Robert C. Bowen
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Bowen joined us in June 2002, bringing more than three decades of consistent success in building market leadership and shareholder value in the education market. He served as senior vice president and an officer of National Computer Systems (NCS). In his last assignment as president of NCS Education Software and Services, he built this K-12 business into the market leader of enterprise software solutions with a 40 percent market share. NCS was sold to Pearson PLC in the fall of 2000. Immediately prior to joining us, Mr. Bowen served as a strategic consultant to leading providers of instructional and administrative technology solutions in education.
Mr. Bowen has also held senior executive positions with other leading education companies including seventeen years with McGraw-Hill. He last served as executive vice president of McGraw-Hill's Education and Training group, which included seven divisions with total revenues of approximately $350 million. Early in his career, Mr. Bowen was a high school math teacher, a coach, and a school district administrator. Mr. Bowen received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga.
Rodman W. Moorhead, III
Lead Director
Rodman W. Moorhead III has been a director since June 1998. In January 2007, Mr. Moorhead retired from Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm, where he was employed since 1973. His last position at Warburg Pincus was as Senior Advisor and Managing Director. Mr. Moorhead is also a director of Coventry Health Care Inc.
He is Chairman of the board of The Taft School, a member of the Overseers' Committee on University Resources at Harvard College, Co-Chairman of Stroud Water Research Center, and trustee of the Brandywine Conservancy. Mr. Moorhead holds a BA in Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Edward V. Blanchard, Jr.
Director
Edward Vermont Blanchard, Jr. joined us as a director in November 2002. Mr. Blanchard is a consultant in the financial services industry. From December 2004 through September 2008, Mr. Blanchard was a Senior Advisor to Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, the private equity affiliate of the Bear Stearns Companies Inc. Mr. Blanchard is a member of the Board of Directors of Ironshore Inc., a Bermuda-based specialty property/casualty insurance company. From 1986 through 1999, Mr. Blanchard worked in investment banking for Merrill Lynch & Co., from 1990 through 1999 as a Managing Director specializing in mergers and acquisitions for financial institutions.
Mr. Blanchard is a Trustee of the American Folk Art Museum and the Yorkville Common Pantry. Mr. Blanchard holds a BA from Harvard College and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Michael A. Moses, Ed.D
Director; Vice Chairman of Board
Michael A. Moses joined us as a member and Vice Chairman of the board in July 2007. Dr. Moses has been an educator for over 30 years. He currently serves as a senior advisor to the Center for the Reform of School Systems, a nonprofit organization focusing on the promotion of urban school reform.
From November 2004 until July 2006, Dr. Moses served as Vice Chairman of the board at Higher Ed Holdings, the owner of the American College of Education. Dr. Moses served as the general superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District from 2001 through 2004. From 1999 through 2001, he served as the deputy chancellor for System Operations for the Texas Tech University system. Dr. Moses was the Commissioner of Education for the State of Texas from 1995 through 1999. Prior to that service, Dr. Moses was the superintendent of three Texas school districts, including Lubbock, LaMarque and Tatum and served as a teacher and school administrator in the Duncanville and Garland independent school districts.
Dr. Moses holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Stephen F. Austin State University and a Doctor of Education degree from Texas A&M University - Commerce. Dr. Moses is a member of the board of directors of Southwest Securities Services Group, a holding company whose subsidiaries provide financial and investment services, and previously served as a member of the Board of the Trammell Crow Company. He serves as special advisor and consultant to several corporations and entities that interface with elementary, secondary and higher education.
Lance R. Odden
Director
Lance R. Odden joined our Board in July 2007, after serving as an advisor to our Board since 2003. Mr. Odden is presently a managing director of New Providence Asset Management Corporation, an investment management firm serving not for profit organizations and high net worth individuals. Mr. Odden joined New Providence in 2005 and also serves as chair of New Providence's Governance Advisory Board. Since 2001, Mr. Odden has also served as an advisor to Warburg Pincus, a private equity investment firm. Mr. Odden retired as Head Master of The Taft School, a private educational institution, in June 2001, after serving in that capacity since 1972.
Mr. Odden presently serves as lead director of Irwin Financial Corporation, a bank holding company, and as a trustee of the Berkshire School, a co-educational boarding school. Previously, he served as chair of A Better Chance, president of The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, president of the Headmasters' Association and the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools, and member of the board and executive committee of the National Association of Independent Schools. He holds a BA from Princeton University and an MA from the University of Wisconsin.
