Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> March 21, 2001
MATTHEW S. PITTINSKY is Chairman and co-Founder of Blackboard Inc. He is
responsible for Blackboard Inc.'s vision, conceived by research he
conducted at the Harvard Graduate School of Education to transform the
Internet into a powerful environment for teaching and learning. In his
role, Mr. Pittinsky serves as Blackboard's primary spokesperson. His
background includes training as a social studies teacher, and he comes
from a family of educators. Mr. Pittinsky is a recognized leader in the
field of e-learning and, particularly, on the Internet's impact on
higher education. He is credited with an early identification of the
need for a widely adopted platform to power e-learning initiatives, and
he was an early member of the IMS Global Learning Consortium e-Learning
Standards project. Mr. Pittinsky has been instrumental in Blackboard's
growth to 5.3 million users ' reaching 5,000 institutions in every state
and 70 countries. As Chairman and Co-Founder, he directs the company's
business strategy and spends much of his time with faculty, students,
university CIOs, and others to align Blackboard's corporate strategy
with the business, technical, and pedagogical needs of educators. Before
founding Blackboard, Mr. Pittinsky was a consultant for KPMG's Higher
Education Consulting Practice. Mr. Pittinsky has served on numerous
panels and presented at industry conferences for organizations such as
EDUCAUSE, the Harvard Business School and the Software Publishers
Association. In 1999 Washingtonian magazine named him one of the 100
People to Watch. Washington Business Forward also named Mr. Pittinsky as
one of Washington's Youngest and Coolest Entrepreneurs. This year,
Washington Techway magazine named him among the area's top under-30
technology executives. Most recently, Ernst & Young named Mr. Pittinsky
and Michael Chasen, President and CEO of Blackboard Inc., Entrepreneurs
of the Year for Emerging Companies in Washington, DC. In addition to
authoring numerous articles. Mr. Pittinsky is often quoted in major
media outlets, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The
Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business
Week, Educom Review, The Industry Standard, CNNfn, ABC News, The
Associated Press and Architectural Digest. Mr. Pittinsky serves on the
Advisory Boards of SMARTHINKING.com, an online tutoring company, and
Syllabus2000, a prestigious education technology forum. Profile
Inc.?
Mr. Pittinsky: Blackboard is what we call an e-education infrastructure
company. We provide the software and services
