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The American Academy Online High School - Team Members

Management Team Gregg Rosann Rebekah Richards
 
President, Co-Founder
and CTO
Chief Academic Officer,
Co-Founder and School Principal
 
Board of Directors Mike Dodd Anthony E. Meyer Dr. Dinesh Patel
 
Director
Co-Founder
and Director
Director
 
Investors
Lead Investor
Investor
Co-Founder
and Investor
Investor
Gregg Rosann, President, Co-Founder and CTO    gregg's blog

Gregg Rosann, 43, is a co-founder of The American Academy.

Gregg is the President and Chief Technology Officer of The American Academy, having also served as Chief Operating Officer during the Company's startup phase. Gregg has more than 20 years of experience in software and systems integration across a variety of industries, with expertise in the public sector. At the American Academy, Gregg is responsible for the operations and technology that deliver education to students worldwide.

Previous to The American Academy, Gregg served as Vice President of Software Engineering at Tomax Corporation, where he led the development of the company's flagship Retail.net product. Gregg also spent 15 years at American Management Systems (acquired by CGI), where he successfully delivered a series of large and innovative technology projects to state and local agencies across the country and to the federal government. He specialized in systems that delivered significant cost savings and operational efficiencies, and managed customer-facing projects that delivered more than $50 Million in revenue to the company's State, Local and Federal business units.

Gregg also spent a year as an associate at the Lassonde New Venture Development Center at the University of Utah. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Connecticut, and his M.S. in Science Instrumentation from the University of Utah. [TOP]

Rebekah Richards, Chief Academic Officer, Co-Founder and School Principal

Rebekah Richards is The American Academy's Chief Academic Officer and School Principal. Rebekah has worked in online high school education since 1999; she has been involved in the early stage planning and implementation of numerous public and private online high schools throughout the country, including Colorado Online Learning, Connecticut’s Adult Education online program, The Online Latin School, and Insight Schools, Inc.

Prior to joining The American Academy, Rebekah was the Director of Curriculum & Instruction at Insight Schools, a subsidiary of the Apollo Group. Previously, she was the Founder and Executive Director of The Online Latin School, an online content and service provider for high schools; Rebekah also taught Latin and ancient Greek online for six years.

Rebekah is a frequent speaker on k12 online learning and has been featured at national and international conferences on topics including online learning for students with learning disabilities, online instructor training, learning management systems, training complex cognitive skills, and instructional message design.

Rebekah received a B.A. in Classics from Brigham Young University, an M.S. in Instructional Design and Technology from Utah State University, and an M.A. in Classical Philology from the University of Colorado-Boulder. [TOP]

Mike Dodd, Director

Mike Dodd, venture partner, joined Austin Ventures in 2008 and focuses on early and expansion-stage software and web-enabled business and consumer services. Most recently, Mike was SVP of Corporate Development with Omniture, Inc. (NASDAQ: OMTR), a publicly traded analytics and online business optimization software company. While there Mike led the identification, acquisition, and integration efforts around Omniture’s acquisition of two domestic and two international companies which totaled approximately $500 million in consideration. Prior to Omniture, Mike was Senior Vice President and General Manager at Ancestry.com, a consumer online content subscription business. He was also a Partner with Europatweb, a venture capital firm where he worked with companies such as Liquidity Services Inc (NASDAQ: LQDT) and Ancestry.com (NASDAQ: ACOM), and a technology investment banker with Robertson Stephens in San Francisco.

Mike received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in finance from Syracuse University. [TOP]

Anthony E. Meyer, Co-Founder and Director

Anthony E. Meyer, 48, is a co-founder of The American Academy.

In addition to his work at The American Academy, Tony is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of privately-held Meyer and Co. LLC, a diversified merchant banking firm based in New York City with interests in “entrepreneuring” and venture capital, real estate and “family office” management. He also serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Ocean Road Advisors, Inc. a family office management and investment company for several leading New York City-based families, which manages a portfolio in excess of $750 million invested on behalf of numerous client entities in a broad range of investment strategies, including public and private equities, hedge funds, real estate, and venture capital.

Tony has extensive experience and relationships in the real estate, finance, venture capital, healthcare, education and media sectors. He was a co-founder of the real estate, private equity and venture capital investment affiliates of two leading global investment and finance organizations, Lazard Frères & Co. (in 1994) and Trammell Crow Company (in 1984).

In 2002, Tony founded Extend Health, Inc., today the leading provider and manager of defined contribution health care programs for Corporate America. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with all core operational staff and facilities based in Salt Lake City, the Company now operates the nation's largest Medicare Insurance Exchange on behalf of clients such as General Motors, Wal*Mart and Ford Motor Company.

