My CV: Here’s what I’ve done
profile
Innovator, thought leader, and successful venture-growth entrepreneur eager to apply those same skills, passion and drive from my growth stage enterprise success to find new ways to disrupt, displace and advance business models in social impact. My career has spanned two decades in working with founders reengineering, restructuring, and rethinking strategy to accelerate growth and effectively address new competitive realities. As a successful change lever, my deep experience has resulted in effective transitions with business leaders faced with making meaningful changes their growth- opportunity enterprises.
Lou is based in the Washington, DC area, and lives with his wife Barbara and their rescue dog Mia. When not training for the annual Seagull Century cycling event, he enjoys dabbling in ornithology, craft beer, and being a present grandpa to his two grandsons.
Contact
lou@loupugliese.com
Education
Pennsylvania State University Bachelor of Arts
Speech Communications and Journalism
relevant coursework
The Wharton School
2014 Social Entrepreneurship: Social entrepreneurship business strategy for high-potential positive social impact and apply tools and frameworks to testing and scaling social enterprise
2011 Executive Education: Governance and Effective Board Management
George Mason University, Mason Center for Social Entrepreneurship
• 2014 Social Entrepreneurship: Identifying, preparing, and empowering the world’s next generation of social entrepreneurs
University of Michigan
• 2014 Social Network Analysis: structure and evolution of networks; interdisciplinary curriculum, including sociology, mathematics, computer science, economics, and physics
Selected Publications
The Experts Guide to the Postsecondary Market - A New Age of Learning Management Analytics http://bit.ly/1s1MQRZ
Educause: Action Analytics
Educause: Framing Action Analytics
A New Age of Learning Analytics
A Vision of eLearning for America’s Workforce
Selected Articles
Educause: Acquisitions and Other Financial Market Hoopla, May 09, 2012
Educause: Rethinking Higher Education, March 27, 2012
Inside Higher ED: Blackboard’s Open-Source Pivot, March 26, 2012
Inside Higher ED: Cracking Up the LMS, 2012
The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalists, 2012
Educause: Blackboard acquisition of Moodlerooms, January 11, 2011
Baltimore Magazine: 2012 Best Places To Work & Moodlerooms Wins Six Awards in EdTech Digest’s 2011 Awards Program, December 8, 2011
PRWeb Moodlerooms Wins Hottest Tech in Town Award, November 2, 2011
e-Literate Emerging Trends in LMS / Ed Tech Market, August 4, 2011
Inside Higher ED Blackboard’s Next Phase, February 22, 2011
Inside Higher ED Technology and the Completion Agenda, November 9, 2010
University of Arizona-EdPlus
Senior Innovation Fellow and Managing Director Action Lab
2016 - Present
Develop and Execute the nation’s first Higher Education digital teaching and learning research center for the study of technology innovation efficacy.
Lead Responsibilities
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Philanthropy, Academic, & Consulting
2014 - Present
Community Coalition for Haiti - Philanthropy
Economic development programs through education projects in rural Haiti.
Education Development Center - Consulting
Mobile solutions for agribusiness, financial and early learning education in Ghana.
Saylor Foundation - Consulting
Open education resources development for global post secondary education.
Laureate Education - Consulting
Advisory board leadership development and competency based education design.
University of Maryland Robert Smith School of Business - Academic
Currently teaching Social Entrepreneur and Innovation courses
Blackboard, Inc
SVP Open Source Solutions
2012 - 2013
Expanded Blackboard’s brand to open source multi-platform businesses and create strategic development for global eLearning platform and develop corporate strategy and execution for expanding Open Source products 02: Moodlerooms Inc.
Chief Executive Officer
1998 - 2000
Oversight of all management, leadership and operations of Blackboard and the long- term strategic direction of Blackboard’s business.
Shaped a high-growth, diversified business gaining international recognition as a leader in online education.
Achieved 600-percent annual revenue growth n 20 months
Grew installed base including 20 corporations, K-12 and Higher Education to over 3,000 institutions in 70 countries.
Expanded user base to more than 2.1 million individuals teaching and learning on Blackboard.
Lead and managed multiple acquisitions adding market share and add-on capabilities.
Raised over $51 million in private financing, and expanded company from 15 to over 200 employees.
Moodlerooms
Chairman & CEO
2010-2012
Provided central leadership to position the company at the forefront of the eLearning industry amidst a great state of change.
Strategy and execution for revenue growth and profitability. Provide hands on oversight in company operations to insure production efficiency, quality, service, and cost-effective management of resources.
Learning Diagnostics
President
2006 - 2010
Education consultancy serving Universities and fortune 500 organizations involved in global e-learning initiatives related to big data analytics and outcomes measurement.
VP Elementary and Secondary Education
2003 -2004
Company Officer responsible for overall growth and development of ESE’s expansion and business diversification.
Business strategy development and high growth M&A strategy & execution.
Business Strategy Consultant
2002 - 2003
Developed central e-learning and overall product strategy for long tern revenue and market share growth.
Developed Joint Venture and acquisition financial models for both domestic and international markets.
Educational Testing Service
VP Corporate Development
2004 - 2006
Company Officer responsible for five cross division functional centers of excellence combining development, M&A, sales, marketing, market centered design and corporate strategy.
ETC W/TCI
Chief Operating Officer
1996 - 1998
Directed product development, sales and marketing initiatives including educational consulting for customized technology solutions, learning software, accountability and assessment programs, and professional development.
Managed marketing and sales of a professional development distance learning network for educators and administrators.
Novak Biddle Venture Partners
Entrepreneur in Residence
2000 - 2001
Developed investment thesis for educational technology sector investments as well as extensive investment consideration due diligence.
Appointed CEO of Answerlogic, Inc., an NLP technology solution and negotiated M&A opportunities and concluded sale of Answerlogic to Primus, Inc.
Turner Educational Services
Vice President
1989 - 1995
Development and marketing of new products and services for television and emerging technologies serving homes, schools and libraries.
Developed Turner Adventure Learning, a series of live, interactive electronic eld trips designed as innovative teaching solutions for the school and home education market.
Negotiated distribution agreements including cable distribution, Pay-Per-View and Public Broadcasting, for Turner Adventure Learning, CNN Newsroom and other original Turner Productions.
Scholastic
VP Marketing and Sales
1995 - 1996
Led research and development for market positioning of online and multimedia products and services.
Led start-up team effort in marketing, sales and product development for Scholastic Network , the rst Internet based teaching and learning resource for schools and homes.
Negotiated and managed relationships with consultants, overall management of marketing and eld sales staff of 30, responsible for aggressive revenue goals of over $5 million.
Steady with the Cam, Lou!
New Jersey Network
Director, Broadcast Operations
1981 - 1989
Managed and supervised on-air program schedule related to broadcast operations of a statewide PBS affiliate network.
Conceived, created and implemented statewide promotional image campaign using lm animation spots, direct mail, trade advertising and on-air promotion.
Established incremental revenue through institutional and home video software sales program leveraging locally produced film and video programming.