Ed on the Edge

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Entrepreneurs. Educators. Investors. Policymakers. Hosted by GSV Founder & CEO Michael Moe, Ed on the Edge covers the "who" and the "how" of driving change in the global education landscape.

Alan Todd is the founder of Udemy Business Leadership Academy. Alan is an education entrepreneur focused on solving organizational learning and leadership problems. As evangelist, advisor and podcast host for Udemy, he lives his life’s purpose of growing leaders, who grow organizations that change the world. Before Corp U, Alan was a pioneer in online learning, founding and leading KnowledgePlanet. The company was a key player in the online learning revolution and reached millions of learners in 150 countries. With over 30 years of experience transforming learning, Alan has served on Pennsylvania's Higher Education Commission, the Boards of Trustees at Dickinson College and Harrisburg University, and as Wharton's Entrepreneur-In-Residence, supporting innovative education startups.

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Entrepreneurs. Educators. Investors. Policymakers. Hosted by GSV Founder & CEO Michael Moe, Ed on the Edge covers the "who" and the "how" of driving change in the global education landscape.

Ben Nelson is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Minerva and Founder of Minerva University. Ben founded Minerva in 2011 with the goal of nurturing critical wisdom for the sake of the world through a systematic and evidence-based approach to learning. Nelson has since built Minerva University, which has been ranked as the most innovative university in the world, and has developed a business to share Minerva's unique approach with other like-minded institutions, corporations, and governments. Prior to Minerva, Nelson spent 10 years at Snapfish, where he helped build the company from startup to the world’s largest personal publishing service. Serving as CEO from 2005 through 2010, Nelson began his tenure at Snapfish by leading the company’s sale to Hewlett Packard for $300 million. Nelson holds a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he created a blueprint for curricular reform in his first year, the principles from which he drew to frame Minerva.

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Entrepreneurs. Educators. Investors. Policymakers. Hosted by GSV Founder & CEO Michael Moe, Ed on the Edge covers the "who" and the "how" of driving change in the global education landscape.

Jack Ford is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist, author, college professor, award-winning documentary film producer, and former trial attorney. An original anchor at the launch of Court TV, he was the co-anchor of the Weekend Today Show, a substitute anchor for Nightly News and Meet the Press, and has worked as a correspondent for Good Morning America and ESPN. He has received two Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, an American Radio and Television Award, a National Headliner Award, and the March of Dimes FDR Award. He also serves as the Vice Chairman of the National Football Foundation. A graduate of Yale University and the Fordham University School of Law, he is a Visiting Lecturer at Yale, NYU, and the University of Virginia, teaching a seminar on famous trials.

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Entrepreneurs. Educators. Investors. Policymakers. Hosted by GSV Founder & CEO Michael Moe, Ed on the Edge covers the "who" and the "how" of driving change in the global education landscape.

Dave and Helen Edwards are the Co-Founders of Artificiality, a think tank dedicated to unraveling AI's impact on individuals, organizations, and society through research, publications, and events. 

Helen previously co-founded Intelligentsia.ai (acquired by Atlantic Media) and worked at Meridian Energy, Pacific Gas & Electric, Quartz, and Transpower.

Dave previously co-founded Intelligentsia.ai (acquired by Atlantic Media) and worked at Apple, CRV, Macromedia, Morgan Stanley, and Quartz.

Earlier this month, Dave and Helen published the research piece Learning in the Intimacy Economy in collaboration with Dash Media.

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Entrepreneurs. Educators. Investors. Policymakers. Hosted by GSV Founder & CEO Michael Moe, Ed on the Edge covers the "who" and the "how" of driving change in the global education landscape.

Today’s episode takes a look at the 65-year career of one of the most impactful individuals in the history of American education. 

Bill Milliken, Founder and Vice Chairman of Communities In Schools, Inc., is one of the nation's foremost pioneers in the movement to give young people the help they need to graduate from high school and go on to rewarding lives. 

Mr. Milliken's activism began in 1960 when he joined Young Life, an ecumenical youth organization. He helped initiate “street academies” for young people who had dropped out of school and wanted a chance to resume their education, as well as live-in programs for substance abusers and youth in need of shelter and support. His experiences led him to search for a comprehensive approach to helping young people. This search culminated in the 1970s with the development of a model program that repositioned existing community resources into schools — the Communities In Schools network, which Mr. Milliken led as President until May 2004.

Communities In Schools is the nation’s leading community-based organization helping students achieve in school and prepare for life. Currently, the organization directly serves more than 2 million students and their families each year. Mr. Milliken has served three U.S. presidents and has received numerous honors for his commitment to young people.

Most recently, he was the recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award for National Service. Prior to that, he received the Visionary Ambassador’s Award from Usher’s New Look Foundation and the National Jefferson Award for Public Service, which is widely regarded as the “Nobel Prize” for outstanding community and public service.

Mr. Milliken serves on the boards of Leadership Foundations and Communities In Schools of Virginia. He also serves on the Board of Selectors of the Jefferson Awards, who choose the annual Jefferson Awards winners. He is an honorary member of Path North and is the author of four books: So Long, Sweet Jesus; Tough Love; The Last Dropout: Stop the Epidemic!; and From the Rearview Mirror: Reflecting on Connecting the Dots. Originally published in 2007, a revised edition of The Last Dropout was recently released in November 2022. Mr. Milliken received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in 2007 from Bard College.

Bio via communitiesinschools.org

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Entrepreneurs. Educators. Investors. Policymakers. 

Hosted by GSV Founder & CEO Michael Moe, Ed on the Edge covers the "who" and the "how" of driving change in the global education landscape.

