On Balance

Pierre Dubuc is the co-founder and CEO of OpenClassrooms, one of the largest global

education-to-employment platform providers, with 355,000 students across 140 countries,

thousands of full-time diploma students, and hundreds of corporate customers.

OpenClassrooms is a private, B-Corp-certified distance-learning organization registered with

the Board of Education in Paris, France, accredited as a higher education institution by the

French state.

Pierre met Mathieu Nebra, the co-founder of the company, in 2001; both were teenagers then,

curious about coding and computers. In 2013, after years of promoting online education and

several pivots, they created OpenClassrooms, headquartered in Paris, France. They later

founded OpenClassrooms Inc, a registered apprenticeship provider approved by the US DOL

and a postsecondary educational institution.

OpenClassrooms is making education accessible to all by delivering fully online work-based

learning programs and internationally recognized degrees. With a unique approach based on

mastery learning, hands-on projects, and individualized mentoring, the platform promotes

employability for all, specifically in today’s and tomorrow’s most sought-after jobs and

competencies, like tech, data, IT, business, etc.

Among numerous other distinctions, Pierre Dubuc was featured among the “30 under 30” by

Forbes magazine and selected in the 2020 Young Leaders program of the French-American

Foundation.

On Balance with Michael Simpson, the CEO and Co-founder of PAIRIN. Simpson sits down with Berger to discuss his career path, the nuances of data, and making transformational change occur while others sit on the sidelines. Simpson is refreshingly honest about his goals, the challenges of the market, and purpose over-profit approaches.

In this episode of On Balance, Dr. Rod Berger sat down with former Arkansas Secretary of Education Johnny Key to discuss his recent career move from the public sector to Strategos Group, which allows him to continue pursuing his passion—finding solutions that create positive education outcomes for kids.

About Johnny:

Johnny Key joined Strategos Group in March 2023. He served as secretary of the Arkansas Department of Education from 2019 to 2023 and as commissioner of the department from 2015 to 2019, overseeing the state’s 237 school districts and 18 charter school systems.

Under Key’s leadership, the department developed a vision to transform Arkansas into a national leader of student-focused education. Arkansas became a national leader in computer science and literacy education.

Johnny was also Vice President for University Relations at the University of Arkansas System from 2014 to 2015. Key also served as a state senator in Arkansas from 2009 to 2014, holding leadership positions, including minority leader and chair of the Senate Education Committee, among others. Johnny was a state representative from 2003 to 2008.

Today, I sat down with Madeleine Thakur, President and CEO of The Children’s Movement of Florida.

We discussed the significance of early learning and why parents should understand its importance.

“What we know from the brain research over the last 40 years of brain research is that the first three years are really critical for establishing communication, cooperation, how to focus on a task … it’s the downpayment for the k12 system—all the learning that happens.” – Madeleine Thakur, President and CEO of The Children’s Movement Florida.

About Madeleine:

She oversees all of The Movement’s outreach and communications efforts, including the business engagement initiative Bosses for Babies, and leads state-level #policy efforts aimed at increasing investment in high-quality early learning, health care for children, and parent support.

A #Miami native and one of five children, she is a proud graduate of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. She holds a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Chicago and a diploma from Sciences Po in Paris.

Learn more about Madeleine and The Children's Movement here.

In this episode of On Balance, Dr. Rod Berger sat down with Dr. Mike Magee, president of Minerva University. 

About Dr. Mike Magee

Dr. Mike Magee is the President of Minerva University. Prior to joining Minerva, he was founding CEO of Chiefs for Change, a non-profit organization supporting leaders of many of the nation’s largest and most innovative K-12 public education systems. Previously, Magee co-founded and was CEO of Rhode Island Mayoral Academies (RIMA). As CEO of RIMA, he built a statewide network of regional, racially and economically diverse public schools while successfully advocating for sweeping changes to state education policy.

