Matthew Pittinsky | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | American University, Harvard Graduate School of Education |
| Occupation | CEO of Parchment |
| Known for | Co-founder of Blackboard Inc along with Michael Chasen, Stephen Gilfus, Daniel Cane |
Matthew Pittinsky is an American technology entrepreneur, educator and academic. He is the CEO of Parchment and a co-founder of Blackboard Inc. Pittinsky is also affiliated with Arizona State University as an assistant research professor.
The youngest of four children, Matthew Pittinsky grew up in a family of educators. [1] [2] His father worked as a university administrator, and was the president of the local school board. [3] [4] Pittinsky's mother was a teacher at a public elementary school. [5]
As a child, Pittinsky was interested in technology and used his family's Atari 800 to program in BASIC and later learned to program on an Atari 1040ST. [1] [6] [7] He was also active in Boy Scouts, earning the rank of Eagle Scout. [8] Pittinsky wanted to become a teacher from an early age, [4] [9] though he initially struggled as a student and had to repeat failed classes in summer school. [10] After high school, he attended American University with the goal of becoming a social studies teacher. At American, Pittinsky served as student body president his senior year. He graduated in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in political science. [7] [11] [12] While at American, Pittinsky met Michael Chasen, who would later become his business partner. The two met after Pittinsky borrowed a printer from Chasen. They later became roommates and fraternity brothers. [9] [13] After graduating from American, Pittinsky earned a Master's of Education in 1995 from Harvard Graduate School of Education. [1] [7] [9]
While at Harvard, Pittinsky developed software for online college admissions applications with Chasen. They called the venture Search and Apply Group. [7] Pittinsky and Chasen were unable to sell the idea to universities and later abandoned the project. [9] [13]
In 1995, Pittinsky took a job at KPMG Peat Marwick as a higher education consultant. Chasen was hired by KPMG the following year and together they created technology solutions for universities. In 1996, while jogging along the Charles River near Harvard, Pittinsky had the idea to create online software for course instruction.
Pittinsky and Chasen left KPMG to start Blackboard in 1997. They used computers loaned from their boss and also stole desk chairs by using them to move the borrowed computers out of the office. [9]
Pittinsky founded Blackboard LLC, with Chasen in 1997. At the time of the company’s foundation, it operated as a consulting group to the IMS e-Learning standards project, where Pittinsky was an early member. [1] [14] In 1998, Blackboard LLC merged with CourseInfo LLC, an online learning software company developed by Cornell University students Stephen Gilfus and Daniel Cane, to create Blackboard Inc. [12] [13] [15] CourseInfo had already developed a product and found a market fit by selling to 15 premier institutions. The company renamed CourseInfo's Interactive Learning Network Product into Blackboard CourseInfo. [7]
Between 1997 and 2008, Pittinsky served in several roles at the company, including chairman and CEO, co-CEO, and executive chairman. [10] [16] He was responsible for building the Blackboard brand along with Chasen through conferences, list-serves, marketing and networking. [3] [9] [13] Pittinsky also shaped corporate strategy and product strategy, and oversaw the company’s relations with the education community. [1]
In 2002, while at Blackboard, Pittinsky co-wrote and edited a book called The Wired Tower on e-learning and the internet's impact on education. [17] Pittinsky helped take Blackboard public in June 2004. The first day of trading raised US$70 million for the company, becoming the second most successful technology IPO of the year. [13] [14]
Pittinsky left Blackboard in 2008 after completing his Ph.D. in Sociology of Education from Columbia University through Teachers College. After earning his Ph.D., he was hired as an assistant professor of sociology at Arizona State University in January 2009. [14] [18] [19] His academic research specialized in economic sociology, sociology of education, and social network analysis. [2] [18]
While at Arizona State, Pittinsky created a research project that used data collected from student ID cards to track student transactions and understand student social and academic activities. [19] As of March 2014, Pittinsky is still affiliated with Arizona State as an assistant research professor. [2]
While at Blackboard, Pittinsky became interested in creating a company to help users manage academic credentials. [14] [18] He was later introduced to Docufide, a company founded in 2003 that specialized in the online transfer of academic transcripts from high schools to colleges and universities. [14]
