About Curriki
Why we started
The rise of remote learning.
The state of education went digital overnight as we faced the onset of a global pandemic. The world learned what educators knew instinctively; we were not prepared to support full digital learning programs at scale. The deficits are many; including the lack of comprehensive tools and dynamic curriculum. Today’s lessons are designed for a traditional classroom setting and are stuck in static PDFs. The result: Students report they are less engaged with online learning and teachers lack the ability to deliver interactive learning. With these current challenges, educators and administrators across all sectors are searching for ways to create interactive content designed for digital learning experiences. With over 200,000 education technology tools available, this task has proven to be time consuming and expensive.
WHO WE ARE
The Future of Learning, all in one place.
Curriki is a non-profit organization that has been revolutionizing the way digital learning content is distributed and openly shared for over a decade. In July 2020, we launched CurrikiStudio, a free full-service learning content authoring suite designed to help educators create dynamic and engaging curriculum online. Without any coding knowledge required, CurrikiStudio makes every aspect of the process simpler, faster, and affordable. We aim to empower educators to create, publish and evaluate immersive learning experiences online in an effort to engage students in a more meaningful way. The early success of Curriki Studio has introduced the opportunity to expand this open source project to businesses looking to engage employees and customers.
A letter from our founder, Scott McNealy
I have long had a deep passion for bringing better learning experiences to the world via technology. As we know, one of the significant challenges caused by COVID is remotely teaching our kids. We had an inadequate model before, and now it is even more pressing to provide solutions to better support the learning experience with technology. New technology.
We know that there is so much to be fixed right now. Nothing in my mind is more important than getting our kids excited about engaging in a quality educational experience and giving educators the tools to meet this need, especially given the likelihood of long term remote/hybrid learning situations. I believe Curriki has resolved a major deficiency with our new products, CurrikiStudio and CurrikiGo.
We have been working on this challenge for a long time and COVID-19 has only made our efforts more urgent. In June, www.curriki.org launched two open-source projects, CurrikiStudio and CurrikiGo, that address critical needs in the creation of modern, purpose-built distance learning content. By bringing unprecedented Free technology access and simplicity to authoring and publishing, we are opening up a new world of possibility for student engagement.
The Opportunity
The realities of remote learning have created numerous challenges for parents, teachers, and most of all the students. There is deep frustration with the lack of resources and experiences that match an in-person lesson, and more importantly, we are losing millions of kids that are not able to engage in learning that they need to not only excel but survive. We absolutely need more, better content to engage self-directed learning.
Curriki has the technology to help solve this issue by drastically reducing technical and financial barriers, increasing participation in the development of and access to next-gen learning experiences. We are proud to announce CurrikiStudio, the first free and open, interactive learning content authoring solution, designed to accelerate and scale digital-first content development.
CurrikiStudio allows any non-technical user to quickly create active, digital learning experiences, via interactive video and voice, game experiences, simulations and more. We have live 40+ learning interactions to support immersive, mobile learning
CurrikiGo is an embedded technology that allows for one-button publishing to all of the major eLearning platforms currently accessed by students in k12 and Higher Education. We call it “create once, run anywhere”.
This is critical now more than ever, as there is no foreseeable return to the traditional classroom model as we know it. Curriki is a game-changer… and the best part is that it is open-source and completely FREE.
Please join us.
Scott McNealy, Co-founder
Leadership Team
Abby Ross
CEO
Abby Ross is a seasoned technology entrepreneur with a passion and background in education technology. She started her career in Product Management at a start-up that grew to 10M users and was acquired by Expedia in 2010. Abby then led the strategy and growth of a web and mobile development firm as a Managing Partner. In 2013, Abby co-founded ThinkCERCA, a venture-backed education technology company focused on helping build critical thinking skills through writing across the curriculum. Abby was integral in raising over $20M in capital across 3 rounds of funding, developing ThinkCERCA’s initial product offering and go-to-market strategy to launch as an enterprise K-12 program. Abby led ThinkCERCA organization for 8 years as the Chief Product Officer from pre-revenue to nearing profitability. Abby is thrilled to be leading Curriki in this next wave of innovation and growth.
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Leo Cunha,
CTO
As Chief Technology Officer, Leo brings over 30 years of progressively challenging experience in the management, design, and development of mission-critical systems. His education technology experience spans over 15 years and includes the development and integration of systems for both K-12 and higher education, specifically in the areas of learning management, assessment and intervention, student information and ERP systems, and analytical processing for education. Leo is an avid supporter of open technologies and open education and is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Caroline Benoist
Instructional Designer
Caroline brings years of teaching, professional development, and curriculum design to her role as an instructional designer for CurrikiStudio. She has developed interactive learning experiences through CurrikiStudio for K-12, higher ed, and nonprofits, trained educators, district and college leadership on building effective and remote learning experience through CurrikiStudio.
Previously, Caroline was a classroom teacher and professional development provider in Texas. She developed highly effective curriculum training modules adopted across campuses throughout her district and it was adapted by Regional Directors providing materials to neighboring school districts. She provided Professional Development trainings across multiple campuses facilitating growth among fellow educators while identifying and improving effective teaching techniques. Caroline is an expert in using CurrikiStudio, a digital authoring tool that allows teachers, administrators, tutors, and industry to produce their own interactive and self-paced digital learning experiences.