Before starting RIMA, Magee taught American literature and philosophy for a decade at Haverford College, Wheaton College, and the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2004, his book, Emancipating Pragmatism, won the Elizabeth Agee Prize in American Studies. He is a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow, and for the past several years has moderated seminars for both the Pahara Institute and the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Magee holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s in political science and English from the College of the Holy Cross.

On Balance with Maureen Kelleher & Rebecca Klein discuss their ground-breaking project, Jane Crow: Then and Now. The project explores the role women have played in the very complicated and impactful social structures of education. 

In this episode of On Balance, Dr. Rod Berger sat down with Fordham University’s VP and Chief Information Officer Anand Padmanabhan. They talked about the value of technology to higher education students and faculty as it relates to post-graduation job placement.

About Anand

Anand Padmanabhan is a global technology leader and a creative, strategic, and entrepreneurial chief information officer. He has led several organizations through digital transformation efforts, conceptualizing strategies and delivering platforms that align technology with academic and business objectives.

Prior to coming to Fordham, he was the founding chief technology and information officer for Whittle School & Studios, a global institution for students ages 3 to 18, where he led an initiative to support a multi-site, multinational K-12 education system in China and the U.S. He has been a CIO at multiple universities around the world, and has led strategies for statewide and university-wide initiatives on various aspects of using technology in teaching and learning, data security, high-performance computing, data analytics, and building student-centered technology ecosystems.

Anand has an M.B.A. from NYU Stern School of Business, an M.S. in computer engineering from Louisiana State University, and a B.E. in electronics and telecom engineering from Madras University. He has received numerous national and international honors for his work and on behalf of the teams he has led, including two CIO 100 awards (one in the U.S. and one in India), the 2017 Cloud Leadership Award, and Campus Technology’s Innovation in Teaching and Learning award. He has served on multiple boards and has published papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Prior to working at Whittle, he was the senior vice president and chief information officer for the New School (which includes Parsons School of Design). He has also served as the corporate chief information officer for HCL Corporation and for Shiv Nadar Foundation in Delhi, India; as CIO at Everonn Education in Chennai, NYU Stern School of Business, Hunter College of the City University of New York, and Tennessee State University; as executive director of IT for Seton Hill University; and as an educational technologist at NASA Center for Educational Technologies.

On Balance with Ruth Birman of DigitalEd

Director of Product Development and Innovation with six years of experience leading global product teams through digital transformation, design thinking, and product growth. A natural facilitator and technology officer, connecting internal teams, senior stakeholders, and external partners. Cultivating expansion of overall tech strategy and motivating diverse product ideation to launch user-driven products for clients, including government agencies and global brands. Ruth began her career in market research at the age of 15 as an interviewer testing various products, services, and marketing campaigns. Fascinated with telecommunications and technology, she pivoted to customer service at Rogers and after pushing for several process improvements and enhancements for internal software, became a business analyst. This kicked off a career in both business process optimization and user experience design working for clients like TD and RBC as well as projects like Project Literacy and The Giving Tower. From there, she moved into broader product strategy, working on software that solved supply chain issues for some of the world's biggest brands and ultimately building product and design teams.

On Balance with Monica Fagraeus Lundstrom

Boksnok announces rebranding, changes name to Lylli with new visual identity and product updates

The Swedish tech company Lylli, previously known as Boksnok, closed a seed round of 1.2 million Euro earlier this fall. The company now gears up for growth and further expansion, launching a new name and visual identity.  

- We’re happy to be working together with Lylli to secure a strong position for kids’ books in the digital world. With the Lylli app’s new design, the books are placed in an environment that we believe will attract more children and entice an increased interest for reading. We look forward to seeing the Lylli world develop further, says Frida Änges, Business Area Manager at Bonnierförlagen

On Balance with Mikael Larsson

Learnster develops the LMS of tomorrow for growing organizations.

‍Learnster’s cutting-edge technology creates new, efficient ways of sharing information and knowledge with the entire organization. Save valuable time with Learnster’s smart Automation Rules. The revolutionary Knowledge Gap AI pinpoints individual learning priorities.