School Systems Leadership Team
Pearson has a strong heritage in education and our employee team, comprised largely of former K-12 educators, reflects the continuation of that history. Each day we strive to help improve the performance of as many students in as many schools as we can. Meet members of our leadership team below:
Paul Fletcher
President
Paul Fletcher is the President of School Systems, and manages the overall School Systems business. Paul joined School Systems in 2007, bringing a wealth of business experience, a track record of leadership and results, and great energy to his work. Paul joined Pearson from Intel, where he had a ten-year career spanning six Intel divisions and made an impact on Intel's strategy, organizational development, effectiveness and business growth.
Mike Carlson
Chief Operating Officer
Mike Carlson is the Chief Operating Officer for the School Systems group. In his role, Mike is responsible for delivering the highest quality professional services and consulting solutions with the commitment to complete projects on time and on budget with high customer satisfaction. Prior to his role at Pearson, Mike managed the K-12 and Higher Education consulting business for IBM and built a systems integration and consulting business focused exclusively on the K-12 Student Information Systems market during his tenure with Chancery Software. Mike holds an MBA with a focus in Marketing/Finance from Northern Illinois University and a BS in Pre-Medicine/Biology Honors from the University of Illinois.
Bryan MacDonald
Chief Technology Officer
Bryan MacDonald, Chief Technology Officer for the School Systems group, brings more than 15 years of experience in educational technology to his role of driving development for the suite of student information system products including PowerSchool and Chancery SMS. Prior to joining Pearson, Bryan was Vice President of Product Development for MAXIMUS Education Systems, a Senior Product Manager at Apple, and the CEO and Founder of a network infrastructure business focusing on the K-12 market. Bryan brings a strong background of technical innovation and user-centric development to his engineering leadership and is ensuring that School Systems products remain at the top of their class. Bryan is also on the Board of Directors for Safari Books Online, the company who reinvented the way over a million subscribers consume technical books and materials.
Brent Bingham
Vice President of Product Strategy
Brent Bingham is the Vice President of Product Strategy for the School Systems group and oversees the strategic development of Pearson’s innovative suite of student information system solutions including PowerSchool and Chancery SMS. Brent joined Pearson in 2006 via the acquisition of Apple's PowerSchool where he served as Director of Product Marketing with responsibility for defining successful student information products and solutions for K-12 communities. During his tenure with Apple, Brent led the customer education and sales engineering team initiatives. Prior to joining Apple, Brent spent several years as an educator and educational technologist developing simple, effective ways to impact classroom instruction and student achievement.
Bob Mignanelli
Vice President & Assistant General Counsel
Bob Mignanelli serves as Vice President & Assistant General Counsel for the School Systems group. Bob Joined Pearson in 2001 after spending eight years in private and corporate practice in Washington, D.C. and Phoenix, AZ. He is a 1993 graduate of the Catholic University Columbus School of Law and a holds a MBA from the University of Arizona and a BA in Economics from the University of Massachusetts.
Chris Porter
Vice President of Sales
Chris Porter is Vice President of Sales for the School Systems group and leads the sales teams for Pearson's suite of student information products including PowerSchool and Chancery SMS. For the past 14 years Chris has been focused on driving high-growth sales teams with an emphasis on complex technology. As Vice President of Personnel and Sales for Salesnet Marketing Group, he achieved 250% growth over three years for a sales organization of 250 reps with offices in 32 states. He then founded Alta Marketing, Inc., a sales outsourcing company with an emphasis on web-delivered data management solutions. For almost 10 years since then Chris's focus has been exclusively in the student information system market, where he built from the ground up the first sales organization for PowerSchool, Inc. He has since been a key member of the Sales management team at PowerSchool Inc, Apple, and Pearson, where his teams have achieved YOY growth of up to 80%. Chris was promoted to the leadership position in April 2007.
