning with Technology, Penn State. John is responsible for the development of courseware, training, and support programs for faculty and teaching assistants who seek to integrate technology and teaching. At University Park, he is responsible for helping faculty use technology in teaching; university-wide IT training; and computer labs, technology classrooms, and the support services required to support teaching and learning in those spaces, including instructional design and multimedia services. John is Penn State's representative to the CIC, the academic consortium of the Big 10.

Curtiss Barnes leads Oracle's industry strategy team for Higher Education, Not-for-Profit Research Institutions and K-12 Education. In this role, Curtiss brings more than 20 years experience in the education industry. He is responsible for establishing product strategy and development investment priorities across all of Oracle's product groups, as well as identifying new market opportunities across the globe for Education-specific applications. Curtiss also serves as a liaison to Oracle's Education & Research Strategy Council (ERSC) and the Higher Education User Group (HEUG) - the world's largest user group in the Higher Education industry.

Prior to Oracle, Curtiss was director of industry marketing strategy for Education at PeopleSoft in Pleasanton, CA. He has also held roles in strategy and business development at SCT in Malvern, PA and directed the product management group at Campus Pipeline, Inc. in Salt Lake City, UT. Prior to joining the corporate world, Curtiss held positions in alumni and corporate relations, development and admissions at a number of higher education institutions.

Curtiss holds a bachelors degree in economics from Clark University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Lexington, MA with his wife Julie and daughters Emily, Julia and Caroline.