In January 2011, Pittinsky invested in Docufide and was hired as the company's CEO. [14] [20] In April 2011, the company rebranded as Parchment and Pittinsky helped launch Parchment.com, the company's consumer site, later that year. [5] [18]
Under Pittinsky's leadership, the platform has grown from 800,000 users in 2011 to approximately 1.6 million users in 2014. He has led the company through three rounds of financing which, as of March 2014, have brought in a total of $45 million in investments. [14] [21] He has also helped expand Parchment's services to allow users to store and transfer transcripts, use academic data such as test scores and GPA to find matching institutions, and determine their likelihood of acceptance. [14] [18]
During his time at Parchment, became an advocate for the adoption of Postsecondary Achievement Reports (PAR), which are documents that include both traditional academic records, such as grades, and information about student's development and learning experiences. [22]
While at Blackboard, Pittinsky won several awards. In 2000, he was awarded a "Young Innovator" award from the Kilby Awards Foundation and an Ernst & Young award for "Entrepreneur of the Year for Emerging Companies in Washington, D.C." [16] He was included in Washingtonian magazine’s “100 People to Watch” list in 1999 and named to Washington Techway magazine's list of Top Under-30 Technology Executives in 2000. [1] [23] In 2001, he was named "Visionary of the Year" by the Northern Virginia Technology Council. [1]
In 2012, Pittinsky received the President's Medal of Excellence from Teachers College. [24]
Pittinsky lives in Arizona with his wife and three children. He is of Jewish descent and is a member of Congregation Beth Israel. [5] Active as an angel investor, Pittinsky has invested in companies including SocialRadar, Interfolio, [25] Picmonic, [26] and Stellic. [27] [28] Pittinsky serves on the boards of American University [29] and New Classrooms. [30] In addition to Blackboard and Parchment, [31] he has also served on the boards of The Institute for Citizens & Scholars (formerly the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation), [10] [32] CampusLogic, the High Meadows Graduate School of Teaching and Learning (formerly the Woodrow Wilson Graduate School of Teaching and Learning), and Picmonic. [33]
Arizona State University is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is now one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the United States. It was one of about 180 "normal schools" founded in the late 19th century to train teachers for the rapidly growing public common schools. Some closed, but most steadily expanded their role and became state colleges in the early 20th century, then state universities in the late 20th century.
University of Phoenix (UoPX) is a private for-profit university headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1976, the university confers certificates and degrees at the certificate, associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree levels. It is institutionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and has an open enrollment admissions policy for many undergraduate programs. The school is owned by Apollo Global Management and Vistria Group.
Saïd Business School is the business school of the University of Oxford. The school is a provider of management education.
The USC Marshall School of Business is the business school of the University of Southern California. It is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
Apollo Education Group, Inc. is an American corporation based in the South Phoenix area of Phoenix, Arizona, with an additional corporate office in Chicago, Illinois. It is privately-owned by a consortium of investors including The Vistria Group, LLC and funds affiliated with Apollo Global Management, LLC.
CourseInfo LLC, one of the two companies forming Blackboard Inc. was founded in 1997 by Daniel Cane and Stephen Gilfus while at Cornell University. They joined together to officially form the partnership known as CourseInfo and developed the company into a small course management software provider. The product at the time was called the Teachers Toolbox. In 1998, the CourseInfo team met two principals of Blackboard LLC while pursuing a grant for adaptive testing. Shortly after the two companies joined together to form what is now known as Blackboard Inc.
Thunderbird School of Global Management is a global leadership, management, and business school at Arizona State University, a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. It was founded in 1946 as an independent, private institution and acquired by Arizona State University in 2014. The school moved to ASU's Downtown Phoenix campus in 2018. The campus built a new $75 million building for the school in 2021.