Julie Albanese
Director of Marketing
Julie Albanese is the Director of Marketing for the School Systems group and oversees the development and execution of the School Systems marketing plan, including communications, public relations, events, and the marketing of all School Systems products. Julie joined Pearson in 2003, and most recently served as a Director of Product Management, overseeing the SASI suite of products and the development of the SASI Customer First program. Prior to joining Pearson, Julie spent several years working for consulting organizations including Accenture in the consumer products and telecommunications industries.
Jonathan Doney
Regional Vice President of Sales, West
Jon Doney joined Pearson in 2006 and brings with him nearly 15 years of successful sales and sales management experience at companies such as Apple Computer, Exchange Applications, Riverdeep and CSI Leasing. For the past seven years, Jon has been exclusively focused in the K12 education market. During that time, he has become adept at helping educators identify and implement enterprise solutions that improve their school communities. As a Director of Sales with Pearson, Jon leads the West Region field sales team responsible for Pearson student administration and assessment solution sales to K12 school districts in the Western US. Jon earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business (MIS Concentration) from the University of Washington in Seattle. He also holds a Masters of Science degree in Education with emphasis in Education Technology from Boise State University and is a Certified School Technology Coordinator.
Doug Evans
Director of Finance
Doug Evans is the Finance Director for the School Systems group and oversees the financial management, forecasting, and analysis of the business. Doug joined Pearson in December 2008 with 10+ years of finance and business management experience. He spent eight of those years at Intel Corporation in various finance management roles including division controller where he was focused on product development investment decisions, P&L management, and strategic deal support. Most recently Doug was the Group Controller for the Worldwide Sales and Operations team at Numonyx BV, a private semiconductor company that was a spin-off from Intel. Doug holds a BS in Engineering from Penn State and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon.
Jeffrey S. Huffman
Director of Engineering
Jeffrey Huffman joined Pearson as Director of Engineering in 2007, and has responsibility to "Deliver Quality Products Predictably" for the entire School Systems Group. Jeffrey previously served in the role of Director of Engineering for MAXIMUS educational software products, and has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors. Jeffrey focuses on creating an organization that creates opportunities and fosters innovation. Toward that end, Jeffrey has emphasized excellence in School Systems in project management, in architecture, design and development, and in an iterative software development lifecycle.
Gary Hunnel
Director of Business Development
Gary Hunnel is the Director of Business Development focusing his efforts on growing the International, Canadian, and State Departments of Education markets. He has over 25 years experience in the education market place. As a business partner for IBM, he focused on the education vertical market helping to sell and install hardware and enterprise software to school districts. He worked for a number of years in the implementation area and managed a wide variety of professional services and support. Gary has held various sales management positions where he has been responsible for driving market capture in the areas of student information systems, digital curriculum, education finance, purchasing, payroll/personnel, and a wide variety of assessment tools. Gary also has served as a key member of numerous acquisition teams.
Chris Poulton
Director of Technical Support
Chris Poulton is the Director of Technical Support for Pearson. Chris' team is responsible for providing Level 1, 2 and 3 Technical Support for the PowerSchool SIS as well as various other Pearson Learning Management applications. Chris joined Pearson in May 2005 with 7+ years of business management experience. Prior to joining Pearson, Chris worked for FedEx Office where he was a Senior Center Manager, responsible for multiple retail office and print centers. Chris holds his Bachelors of Science in Management Information Systems with an emphasis on Organizational Leadership.
Jacob Rigoli
Director of PowerSchool Services
Jacob Rigoli is the Director of Implementations and Data Services for PowerSchool. Jacob's team includes PMI certified project managers, data migration specialists, PowerSchool SMEs (subject matter experts) and PowerSchool customization specialists. Together, this team provides a seamless, attentive, and positive experience for all new PowerSchool customers. Jacob joined Pearson in 2007. Prior to joining Pearson, he worked 8+ years for IBM where he managed projects in the K-12 Education, Pharmaceutical, Petrochemical, Automotive, and Finance industries. Jacob is a certified Project Management Professional® (PMP) and holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona, Eller College of Management.