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Director of Partnerships
Mark serves as Curriki’s Director of Partnerships and brings to the position over 25 years of experience across a variety of industries. An Industrial Engineer by degree (Go Clemson!), Mark
is a highly collaborative technology professional with a track record of success spanning complex software and services sales, key account management, marketing, program management, product management, and operations.
Mark has a passion for storytelling, laughter, and building and maintaining strong relationships. Outside of work Mark resides in the Upstate of South Carolina, is the husband to one and father to two with a passion for golf, watching junior golf tournaments, and everything Clemson.
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Board of Directors
Kim Jones
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Scott McNealy
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Phil Lebherz
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Gene Banman
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Larry Nelson
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Bill Raduchel
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Gil Brady
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Jonathan Brusco
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Geoffrey Emery
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Kim Jones
Kim Jones is the Chairman of the Board and former Chief Executive Officer of Curriki.
Kim is active in driving policy initiatives, evidenced by her testimony before the Congressional Web-based Education Commission in the USA. She is also regularly featured as an honorary speaker on the impact of technology in education at influential meetings around the world, including NCTET, WISE, the Worldwide Education & Research Conference (WWERC) in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and other key public sector forums. In addition to her role at Curriki, Kim is a member of the MIT Open Courseware Industry Advisory Council.
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Scott McNealy
Scott McNealy, Co-Founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 and served as CEO and Chairman of the Board for 22 years during which he piloted the company from startup to legendary Silicon Valley giant in computing infrastructure, network computing, and open-source software. Under his watch, Sun Microsystems employed approximately 235,000 worldwide. Sun was sold to Oracle in 2010 for $7.4 billion.
Scott McNealy is an outspoken advocate for personal liberty, small government, and free-market competition.
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Phil Lebherz
Philip Lebherz has been described as a consummate family man, an innovative businessman, and a serial
entrepreneur. Whichever you prefer, Phil can certainly be described as a renaissance man. His personal and professional story has left a rather noticeable impact on the California landscape. He took both LISI, a premier medical insurance distributor, and CoPower, a billing consolidation admin and marketing firm, from a vision to fruition over the last 30 years. These companies currently represent the most
prominent benefits insurance carriers in the U.S. He recently sold them to AmWINS, the largest distributor of wholesale insurance products in America.
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Gene has been a serial CEO for the past 15 years having been at the helm of three companies prior to DriveScale. NetContinuum developed an application layer firewall appliance for large enterprise and web businesses and was sold to Barracuda Networks. Zero Motorcycles is the leading electric motorcycle in the world and Gene remains on the Board of Directors. ClearPower Systems designed a waste heat recovery electric power generation system and was sold to Questor Technologies. A member of the senior management team at Sun Microsystems Gene was Sr. Vice President/General Manager of the $3 billion/year Desktop Systems group.
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Larry Nelson leads Microsoft’s Worldwide Education Partner strategy within its Public Sector Business Unit, for both Primary/Secondary and Higher Education. Previous to this role, Nelson led Microsoft’s Worldwide Primary/Secondary Education strategy. Prior to joining Microsoft, Nelson led strategic planning of telecom services for the University Librarian at Stanford University, and before that, he was a Director at Sun Microsystems where he also served as acting Executive Director of the Global Education & Learning Community (GELC, now known as Curriki) where he managed the creation of GELC as an independent nonprofit corporation. Nelson is Secretary and Treasurer of the Curriki Board of Directors and a past member of the NEA Foundation Board of Directors, SIF Executive Board, and SPA Education Board. He earned a Masters in business administration from Cornell University and a Bachelors degree from Vassar College.
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William J. Raduchel has over 50 years of experience with systems, software, and networks and has had a long career mixing technology, education and media. He has long experience and expertise in corporate governance. Raduchel joined AOL in September 1999 from Sun Microsystems, Inc., where he was chief strategy officer and a member of its executive committee. In his eleven years at Sun, he also served as chief information officer, chief financial officer, acting vice president of human resources and vice president of corporate planning and development and oversaw relationships with the major Japanese partners. There he was recognized separately as CIO of the year and as best CFO in the computer industry. In addition, he has held senior executive roles at Xerox Corporation and McGraw-Hill, Inc.
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Currently, President at Nativity Prep Academy of San Diego, Brady is an experienced Partner with a demonstrated history of working in the management consulting industry. Skilled in Educational Leadership, Executive Development, Business Planning, Sales, Organizational Learning, and Training Delivery. Strong entrepreneurship professional with a Doctor of Education (EdD) focused in Executive Leadership from The George Washington University.
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Jonathan Brusco has sixteen years of experience in a variety of education-focused roles. He currently serves as the Director of Instructional Technology & Maker Education at Pinewood School in Los Altos, CA, where he leads technology integration efforts and manages the K-12 Coding and Maker Education programs across their three campuses. He also serves on the Board of Trustees at Gavilan College, a Bay Area community college with 9,000 students as well as an on-site top-performing dual enrollment high school. He has held this elected office since 2012 and has served terms as Vice President and President of the Board.
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After working for five years at major law firms in New York and California, Geoff Emery purchased a failing luxury car dealership in Beverly Hills, California, and later purchased other similarly nonperforming businesses. Twenty-five years later, Beverly Hills Porsche and Santa Monica Audi are now two of the largest luxury car dealerships in the United States, collectively grossing over $300 million in revenue in 2015.
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