Jonathan Grayer is the Chairman and CEO of Imagine Learning, a leading digital education technology company focused on developing digital curriculum and tools for pre-K–12 students. Grayer founded the company in January 2010 as a partnership with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). In January 2018, the company announced a new strategic partnership with Silver Lake Partners. Grayer previously served as the Chairman and CEO of Kaplan, Inc., a global education company and test prep provider that has been owned by Graham Holdings Company since 1984. Grayer, named CEO in 1994, grew Kaplan's revenues from $80 million to $2.3 billion when he retired from the company in 2008.
Blackboard Learn is a web-based virtual learning environment and learning management system developed by Blackboard Inc. The software features course management, customizable open architecture, and scalable design that allows integration with student information systems and authentication protocols. It may be installed on local servers, hosted by Blackboard ASP Solutions, or provided as Software as a Service hosted on Amazon Web Services. Its main purposes are stated to include the addition of online elements to courses traditionally delivered face-to-face and development of completely online courses with few or no face-to-face meetings.
The London School of Business and Finance is a private business school in the United Kingdom, owned by the for-profit education corporate group Global University Systems. It was founded in 2003 by the entrepreneur Aaron Etingen. By 2015 it had become one of England's largest private colleges.
Stephen Gilfus is an American businessman, entrepreneur, architect and engineer known as "The Father of Modern E-Learning". He is a founder of Blackboard Inc. and CourseInfo LLC, where he held executive positions from 1997 to 2007. In July 2007, Gilfus started a global education think tank in Washington, DC, focused on education innovation.
Adam Khoo is a Singaporean entrepreneur, author and educator. He is the co-founder and Chief Master Trainer of Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group, one of Asia's largest private educational institutions. His business interests include financial education, corporate training, learning centers and youth education.
SKEMA Business School is a French and private business school, devoted to higher education and research. It has the legal status of a non-profit association under the French "1901 law". It was founded in 2009 as a result of the merger between the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce (ESC), Lille and CERAM Business School, Sophia Antipolis. The Lille school was founded in 1892 and CERAM in 1963. It offers programmes such as a BBA in Global Management, Master of Science, EMBA, doctorates in Business Administration.
Wallace E. Boston Jr. is an American academic administrator and businessman, currently serving as President Emeritus of the American Public University System. Dr. Boston had previously served as president from 2004 to 2016, and from September 2017 through August 2020.
Instructure, Inc. is an educational technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is the developer and publisher of Canvas, a web-based learning management system (LMS), and Mastery Connect, an assessment management system. Prior to its IPO in 2021, the company was owned by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo.
Udemy, Inc. is an education technology company, founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. It is based in San Francisco, California, United States, with hubs in Denver, Colorado; Dublin, Ireland; Austin, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; İstanbul, Turkey, and Gurgaon, India.
Michael Chasen is an American businessman. He is a co-founder and former CEO of Blackboard Inc., a position he held from 1999 to 2012. In April 2013, Chasen co-founded SocialRadar, a technology startup company developing a location-based social app. In 2020, he co-founded ClassEDU, the maker of Class For Zoom, which aims to improve the effectiveness of Zoom-based remote learning.
John C. "Bud" Colligan is a community activist, social entrepreneur, investor and company builder. He was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom as his senior advisor for international affairs and trade in March, 2019. He is co-founder of the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership (MBEP), co-founder of the non-profit community-development organization Pacific Community Ventures, former partner at Accel Partners, a global venture capital firm, and former chairman and CEO of Macromedia, a multimedia software company.
Blackboard Inc., now Anthology is an American educational technology company with corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida. Blackboard was known for Blackboard Learn, a learning management system. Blackboard Inc. merged with Anthology in late 2021.
Daniel Cane is a founder of Blackboard Inc. and CourseInfo LLC. He is currently the CEO and co-founder of Modernizing Medicine.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Pittinsky has also invested in several local companies as an angel investor, including with Picmonic
Just recently, Stellic secured $11M investment led by Reach Capital along with 15 edtech founder-investors including ... Matt Pittinsky (Blackboard/Parchment).
He currently serves on the Boards of American University, New Classrooms, and Parchment, and previously served on the Boards of Blackboard, CampusLogic, High Meadows Graduate School of Teaching and Learning, The Institute for Citizens & Scholars, and Picmonic.