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 where he led the team defining, building, and testing the SchoolMAX Enterprise, ReportMAX, iCue, iPlan, ConnectMAX, and SchoolMAX LINC product lines. 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.
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
Director of Sales
Jon 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 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.
Celeste Lemen
Director of Human Resources
Celeste Lemen is the Director of Human Resources for the School Systems group and oversees the development and administration of policies and procedures for the Human Resources department. Celeste joined Pearson in 2007 and is a business partner who balances her roles as management consultant and employee advocate. Outside of Pearson, Celeste serves on the boards of the Sacramento Area Human Resources Association and California State Council of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM). Prior to Pearson, Celeste spent several years working for NEC Solutions America.
Jim Lund
Director of Product Education
Jim Lund is responsible for Pearson School Systems customer education and professional development programs including large group events, classroom instruction, partner certification, and Distance Learning. Jim joined Pearson in 2006 via the Apple acquisition where he served as an engineering manager and manager of state reporting. Prior to joining Apple, Jim worked as a technology innovator, PowerSchool administrator, and enjoyed 14 years as a classroom teacher. With an undergraduate degree in education and a graduate degree in technology for training and development, Jim has a passion for driving creative solutions that help all learners succeed.
Mike Rhein
Director of Sales
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 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 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 Customer Relations
Linda Vollhoffer is the Director of Customer Relations for the School Systems group where she collaborates with senior professionals in the K-12 Education industry and across School Systems' Executive Leadership Team to provide the ultimate customer satisfaction, escalation and resolution processes. Linda joined Chancery Software, now Pearson, in 1992 and during her most recent role as Director of Professional Services, Linda used her extensive background in K-12 Education and Business Management to work with district leaders in the discovery, assessment and planning of their strategic initiatives and technical solutions. With over twenty years experience in developing, supporting and implementing student information systems in a wide variety of environments varying in size, complexity, and technology, Linda ensures our customers experience success in their implementations and satisfaction with the continued use of Pearson's products and service offerings.
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.
Oliver Wreford
Director of State Reporting Solutions & Product Standards
Oliver Wreford is the Director of State Reporting Solutions & Product Standards for the School Systems group. Oliver brings over than 12 years of experience in systems development, design and deployment to his current role, in which he is responsible for ensuring state funding compliance and improving interoperability across the suite of student information system products including PowerSchool and Chancery SMS. Prior to joining Pearson via their 2006 acquisition of Apple's PowerSchool division, Oliver worked as the Director of Business Intelligence for InsWeb Corp. and as a Management Consultant for Accenture. While at Accenture, Oliver worked on several public sector engagements, including a project with the Cook County Juvenile Courts on which he led a team of analysts and engineers that scoped, built and deployed an enterprise management software system from the ground up.