After senior roles in and consulting to over 25 industries, Matthew Mahoney founded Endeavor Prep in 2007 to ensure more people -- 100 million more -- do what they love. Since he was a youth organizer at age 13 in California, Matt has worked to create conditions for individuals, groups, companies, and institutions to learn.
Matt is an education and technology entrepreneur. Not too long ago, he ran the professional services business for enterprise wiki leader Socialtext where he advised global companies on how to deploy large-scale collaboration. Previously he was co-COO of customer experience consulting firm Creative Good. Matt began his career at Knowledge Adventure and Autobytel. He has also served as a professional facilitator for the Global Youth Summit at the State of the World Forum, the Corporation for National Service, New York City Public Schools, the Department of Defense, and the Presidio Leadership Center.
Matt holds a B.S. in Cognitive Science from UCLA and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was an Arthur Rock Entrepreneurial Fellow. He blogs over at http://node.typepad.com/.
Karen Baldeschwieler has worked in the education industry for 20 years, as educator, entrepreneur, and executive. Baldeschwieler started her career as a K-12 English teacher, then founded two for-profit business that provided one-on-one tutoring and education consulting services to individual and institutional clients.
In 1999, Baldeschwieler joined the Washington Post Company’s Kaplan, Inc. subsidiary, where she spearheaded the $600MM diversified education company’s effort to change its internet strategy from a publishing focus to an e-commerce focus. She led a cross-functional team in creating Kaplan Test Prep’s online division and launched the project that built Kaplan’s first distance education products: online courses in SAT, GMAT, and LSAT. In 2000, Baldeschwieler assumed the role of CFO of Kaplan’s online higher education efforts. She integrated three entities in four locations to create Kaplan University, which is now the second largest player in the online higher education space, after University of Phoenix.
In 2003, she assumed the role of VP Strategy, serving as a key member of the Senior Executive Team that grew Kaplan Higher Education Online to include criminal justice, information technology, paralegal, and education degrees, serving over 38,000 students today. In 2004, Baldeschwieler left Kaplan to found Fortene, Inc., a finance and strategy consulting firm focused in the education and technology services verticals.
She holds an AB cum laude from Harvard, an MA in English from University of California at Irvine, and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
Neil Howe is a historian, economist, and demographer who writes and speaks frequently on generational change in American history and on long-term fiscal policy. He is cofounder of LifeCourse Associates, a marketing, HR, and strategic planning consultancy serving corporate, government, and nonprofit clients. He has coauthored six books with William Strauss, including Generations (1991), 13th Gen (1993), The Fourth Turning (1997), and Millennials Rising (2000). His other coauthored books include On Borrowed Time (1988). He is a public policy advisor to the Blackstone Group, senior advisor to the Concord Coalition, and senior associate to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He holds graduate degrees in history and economics from Yale University.
Ross Mayfield is the Chairman, President and co-founder of Socialtext, the first wiki company and leading provider of Enterprise 2.0 solutions. A noted blogger and industry expert, he is a serial and social entrepreneur. Mayfield has grown Socialtext to over 4,000 customers and served as CEO from 2002-2007. Socialtext is backed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, SAP Ventures, Intel Capital and Omidyar Network and prominent Silicon Valley angels.
Previously, Mayfield served as VP of Marketing for a Fujitsu spinout and CEO of an enterprise risk management software company. Mayfield co-founded and served as president of RateXchange (AMEX:RTX), the leading B2B commodity exchange for telecom. Mayfield served as the marketing director of the largest privately held telecommunications group in Eastern Europe and was the internal lead manager of their Initial Public Offering. He also founded an ISP, a web-design company, and has served on a number of Advisory Boards of high tech startups.
Mayfield is a former advisor to the Office of the President of Estonia and began his career in the non-profit sector. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Los Angeles and completed the Management Development for Entrepreneurs (MDE) program of the Anderson School of Business. He resides in his hometown of Palo Alto with his wife and two children.
Don't settle. Do what you love.