About Curriki

Juan Carlos Soto serves on the board of various venture-backed companies, including Chairman of Vaadin, Inc, an Open Source Java Developer Tools company, and is a Venture Partner at Shasta Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. He is a former Vice President of IBM Cloud Integration where he led several functional areas including Engineering, Product Management, Professional Services, and Customer Support. He joined IBM with their acquisition of StrongLoop, Inc., a leader in Open Source, Node.js technology for enterprises, where he served as CEO. Prior to StrongLoop, he was SVP and General Manager at Informatica where he led multiple businesses units including Informatica Cloud, a pioneer in B2B Enterprise SaaS. Prior to Informatica, Juan Carlos held several executive positions at Sun Microsystems including member of the Executive Management Group, CTO of Software, Vice President of Advanced Technologies and User Experience, Vice President of Cloud Computing and Developer Products, and Vice President of Market Development. He started his career at Hewlett Packard building scientific instrumentation and founded or held leadership positions in several startups including Skipstone Ventures and Diba, Inc.

Juan Carlos is passionate about helping entrepreneurs throughout the concept-to-exit journey, drawing from his experience across multiple functional areas leading large and small high-tech organizations. He has volunteered with several youth educations, development organizations including Junior Achievement / Project Business, Special Olympics, Future Scientists and Engineers of America (FSEA), Build.org, Big Brothers, and Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) athletics. He profoundly believes access to education is key to reaching one’s professional and personal potential and credits his career accomplishments to education, hard work, and luck. He holds an MS in Engineering Management from Stanford, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Colorado, and a BS in Computer Engineering from the University of Florida.

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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, 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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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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Dr. Brian Blanton is Chief Information Officer for Henry County Schools in Georgia where he serves as a member of the superintendent’s executive cabinet and leads the Information Technology division. Prior to his role as CIO, he served as the district’s Instructional Technology leader. He is the co-creator and co-founder of the district’s blended and virtual learning school, Impact Academy, which now serves over 4,200 students in full time enrollment. Brian is also an active leader in Georgia’s educational technology community and serves as board president for the Georgia Educational Technology Consortium. On the national level, Brian is a contributing member of the IMS Global Learning Consortium and is a member of its K12 Institutional Leadership Board. He is honored to have been recognized by IMS as a 2020 Leadership Award Recipient.

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Crystal Hill is the Chief People Officer for AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School/AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation where she oversees People Operations and business strategy for this early childhood education public charter school network and instructional model developer.

Previously she served as Vice President, Human Resources and Chief Administrative Officer for the Urban Institute where she oversaw the Talent Acquisition, Learning and Development, HRIS, Benefits, Compliance, Employee Communication, and Facilities and Office Services functions and served as member of and business partner to members of the executive team.

Crystal grew up in Harlem, NY and served as a literacy coach in her early career. Recognizing her passion for education and wanting to impact the outcomes of students who looked like her and came from neighborhoods like hers, she has spent over 20 years as a strategic human resources partner to educational organizations including Schoolnet, Inc. a K-12 ed-tech firm focused on Instructional Management Solutions (now a part of Pearson Education) and Achieve, Inc., a K-12 education policy think tank, aligning human capital programs and initiatives to organizational goals and objectives.

Crystal was also a 2013 Education Pioneers Fellow. She holds a BA in psychology from the Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York and a MS in industrial and labor relations from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.

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Dr. Knox Phillips has several years of experience in the field of educational innovation and leadership, both in K-12 Education and in Higher Education, including securing and managing over $100 million in educational grant funds and building several innovative academic programs focused on student achievement, primarily in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education.

Knox’s expertise also includes educational research and data analysis, including implementation of data analysis and performance management systems at educational institutions. Knox has served in previous capacities as executive director of research and innovation with the University System of Georgia and has served in leadership roles at both Miami-Dade College and Morehouse College.

A champion for K-12 education, Knox has also worked extensively with academic initiatives at both Miami-Dade County Schools (FL) and the DeKalb County School District (GA), including his most recent work as an Associate Superintendent charged with leading a multitude of student achievement innovations. His most recent work involves preparing academic and nonprofit organizations for success in organizational fundraising, development, and advancement.

