About

About this site

The site you are on now is my personal Web site. I use it primarily to support my speaking engagements and to blog – on Hedgehog & Fox – about the things I am experiencing and learning from the various projects in which I am involved. I write and speak from the perspective of an entrepreneur and lifelong learner who is fascinated with how new technologies are transforming business and society. I do my best to step back, look at the big picture, and think strategically. At the same time, the entrepreneur in me is always obsessed with the practical, “what actually works” point of view.

About me

I serve as managing director of Tagoras, a firm I founded to help organizations market their online learning products more effectively and integrate educational approaches into their marketing. I also founded and write weekly for Mission to Learn, a site I am working to grow into one of the major destinations on the Web for lifelong learners.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for well over a decade – actually for a good three decades or so if you count my lawn-mowing and leaf-raking business as a kid. Before becoming a full-blown, adult entrepreneur, I taught at the University of North Carolina for several years while pursuing a doctorate in comparative literature. Oddly enough, I think this training as a teacher and comparatist has prepared me exceptionally well for life and business on the new Web.

The field I have worked in the most is e-learning. The sector I have worked in the most is the association and broader nonprofit sector, though I have also worked quite a bit with universities, community colleges, and a variety of small and mid-sized businesses.

For those who really care, a bit more about my background

I’ve been involved in education and technology for the better part of two decades and have spent much of that time as an entrepreneur working on the leading edge of Web technology and online learning. I now apply the experience I have gained to help organizations:

  • Integrate Internet marketing, social media, online learning and customer education approaches into business strategy.
  • Take advantage of new educational and business models.
  • Develop and implement clear, measurable sales, marketing, and stakeholder engagement strategies.
  • Maximize adoption, revenue, and return on investment from Web-based product-and-service offerings.

I co-founded and served as CEO of Isoph, a provider of online learning technologies and content for major national associations and charitable organizations. We bootstrapped Isoph from the ground up and established it as a leading brand in its niche. Clients included the Society for Human Resource Management, the American Red Cross, the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the National Wildlife Federation, and many other well-known organizations. Isoph was bought by LearnSomething in 2005. I left LearnSomething in the summer of 2008 to pursue my current work.

Before launching Isoph, I was senior vice president of business development for Quisic, a leading provider of high-quality online management education. At Quisic, I oversaw all of the business development activities for the company, as well as relationships with major Quisic partners, including the National Center on Education and the Economy, PBS, IBM, Pearson, the London Business School, Insead, the Tuck School at Dartmouth, the Marshall School of Business (University of Southern California), and the Kenan-Flagler Business School (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

Earlier on, I taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill while working on a doctoral degree and managed to win an undergraduate teaching award in the process.

Before (and partly during) graduate school, I co-founded and has served as executive director and chairman of BoysCamp, a nonprofit corporation serving at-risk youths.

I also worked as a research analyst in the corporate governance division of the Investor Responsibility Research Center, a prominent think tank.

I earned my bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia and a master’s degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I currently serve on the Professional Development Council Section of the American Society of Association Executives as well as on the advisory board for Philantech, provider of the PhilanTrack™ online grant proposal, reporting, and management system. I’ve previously served on the research committee of the eLearning Guild and the editorial board of Innovate, a leading resource for information about technology and education.