Greetings from New York City, where I just wrapped up the first meeting of the OpenClassrooms US advisory board!
We raised last year’s $60 million Series B on a mission to take OpenClassrooms to the US and international markets. In that time, we’ve closed some strategic US partnerships with Microsoft, Salesforce, and Google, – to name a few. We’re honored to be helping these great American companies recruit, train, and upskill their employees to meet the demands of today’s tech economy.
And now, I’m overjoyed to announce that we’ve officially launched this US advisory board to guide our expansion, just days after we launched a parallel UK advisory board. It is made up of top education and workforce development experts who will offer strategic direction and lend their deep institutional knowledge on things such as new market opportunities, product development, the US regulatory environment, and more.
I can’t imagine a better time to bring our affordable, accessible, high-quality education platform to the United States. Students all over the world – and especially in the US – are craving real alternatives to the four-year college that won’t bury them under decades of debt.
We couldn’t be more thrilled to have such a talented group of advisors on board to help us seize this opportunity.
Meet the OpenClassrooms US advisory board…
- John Mitchell: Stanford University Professor, and Chair of the Computer Science Department. John’s work is currently focused on studying the future of higher education, the future of work, and exploring applications of blockchain technology.
- Astri Kimball Van Dyke: Senior Counsel at Google, where she works with the US government, embassies, global policy-makers, trade associations, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders on issues of the geopolitics of technology, Internet policy capacity building, and the intersection of innovation and public policy. Among many other things, Astri is also the former Deputy Counsel to Vice President Joe Biden.
- Linda Galipeau: A global HR and technology executive and board director. Most recently Linda served as the longtime CEO of Americas Region at Randstad North America.
- Julie Samuels: Executive Director of Tech: NYC. Before that Julie was Executive Director at Engine, a nation-wide nonprofit focused on technology entrepreneurship and advocacy, where she remains a member of the Board. She is a frequent commentator on technology and policy issues and has filed briefs with the Supreme Court and testified before Congressional Committees.
- Susan Steele: Cision’s global Chief Human Resources Officer. Susan has more than 25 years of human resources expertise and is known for pioneering the use of artificial intelligence in HR.
- Marty Reaume: A seasoned HR executive with over 25 years of progressive responsibility as an HR practitioner, leader and executive. Most recently, Marty was the Chief People Officer of Twilio (TWLO), a cloud communications platform as a service company.
- Douglas Becker, co-founder of Sterling Partners and founder of Laureate Education, the largest higher education company in the world. Doug also works very closely with me as the chairman of the board for OpenClassrooms.
Now that we’ve just kicked things off with our first board meeting in our New York, NY offices, you’ll be hearing more from me – and these talented board members – very soon.
What a big move, I am sure OC is going to a brighter direction!