We have a group of leaders with the vision and proven execution credentials, who
have come together to tackle this game changing opportunity. Here are the sample
bios of our board members:
Lowell Milken
Business leader Lowell Milken’s active involvement in commerce, real estate
and industry spans the globe. Since 1994, he has chaired London-based Heron International,
a worldwide force in property development and investment. As co-founder of Knowledge
Universe Education, LP, Lowell’s two plus decades of experience in education
have been strategic to Knowledge Universe’s growth in early childhood education
as well as in educational programs and services for young people and adults.
One of America’s leading philanthropists, Lowell has earned a reputation as
an education reform leader and pioneer for his innovative work in teacher quality
and for his creation of major national initiatives in K-12 education. He conceived
the Milken National Educator Awards in 1985 to recognize the importance of outstanding
educators and to encourage talented young people to choose teaching as a career.
With a network of nearly 2300 recipients and growing each year, the Milken Educator
Awards is today the nation’s largest teacher recognition program.
Lowell also launched the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) in 1999 as a comprehensive
research-based strategy to attract, develop, motivate and retain the very best talent
for America’s schools. TAP schools are now impacting more than 4,000 teachers
and 60,000 students. Based on TAP’s rapid growth and student performance,
as well as increasing demand for comprehensive teacher-quality reforms, Lowell established
the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching in 2006, a public charity, to
operate TAP as well as a Teacher Quality Best Practices Center, all to further the
goal of a quality teacher in every classroom in America.
Recognition for Lowell’s achievements in education has included awards from
such organizations as the National Association of State Boards of Education, the
Horace Mann League, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Lowell earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley,
and his law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the proud
father of four sons.
Mike Milken
Mike Milken is the Chairman of Knowledge Universe Education. A legendary financier widely
known for innovations that helped create millions of jobs in the more than 3,000 companies he
financed, Milken played a leading role in building the cable television, telecommunications,
cellular phone, home building and entertainment industries. “Much of the strength and resilience
of the economy today,” wrote the former editor of the Harvard Business Review, “is due to the
way people using Milken’s financing vehicles remade ailing companies or put their entrepreneurial
zeal to work.” One of America’s leading philanthropists, he was called “The Man Who Changed
Medicine” in a Fortune magazine cover story that chronicled his three decades of efforts to
accelerate medical solutions. His philanthropy began in the 1970s and paralleled his business
career. He co-founded the Milken Family Foundation in 1982 to advance programs in medical research
and education. In 1993, Mike expanded his medical philanthropy by launching the Prostate Cancer
Foundation, the world’s largest private source of funding for research on that disease. A decade
later, he concluded that progress wasn’t coming fast enough, so he founded FasterCures,
a Washington, DC-based think tank that works to remove barriers to progress against all
life-threatening diseases. And in 2007, he launched the Melanoma Research Alliance to accelerate
progress against fatal skin cancers..
Mike also chairs the Milken Institute, an economic think tank that works to spread the benefits of
financial innovation around the world as a means to advance democracy and broaden participation in
economic growth for people everywhere. Among the many awards he has received is the Marcus Garvey Award
for major contributions to the formation and inspiration of African-American businesses. He earned
his bachelor’s degree at the University of California at Berkeley, and his MBA from the University
of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Mike and his wife Lori have three children and celebrated their
40th anniversary this year. More information is at www.mikemilken.com.
More information is at www.mikemilken.com.
Peter Neupert
Peter is currently the corporate vice president for Health Strategy at Microsoft
Corp. Peter Neupert is responsible for Microsoft’s collaboration with the
healthcare ecosystem to address global infrastructure issues of significant scale.
Before rejoining Microsoft, Peter served as president and chief executive officer
of drugstore.com Inc. from July 1998 to April 2001, and then as chairman of the
board of directors from July 1999 to September 2004. Peter led drugstore.com to
become a top online retail store and information site for health, wellness, beauty
and pharmacy products. In 2000, Peter received an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur
of the Year award for his work at drugstore.com. > Peter served in various capacities
at Microsoft from 1987 to 1998. He started at Microsoft as the director of operating
systems responsible for shipping OS/2, and later was responsible for MSNBC as vice
president of News and Publishing for the interactive media group. Peter served on
President Bush’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 2003
to 2005.