Mike Rhein
Regional Vice President of Sales, East
Mike Rhein leads the East Region field sales team in selling Pearson's PowerSchool student information system and related products and services. For the past 22 years, Mike has successfully held various management, sales leadership and business development positions within Pearson Education/NCS in the area of education services and technology.
Denis Savoie
Director of Technical Support
Denis Savoie is the Director of Technical Support for the School Systems group and has over 15 years of experience in the Technology and Educational sector. Denis is responsible for the support of all products which include Chancery SMS, PowerSchool and SASI products and is focused on delivering the highest level of customer satisfaction. Denis joined Pearson in 2006 via the acquisition of Chancery where he served as Director of Technical Support since 2004 responsible for the support of all products. Prior to this role at Pearson, Denis managed the Support and Services operations with Infowave software responsible for customer implementations and support of their technical products.
David Taylor
Director of Implementation and Data Services
As Director of Implementation and Data Services for the School Systems group, David Taylor is responsible for delivering the highest quality professional services and consulting engagements with the commitment to on time and on budget completion with high customer satisfaction. Prior to his role at Pearson, David managed large K-12 and Higher Education Consulting, ERP, and SIS projects for IBM. In addition, David was the Director of Services for Chancery Software where he managed large district SIS projects. David is a certified Project Management Profession (PMP) and holds a Master of Arts in Education in Instructional Technology and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Education.
Earl van As
Director of Product Design
Earl van As joined joined Pearson in November, 2002. As Director of Product Design, Earl leads the requirements and product management team which is responsible for establishing the product roadmap, prioritizing feature requests, defining requirements, and creating design specifications for School Systems products. Earl has over 20 years of experience with several software firms where he has held increasing levels of responsibility. He spent over ten years at Maximizer Software, eventually as the Director of Product Marketing. As a founding member of the team that developed the Maximizer line of customer relationship management software, Earl led the product definition, positioning, market-driven product strategies and life cycle management of this highly successful product. He has also served as VP of Product Management for ThoughtShare Communications, a knowledge management provider and also as Director of Marketing with Imagis Technologies, a company working on face recognition security solutions. Earl brings a valuable combination of marketing, sales operations, product management, and technical knowledge to the Pearson leadership team. Earl received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Simon Fraser University in 1986.
Linda Vollhoffer
Director of the Pearson Center of Excellence
Linda Vollhoffer leads the Professional Services Center of Excellence group at Pearson and is responsible for providing integrated solutions that meet the defined goals of the customer. The Center of Excellence also provides project management methodologies, processes, and quality assurance. Linda has over twenty years of experience in developing, supporting, and implementing education information systems and solutions in a wide variety of environments.
Rick Wagstaff
Director of Architecture
Rick Wagstaff is the Director of Architecture for Pearson and the site manager for the Burnaby office. He currently oversees core architecture design and implementation for all School Systems products. Rick joined Pearson in 1992. Rick most recently led the development organization for the SMS product. Prior to Pearson, Rick was developing Expert Systems for training programs including one for the crew of the international space station. He has been developing software professionally since 1985.
Maureen Webster
Director of Product Education
As Director of Product Education, Maureen Webster is responsible for delivering successful customer education and professional development programs including large group events, classroom instruction, partner certification, and Distance Learning across a variety of products. Maureen joined Pearson in 2006 via the Apple acquisition where she served as Training Manager after spending 2 years as a PowerSchool Trainer Consultant. Prior to joining Apple, Maureen led training and professional development services for an online educational publisher and spent several years in the classroom as a high school English teacher. She holds a BA in English and Psychology from Yale University, and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Quinnipiac University. With extensive experience in training, Maureen has a passion for driving creative solutions that help all learners succeed.
Oliver Wreford
Director of Strategic Alliances
As Director of Strategic Alliances for School Systems, Oliver Wreford leads efforts to identify, cultivate and execute relationships with solution providers. His team is focused on strengthening market presence, product acceptance and brand recognition of Pearson and its partners. Oliver has previously held positions at an Internet start-up and Accenture. Oliver holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Honors Economics from the University of Michigan.