David W. Smith
Director
David W Smith became a member of our Board of Directors in July 2004. Mr. Smith brings Scientific Learning 30 years of executive experience in the education market, encompassing educational testing, training, software, and publishing. He currently serves as Executive Chair at Plato Learning, Inc., a publicly held software educational company. Before being appointed Executive Chair, he served Plato as the interim CEO from November 2004 to March 1, 2005, and before that, as a Business Consultant.
From September 2000 to December 2002, Mr. Smith was Chief Executive Officer of NCS Pearson, a provider of products, services and technologies to customers in Education, government and business. He also served as president of the NCS Assessment and Testing Services from April 1998 to September 2000. Prior to his work at NCS, Mr. Smith spent 15 years in publishing at McGraw-Hill, William C. Brown Group, and Houghton Mifflin.
Mr. Smith also serves on the Board of Directors of Capella Education Company, Inscape Publishing, and Plato Learning. Mr. Smith holds an MBA from the University of Iowa, as well as BA and MA from Southern Illinois University.
Paula Tallal, Ph.D.
Director
Paula A. Tallal is one of our founders, and a world-recognized authority on language-learning disabilities. She has served on our Board since inception. A cognitive neuroscientist and a board-certified clinical psychologist, Dr. Tallal is a founder and co-director of the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. In 2001, Dr. Tallal was named a Board of Governors Professor in Neuroscience. She is an active participant in many scientific advisory boards and government committees for both developmental language disorders and learning disabilities.
Dr. Tallal has over 25 years experience managing multi-site, multi-disciplinary, federally funded contracts and grants that have resulted in over 150 publications as well as national and international honors. She received a bachelor's degree in art history from New York University and a doctorate from Cambridge University in Experimental Psychology, with additional research training at Johns Hopkins University.
Jeffery D. Thomas
Director
Jeffrey D. Thomas joined us as a director in November 2008. Since February 2002, Mr. Thomas has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Ambassadors Group, Inc., an educational travel company that organizes and promotes international and domestic educational travel and sports programs for youth, athletes and professionals. During his tenure as CEO of Ambassadors Group, its revenue grew from $97 million in 2002 to $277 million in revenue in 2007. Mr. Thomas has served in executive positions of increasing responsibility at Ambassadors Group and its predecessors since 1995, as President and Chief Executive Officer of Ambassador Programs, Inc. from 1996 to 2002; President of Ambassadors Education Group, Inc. from 1997 to 2002; and Chief Financial Officer to Ambassadors International from 1995 to 2002.
Mr. Thomas serves as a member of the board of directors of Ambassadors Group, Inc. He holds a BA from Dartmouth College.
Directors Emeritus
Carleton A. Holstrom
Director Emeritus
Carleton A. Holstrom, one of our founders, was a director from February 1996 through October 2008, and now serves as a Director Emeritus and Consultant to the Company. Mr. Holstrom retired in 1987 as Senior Vice President-Finance of the Bear Stearns Companies Inc. He is a director of Protalex, Inc., a development stage biopharmaceutical drug development company, of the Custodial Trust Company, and of Carl Marks & Co., Inc. a financial advisory and private investment firm. Mr. Holstrom is also a trustee, overseer or director of a number of non-profit organizations.
Mr. Holstrom has served as a member of the Board of Trustees and Board of Governors of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, including as chairman and vice-chairman of both. For more than five years, until 2005, he was a member of the Board of Overseers of the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Mr. Holstrom holds a BS in Economics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and an MA in Economics from Rutgers.
Michael Merzenich, Ph.D.
Director Emeritus
Michael M. Merzenich, one of our founders, is widely recognized as one of the world's leading experts in brain plasticity, brain mechanisms, and integrative neuroscience. He has been one of our directors since inception. Since 1971, Dr. Merzenich has been a member of the faculty, and since 1990 a full professor, in Neuroscience, Physiology, Biomedical Engineering and Otolaryngology at UCSF. He is currently Professor Emeritus in The Department of Otolaryngology and Physiology at UCSF.
During 2004 Dr. Merzenich was on a sabbatical from UCSF and worked full-time with Posit Science Corporation, which has licensed certain technology from us and is developing and marketing neuroscience based products for certain healthcare applications. Dr. Merzenich is presently the Chief Scientific Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Posit. In May 1999, Dr. Merzenich was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences for distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Dr. Merzenich holds a BS in General Science from the University of Portland and a PhD in Physiology from Johns Hopkins University, with additional training from the University of Wisconsin.