Knox’s educational background includes a B.S. degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Florida; an M.S. Degree in Environmental Science from the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center at Nova Southeastern University; and Doctor of Education Studies in Curriculum and Instruction (STEM Education) at Northeastern University.

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Matt Beaudreau is a keynote and TEDx speaker, Founder/President of Acton Academy Placer, Creator of Apogee Strong Mentorship Program, and host of The Essential 11 Podcast.

As a keynote speaker and consultant, Matt has spoken to over 250,000 people around the world from companies like American Eagle and Lockheed Martin to Wells Fargo and the United States Air Force.

His experience working with Fortune 500 companies has helped him to design the network of K-12 schools under the Acton Academy Placer umbrella. Acton campuses focus on Socratic Methods, Individualized Academia, and participating in collaborative and entrepreneurial work based on the unique genius of each young hero.

Apogee and The Essential 11 were both born from the Acton philosophies, The top leaders from around the world pour into young men from multiple countries on a weekly basis with our Apogee Strong program, and those same leaders answer questions directly from young heroes on The Essential 11 podcast.

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Professor Freedom Cheteni, a legendary educator and thought leader is one of Silicon Valley’s most influential voices. He is the Editor in Chief of the School Superintendents’ Journal, chair of the United Nations Green Jobs for Rural Youth steering committee and CEO of InventXR. Freedom advises governments on the future of work and proudly serves on the governing boards of the Biotech Institute, The RealMVP Charity Foundation and NALEDI. 

An award-winning entrepreneur, Freedom has achieved international prominence in the exponential technology and education movements. He coined concepts such as “Movement Thinking” and “Designership” and is one of the creators of the Moonshots in Education movement. He shaped the founding of the first public school on a corporate campus in the United States, the world’s first VR School and Self-Driving College. Freedom designed curriculum taught at Stanford and beyond and is currently engaged in rigorous implementation of his ideas on the global stage.

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Debra Kerr has benefitted from an illustrious, fast paced track record in her career in sales and sales management as a strategist, field representative and senior executive leader who succeeded in climbing the corporate ladder in the K-20 industry. She has recently made a significant shift in her career from corporate America to investing her time and expertise into her own independent consulting firm, leveraging all she has learned to help organizations make the shift necessary to move the needle in the areas of sales growth, people development and cultural reform.   Debra has a talent for people – she knows how to recruit, develop and optimize the engine of individuals and very large teams – she is excited, energized and hopeful that in this next phase of her career she will be effective and extremely successful at raising the lid on the leadership skills of women, youth and people of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities. She has a passion for adding value to others and facilitating the growth and self-actualization of individuals.

Until recently, September 2017, Debra was the Head of Sales for Age of Learning, creators of the award winning comprehensive online early learning academy – abcmouse.com. She is a former Senior Vice President of Pearson and executive project leader of its enterprise-wide transformation to entirely digital platforms. Her instrumental leadership included establishing Pearson as a competitive provider of digital publishing systems and technical services for the K-12 education market of their $4Bn operations. Most recently, she was selected by Legacy South Florida Magazine as one of “South Florida’s Most Powerful Black Professionals in Business and Industry for 2014.”

Debra is a native of Jamaica and a former public relations officer and Second Runner Up for the Miss Jamaica (World) Pageant. She also gained notoriety as one of the island country’s top fashion models. After a successful stint as an anchor for a government sponsored public television program broadcast, she leveraged her career into work with middle- and senior level management, leading etiquette and grooming seminars for various corporate clients.

Debra is also a certified John Maxwell Leadership Speaker, Trainer and Coach and is on the Board of the Foundation for Volunteer Florida and City Year Miami.

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Robert Pearl Starks is the Vice President of Learning Initiatives for MaxKnowledge, the leading provider of online  talent development solutions for the career education community, serving over 3,000 organizations, offering  online professional development courseware and technology systems to maximize performance of educators and  students. Robert has extensive experience in leading and supporting the design, development and marketing of  diverse software and technology products used by CTE educators, administrators, and students across the United States.

He currently leads the development of CareerPrepped®, a career-readiness software that helps learners  authentically develop and demonstrate their skills to enable skills-based hiring for employers. In his career,  Robert has also served as a college Career Services Director, board member to career college associations, and Director of Media and Technology for the Arizona Career Development Association.

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