Whew, this week flew by! But that brings us back to Friday, and that works for the Snoop. How about you? And before you head out, you know the drill….check my scoops!
New roles for colleagues and friends….
Anuraj Soni has been appointed as the Global Head of Professional Services for AIM Software, a leader in Buy Side Enterprise Data Management software. And Amina Loznica has been appointed as the Head of Professional Services Europe.
Reporting to Chief Executive Officer, Gayatri Raman, Anuraj will assume overall responsibility for AIM Software implementations globally. With over 20 years of experience in financial services delivery, he brings to the company a strong track record of building organizations, helping firms to scale to the next level of growth, and creating strong teams. Before joining AIM, Anuraj was Chief Operating Officer at Magic Software Inc. His background includes senior management positions at Headstrong, the Bank of America in New York, and Goldman Sachs.
Amina will be responsible for Professional Services operations in Europe and will report to Anuraj. Since joining AIM Software in 2003, Amina has excelled in a variety of leadership positions across technology, product design, and project delivery. She has over 13 years of experience in the financial capital markets industry, focusing specifically on the design and implementation of best-in-class data management solutions. Prior to AIM Software, she held IT consulting roles at Raiffeisen Zentralbank and Tscheinig & Partner.
Join me in congratulating Anuraj and Amina on their new roles at AIM Software!
Dr. Midian Kurland has been elected to the Board of Directors for The Virtual High School (VHS Inc.). Currently the President of Kurland Consulting, Midian previously served for 15 years as the Senior Vice President of Technology and Development and later of Technology Integration at Scholastic Education. During his tenure, he managed the technical group responsible for over a dozen technology-based curriculum product lines including the groundbreaking READ 180 family of reading intervention programs and Scholastic Red, an online professional development platform.
An influential leader with over 35 years of experience in publishing, product development, and educational research, Midian has held senior management positions at Education Development Center in Boston, the Advanced Technology Group at Apple, the Enterprise Software Group at Computer Curriculum Corporation, and several Silicon Valley Internet start-ups. Earlier in his career, he held research positions at the Center for the Study of Reading at the University of Illinois and the Center for Children and Technology at Bank Street College in New York. He received a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from The University of Toronto at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and a BA in Child Study from Tufts University.
Midian is such a bright and thoughtful leader in our industry. Let’s congratulate him on his new Board position with VHS!
And speaking of bright and thoughtful, another good industry friend has news! Michael F. Johnson is joining EvoText, a software development company specializing in education technology solutions and the developers of Ogment for curriculum creation and management, as the company’s president. Johanna Wetmore will continue to serve as CEO, and Chris Robert will retain his role as COO.
A pioneer in the education technology industry for over 30 years, Michael brings a wealth of expertise in working with businesses of all sizes and markets to quickly build and execute focused strategies. He comes to EvoText at a strategic time. Named one of the top 15 workplaces in the country for innovative and effective practices by The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), EvoText has grown ten-fold since its inception five years ago and now employs almost 50 “eduneers”—educators, engineers, and designers who have been at the forefront of educational technology for the past two decades.
Michael comes to EvoText from his consulting practice, Full Potential Associates, where he worked to help companies at all stages of growth, whether an established corporation considering a new direction or a start-up seeking experienced guidance or funding. Michael’s experience includes working with businesses of all sizes and markets to quickly build and execute focused strategies. Highlights include setting digital strategy for Follett Corporation; leading the team that created Follett’s e-book lending platform, which is still in use at almost 30,000 libraries around the world; design, development, and deployment of technology systems on every platform from mainframes to the cloud; and serving as a member of the Learning Resources Metadata Initiative and the Z39.50 Committee (ISO standards).
Michael is super excited about his new role and what he describes as “the amazing people” at EvoText. Join me in congratulating him on this new role. They are fortunate to add Michael to their talented team!
Kudos!
Association of American Publishers President and CEO Maria A. Pallante received the 2017 Champion of Intellectual Property (ChIP) Award this week at a reception hosted by The Honorable Sharon Prost, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Special guest Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Congressman and Chair of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, offered remarks during the award ceremony.