Michael Moe is the Founder & CEO of GSV, a growth investment platform. GSV identifies, advises, invests in, and accelerates the most transformative companies in the world. GSV has invested in game-changing companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Snap, Lyft, Palantir, Coursera, and Spotify.

Brent Peus Jr. is VP of Growth Research & Strategy at GSV and Head of Dash Media. 

This conversation is from the Imagine AI LIVE conference in Las Vegas, NV in March of 2024. The interviewer, Chris Madden, is a co-founder of the event and the CEO of Good Future Media.

https://www.dashmedia.co/

Entrepreneurs. Educators. Investors. Policymakers.
Hosted by GSV Founder & CEO Michael Moe, Ed on the Edge covers the "who" and the "how" of driving change in the global education landscape.

Jim Barnett is the CEO and Co-founder of Wisq (www.wisq.com), a business that gives every manager an AI-powered guide delivering personalized coaching, real-time guidance, and expert advice. Prior to Wisq, he co-founded Glint, where he served as CEO and Chairman before its acquisition by LinkedIn, where he then took on the role of VP of Product. Jim's entrepreneurial journey also includes co-founding Turn, a groundbreaking advertising technology company, and serving as Chairman of Sojern, a travel marketing platform. With experience as an investor at Shasta Ventures and executive roles at companies like Overture, AltaVista, Ancestry.com, and Accolade Video Games, Jim has earned a reputation as a seasoned leader in the tech industry.

https://www.dashmedia.co/

Entrepreneurs. Educators. Investors. Policymakers. 
Hosted by GSV Founder & CEO Michael Moe, Ed on the Edge covers the "who" and the "how" of driving change in the global education landscape.

Ben Wallerstein is CEO & Co-Founder of Whiteboard Advisors, a unique strategy consulting, communications, and advocacy firm built to help change-making organizations and entrepreneurs make an impact.

Over the last twenty years, Ben Wallerstein has earned a reputation as the go-to advisor for education’s most impactful investors, nonprofit and corporate leaders. As an attorney and seasoned communications professional, Ben brings a deeply substantive perspective to bear on complex policy and communications challenges.

In 2022, Ben was named to Washingtonian magazine’s annual list of the nation’s most influential leaders in education. EdTech Digest named Ben to its annual list of the top thought leaders in the sector.

A frequent commentator on the intersection of regulation and innovation, Whiteboard Advisors’ research and commentary has appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, TechCrunch, EdSurge, VentureBeat, and The Huffington Post, among others.

Beyond Whiteboard Advisors, Ben is passionate about supporting the work of early-stage education entrepreneurs and has served as a judge for the PENN Education Business Plan Competition, the 1776 Challenge Cup, and the Yale School of Management Business Plan Competition. He previously curated “Three Minutes to Launch,” for the New York Times’ Schools of Tomorrow Summit.

An active education investor, Ben serves as a Senior Advisor to New Markets Venture Partners. He is also a member of the Advisory Council for Rethink Education and served on the investment committee for the Jefferson Education Fund, which was founded by the University of Virginia’s School of Education Foundation.

Ben previously served on the Boards of Blyth-Templeton Academy, the American Institute for Foreign Study Foundation, and on the B Lab education standards working group.

The product of public schools in Norwalk, CT, Ben’s work reflects a deep and longstanding commitment to improving public education. He attended the University of Richmond and received his J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University, where he was an editor of the Law Review.

Ben began his career as an aide to former Xerox CEO, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education, David Kearns.

Bio via www.whiteboardadvisors.com

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Entrepreneurs. Educators. Investors. Policymakers. 
Hosted by GSV Founder & CEO Michael Moe, Ed on the Edge covers the "who" and the "how" of driving change in the global education landscape.

Joe Lonsdale is the Founder and Managing Partner at 8VC, an early-stage venture capital firm managing over $6 billion in capital. In 2003, he founded Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR), a global software company known for its work supporting US and its allies’ defense and intelligence. Since then, he has founded more than a dozen prominent companies, including Addepar, a wealth management platform with about $5 trillion, and OpenGov, the leading cloud software provider for local governments. He continues to create and scale companies through the 8VC Build program.

As an investor, Joe was an early backer of companies like Anduril Industries, Oculus (acq. FB), Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH), Oscar (NYSE:OSCR), Illumio, Wish (NASDAQ:WISH), JoyTunes, Blend (NYSE:BLND), Flexport, Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY), Orca Bio, Qualia, Synthego, RelateIQ (acq. CRM), Yugabyte, and others.

Joe and his wife Tayler are active in a variety of philanthropic and institutional pursuits. In 2018, they founded the non-partisan Cicero Institute, which crafts and advances policies to promote effective and accountable governance, and is now successfully battling special interests with teams in over a dozen states. In 2021, Joe became the founding chairman of the board of the University of Austin (UATX), a new university dedicated to restoring the pursuit of truth in higher education. He also sits on the board of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute.

Joe and his wife Tayler have four daughters and one son and live in Austin, Texas.

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Rex Woodbury is the Founder and Managing Partner of Daybreak Ventures, a thesis-driven early-stage venture capital firm. The firm invests in Internet, software, and technology-enabled businesses, focusing on health, sustainability, education, community, and job creation. 

Prior to Daybreak, Rex was a Partner at Index Ventures where he focused on early-stage and growth investments in consumer technology businesses. Previously, Rex was an investor at TPG Growth and The Rise Fund, TPG’s global growth equity and social impact funds. Rex received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth, where he ran cross country.

Rex writes Digital Native, a weekly Substack about the intersection of people and technology that reaches over 60,000 readers.