Personalized education for the world.

Our Executive Team

• 

  Jose Ferreira Founder and CEO

  Jose Ferreira is the founder and CEO of Knewton, the world’s leading adaptive learning company. Knewton’s cloud-based platform uses concept-level data to create uniquely personalized learning plans, allowing educators to tailor their content to the exact needs of individual students. The company was named a 2011 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum at Davos. In October 2011, Knewton announced a partnership with Pearson, the world’s largest education company, to power all of their digital Higher Education products in North America.

  Jose earned his MBA from Harvard and was formerly an executive at Kaplan, where he led a company-wide re-engineering effort to redesign the company’s courses. Most recently, he was a Partner at New Atlantic Ventures (formerly Draper Atlantic), investing in new media and SaaS companies.

  Twitter: @Knewton_Jose

• 

  David Liu Chief Operating Officer

  David Liu, Knewton’s Chief Operating Officer, comes to Knewton with over 10 years of senior leadership experience in operational, business development, strategic planning, and start-up roles in consumer Internet and media. As Senior Vice President of AOL, Inc., he oversaw AIM, ICQ, and Lifestream as head of Global Messaging. David and his team created next-gen new media and communications platforms that serve close to 100 million users worldwide. Liu conceptualized, launched and led the growth of the AOL.com into a top 4 global web portal, conceptualized and launched Lifestream into one of the largest social aggregators of content on the Web, as well as relaunched the AOL Toolbar and led its growth to a top 3 toolbar application.

  Prior to AOL, David served as a management consultant for A.T. Kearney advising Fortune 500 companies on corporate and operating strategy. He is a board director to PrecisionIR Group, board advisor/angel investor to Assistly, Blockboard, SimpleGeo, and other start-ups. David received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He has been awarded a patent for web-based content personalization.

  Twitter: @dliu8

• 

  Brian Fitzgerald Vice President, Product Development

  Brian Fitzgerald came to Knewton with 15 years of experience developing digital media consumer products and services. Most recently, he served as Vice President, Education for Audible.com (an Amazon.com company), where, among other initiatives, he created AudibleKids and VangoNotes. Prior to joining Audible, Fitzgerald worked at Yahoo as an original member of the Yahoo Mail team. He spent 7 years at Yahoo in product management roles in Silicon Valley and Europe, building and managing more than 50 Yahoo products such as Yahoo Auctions, Yahoo Messenger, and Yahoo Small Business. He served on the Board of Directors of the Just Think Foundation. He received an M.A. in Instructional Technology and Media from Columbia University’s Teachers College and a B.S. in Entrepreneurship from Babson College.

  Twitter: @brianfitzy

• 

  Patricia Gabriel Vice President, Finance

  Patricia Gabriel is Vice President of Finance at Knewton, where she is responsible for managing finance and accounting operations. Prior to joining the team, Patricia spent almost five years at the online performance marketing company LinkShare, where as VP of Finance she directed corporate finance operations in the U.S. and in the company’s international subsidiaries. While at LinkShare, Patricia was trained in the Japanese practice of Kaizen to achieve ongoing improvement and was appointed the G&A leader of the Operations Management Office where she spearheaded several projects in finance, accounting, facilities, and IT to build operational efficiencies. Prior to her roles in finance and operations, Patricia worked in marketing communications for over a decade, the last four years running her own business as a strategic marketing and communications specialist in the pharmaceutical industry. Patricia holds a B.A. in Economics from McGill University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

• 

  Ken Goldstein Vice President, Sales

  Ken Goldstein, Knewton’s Vice President of Sales, comes to Knewton with over 15 years of sales and sales leadership experience in the education technology field. He led high performing sales teams in the eLearning space for the last decade at Blackboard, and prior to that at eCollege. Prior to joining Knewton he was the Vice President and Head of Global Sales at eSchool Solutions. Ken has a proven background in sales, sales management, coaching, complex solution selling, and account management for advanced learning technologies. Some of the notable projects that he has worked on over the years include the K-20 eLearning platform implementation for the state of New Mexico; many large, statewide virtual school initiatives including Illinois, Kentucky, Idaho, Michigan, and Texas; as well as large scale eLearning projects for many of the leading universities and school districts across the U.S.

  Ken received a dual Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder and also has a Master’s degree in Organizational Management and Development from the University of Colorado-Denver.

  Twitter: @Knewton_Ken

• 

  David Kuntz Vice President, Research

  David Kuntz has been involved in every aspect of the large-scale educational assessment business. Over the span of his 20-year career, he has held senior positions at Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC). He also created the first automated test assembly algorithm and system for the current LSAT, the first web-based computer-adaptive test delivery system, the first online AP practice program using real AP graders, and the first large-scale web-based portfolio scoring and management system. He has been awarded five assessment-related patents. Kuntz holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Brown, an M.A. in Philosophy from Rutgers, and an MBA from Wharton.

• 

  Katie Kurtz Vice President, Business Development

  Katie Kurtz directs strategic partnerships for Knewton. Prior to joining the team, Katie was with The Princeton Review for ten years as Assistant Vice President of Business Development, where she forged lucrative partnerships with such organizations as USA TODAY, Texas Instruments, Wrigley, and Hearst. Katie also launched My SAT Coach for the Nintendo DS with Ubisoft and an award-winning series of SAT and GRE iPhone apps. Previously, Katie was an Associate Producer at Food Network, working on such shows as Emeril Live and Ready, Set, Cook. Katie received a B.A. in Art History from Vassar College and an M.A. in Media Studies from The New School for Social Research.