Kal Raman
Kal is the CEO of GlobalScholar.com. Prior to joining GlobalScholar.com, he was
the SVP of WW hardlines at amazon.com since Aug 2004. At amazon.com, Kal was in
charge of the world wide hardlines business and also in charge of retail technology
and online marketing for the entire company. Kal held variety of jobs at drugstore.com
from 1998-2004. He was the CEO of drugstore.com from 2001-04 and also served as
COO and CIO. While Kal was the CEO of drugstore.com, the revenues grew 70% to $246
M and the company achieved EBITDA profitability for the first time in Q4, 2003.
As one of the early members of the senior management team at drugstore.com, Kal
was involved in building the team/company from scratch and was involved in various
rounds of fund raising including taking the company public in 1999 (NASDAQ:DSCM).
Prior to drugstore.com, Kal has served as the CIO of NationsRent and Senior Director
of technology at Blockbuster and as Director of Technology at Wal-Mart.
David Shaffer
David Shaffer just retired as the executive vice president of The Thomson Corporation
where he led critical enterprise-wide initiatives focused on leveraging assets and
driving operational effectiveness across the Corporation. In his role as EVP, David
reported directly to Thomson president and CEO, Dick Harrington. David also served
on the Thomson board of directors. Before assuming his current position, David oversaw
the successful transformation of Thomson Financial, a leading provider of information
services and work solutions to the worldwide financial community, as its chief executive
officer since 2002. Prior to joining Thomson Financial, David served as president
and chief executive officer of Thomson Learning, where he developed the strategy
of leveraging company resources to offer a full range of learning solutions that
support customers throughout the learning process. Prior to Thomson, David was chairman
of the board and chief executive officer of Jostens Learning Corporation, the nation's
leading developer of K-12 educational software. David is a member of the Advisory
Board at Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, one of
the top five graduate business schools in the world, and the William F. Achtmeyer
Center for Global Leadership at Tuck Business School at Dartmouth University. He
also sits on the national board of directors of Girls and Boys Town and Concours
Consulting Group. He is a member of the advisory boards of Cue Ball Group and Parthenon
Consulting and spent three years on the Board of Trustees of La Jolla Country Day
School.
Brad Silverberg
Brad is a founding partner of Ignition. He invests in software, infrastructure,
and consumer companies. Brad represents Ignition as director on the boards of GlobalScholar,
Seven, SourceLabs, and ice.com. Prior to founding Ignition, Brad is best known as
an industry pioneer who built the Microsoft Windows franchise and led Microsoft's
Internet turnaround. During his nine-year tenure at Microsoft, he was a senior vice
president and member of Microsoft's nine-member Executive Committee. He was responsible
for driving all aspects of the Windows business from 1990 through 1995, including
establishing the vision and strategy, and executing on product marketing and development.
In five years, he grew Windows from a $50 million business to over $3.5 billion.
He was also responsible for the MS-DOS business during that period. He was named
PC Magazine's Person of the Year in 1995 for his leadership of Windows 95.
Jonathan Stearns
Jonathan is the Managing Director of AIG Global Investment Group, New York. He joined
AIG in 2006 and is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, executing and managing
private capital investments on behalf of AIG and its subsidiaries. Mr. Stearns has
over 20 years of experience in private capital investments in a variety of industries,
capital structures and stages of development in companies located in the U.S. and
Western Europe. Prior to joining AIG, Mr. Stearns was a Director of Abbott Capital
from 2001 to 2005 where he was in charge of its direct private equity investment
program. From 1994 to 2000 he was the Managing Partner of Equinox Investment Partners,
a private capital investment company. Formerly, he was a Director of various subsidiaries
of Kleinwort Benson, PLC where he was actively involved in managing private capital
investments in the U.S. and Western Europe. Mr. Stearns received his B.A. in history
and political science from the University of the South and studied economics and
politics at the graduate school of Cornell University.