Tony has lectured in real estate, finance and entrepreneurship at Stanford University, New York University and Southern Methodist University and is a past Chairman of the Board of Literacy Instruction for Texas (L.I.F.T.). He is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization of the United Jewish Appeal and The Educational Alliance and currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York and on the Board of Governors of Dr. Mehmet Oz' HEALTHCORPS. Anthony is also the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of World of Children, an international advocacy organization whose mission is to honor, illuminate and inspire action on behalf of children worldwide.

Tony graduated from Harvard College in 1982 as a John Harvard Scholar and received his MBA from Harvard Business School with honors in 1984. [TOP]

Dr. Dinesh Patel, Director

Dr. Patel is a Managing Director and Founding Partner of vSpring Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund with over $400 million under management (2000 to present).

From 1985 through 1999, Dr. Patel served as co-founder, Chairman of The Board of Directors, President & CEO of TheraTech, Inc., a Salt Lake City, Utah based company that has been a pioneer in the development and manufacturing of innovative drug delivery products. TheraTech went public in 1992 and became profitable in 1997. In January 1999, TheraTech was acquired for approximately $350 million by Watson Pharmaceuticals, a California based company.

Besides vSpring and TheraTech Inc., Dr. Patel has founded or co-founded several life science and technology companies including Ashni Naturaceuticals, Inc., Salus Therapeutics, Inc.(acquired by Genta), and OneCare.

Dr. Patel has been the recipient of numerous awards including; the 2009 Utah Genius Lifetime Avhievement Award, Honorary Doctor of Business Degree, University of Utah (2008), the 2006 Utah Technology Council Hall of Fame, 2006 Pathfinder Award - Edison Showcase University of Utah, 2006 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Business Award, US Small Business Administration’s Business Achiever Award, Scientific and Technology Award (State of Utah), Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Mountain West Venture Group) and Scientific and Technology Development Pioneer of Progress Award, to name just a few.

Dr. Patel served as co-chair of Governor Huntsman’s transition team and is currently on the board of the Utah Policy Partnership (UPP), the board of the Utah Symphony & Opera, the Chairman of the USTAR Governing Authority board and sits on the Utah Technology Council executive committee.

Born and raised in Zambia, Africa, Dr. Patel recieved his undergraduate degree from India and his doctorate degree from University of Michigan. Dr. Patel along with his wife Kalpana and children, Ashish and Avni, reside in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dr. Patel is active in the Indian and local community serving on several boards and is an active donor for various charitable causes. The Patels have established graduate fellowships at University of Utah, Utah State University and University of Michigan. [TOP]

About Our Investors

Austin Ventures, Lead Investor
Austin Ventures ("AV") has worked with talented entrepreneurs to build valuable companies for nearly twenty-five years. With $3.9 billion under management, AV is the most active venture capital and growth equity firm in Texas and one of the most established in the nation. With an investment focus on business services and supply chain, financial services, media and information services, software and Internet, education and Texas special situations, AV invests at all stages of company development, from $100,000 in "planned experiments" in early stage ideas to $100+ million investments in expansion rounds, minority recapitalizations, and buyouts of lower middle market growth companies. AV's strategy is to partner with talented executives and entrepreneurs through its CEO-in-Residence and Entrepreneur-in-Residence programs. Visit austinventures.com for more information. [TOP]
vSpring Capital, Investor
vSpring Capital is a traditional early-stage venture capital firm with over $400 million of committed capital under management. Collectively, the vSpring team has founded, served as senior officers or board members of over 75 companies. Combined, the directors have a history of successful company leadership and private equity investments that span over 60 years. [TOP]
Paul Zane Pilzer, Co-Founder and Investor
Professor Paul Zane Pilzer is a world-renowned economist, software entrepreneur, adjunct professor, former White House economic advisor, and the author of nine best-selling books and dozens of scholarly publications. He received his BA from Lehigh University in 1974, his MBA from Wharton Business School in 1976, and was appointed an Adjunct Professor at New York University in 1979 where he taught for 21 consecutive years and was voted “best professor” by NYU students. [TOP]
Joel Peterson, Investor
Joel Peterson is the Founding Partner of Peterson Partners. Before founding Peterson Partners, Joel was the managing partner at Trammell Crow Company. He holds an MBA from Harvard and currently teaches entrepreneurial management at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. He currently serves on the boards of jetBlue and Asurion. [TOP]