Presented by the D.C. Bar Intellectual Property Law Community, the ChIP Award honors an individual who has served the IP community with distinction, based on a nomination and voting process open to about 2,300 IP professionals. In a letter to Maria, the Intellectual Property Law Community’s co-chairs highlighted her “far-reaching career in IP,” including her current leadership of the AAP and her public service as U.S. Register of Copyrights from 2011-2016. “Your work in the private sector and public sector has made a lasting mark in the intellectual property field,” they wrote.
Since January 17, 2017, Maria has served as president and CEO of AAP. The AAP is the leading advocate for book and journal publishers in the United States, representing nearly 400 publishers of fiction, nonfiction, textbooks, and educational products as well as scientific, technical, and medical journals on legal, policy, and related business issues. In June 2017, she was named a trustee of the Copyright Society of the USA by its membership.
As Register, Maria worked closely with congressional leaders to assess and resolve complex policy questions during an active period of copyright review; supported trade, treaty, and litigation efforts across the U.S. government; and administered a complex system of copyright laws, regulations, and practices. Under her leadership, the Copyright Office produced the first comprehensive revision of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices for the digital era (2014). She also conducted dozens of regulatory proceedings and produced important public studies on complex subjects such as the implementation of the “making available right” under U.S. law, the music marketplace, statutory licenses, and copyright small claims.
Maria delivered numerous published lectures during her government service including the 2012 and 2013 David Nelson Memorial Keynote Addresses at Berkeley School of Law, Orphan Works & Mass Digitization: Obstacles & Opportunities; and The Curious Case of Copyright Formalities; and the 2016 Roger L. Shidler Lecture at the University of Washington School of Law, From Monkey Selfies to Open Source: The Essential Interplay of Creative Culture, Technology, Copyright Office Practice and the Law. Her lecture at Columbia Law School in 2013, The Next Great Copyright Act, spurred the most comprehensive process of Congressional hearings on copyright law in decades.
Prior to her government service, Maria was named a New York Super Lawyer during her eight-year tenure with the worldwide Guggenheim Museums, where she advised on issues involving the commission and collection of contemporary art and developed a signature trademark program involving the Guggenheim’s iconic brands and architecture. Early in her career, she handled transactions and litigation for members of the Authors Guild and National Writers Union. She is a graduate of The George Washington University School of Law.
The D.C. Bar’s reception is an annual event for the area legal community, bringing together practitioners, judges, government staff, and other distinguished guests from the IP field. The Honorable F. Scott Kieff of the United States International Trade Commission delivered keynote remarks.
Congratulations to Maria on this impressive and well-deserved honor!
The password-protected online conference directory of EdNET 2017 attendees will go live soon. Once you register, you will be included and can build out your online profile for supreme networking and connections.
Be sure to get registered so you can access the directory!
And…you only have one more week. If you haven’t yet done so, be sure you register for EdNET 2017 by July 31st! You will save yourself money by registering with the early discount for this not-to-be-missed event. Don’t be a slacker! Register now!
And be aware that EdNET supports startups! EdNET is the perfect place to find potential partners and investors while networking with leaders in the education technology industry and learning more about doing business in this market. To support young companies, we are again offering start-ups who qualify a special discount on EdNET to encourage their participation at the conference. See the criteria and share with your partners and friends who may benefit from this special discount.
Sponsorships are still available for the conference, and this year sponsors have expanded exhibit time and two birds-of-a-feather roundtables. EdNET sponsors find that much of the monetary investment made is returned to them in benefits before, during, and following the conference. If you would like to connect to learn more about sponsorship, e-mail me at bighamv@aol.com. Let me know any questions you have or any way I might assist with your decision-making.
It will be a hot, hot, hot weekend here, but one with some down time, I am hoping, as that is just what I need. Go have yourself some summer fun, and I will see you back here next week. Till then….Vicki, the Snoop
[Send me your scoops at bighamv@aol.com and be sure to follow me on Twitter @Snoops4Scoops #SheSnoops]
