Knewton Taps David Liu as Chief Operating Officer

August 2, 2010

Former AOL executive joins leading education technology company

Knewton, a leading education technology company, announced today that David Liu has been named Chief Operating Officer of the Company. Liu comes to Knewton with over 10 years of leadership experience in consumer Internet and media. The former Senior Vice President of the Global Messaging business unit at AOL, Liu oversaw AIM, ICQ, and Lifestream and reported to the CEO. At Knewton, Liu will be responsible for all operations and will help lead the company’s transition from building proprietary test prep products to becoming a software provider for the broader education market. Liu will also join Knewton’s board of directors.

“Knewton’s stated mission is to revolutionize education through our adaptive learning platform. We are thrilled that our GMAT, LSAT, and SAT test prep customers are seeing such strong results, proof that uniquely personalized education can create superior learning outcomes. David’s distinguished leadership track record and new media operations experience make him the right person to help us take our company to the next level by growing our successful test prep business and opening our platform to broader educational content,” said Knewton CEO and Founder Jose Ferreira.

While at AOL, Liu conceptualized, launched and led the growth of AOL.com into a top four global web portal, conceptualized and launched Lifestream into one of the largest social aggregators of content on the Web, and led the growth of the AOL toolbar to become a top three toolbar application. Liu and his team created new media and communications platforms that were used by close to 100 million people worldwide generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. Prior to AOL, Liu advised Fortune 500 companies in corporate and operating strategy as a management consultant with A.T. Kearney. Most recently, Liu was an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Stripes Group, a private equity firm focused on growth stage investments in the technology and consumer sectors.

I am excited to join Knewton at such a key moment in the company’s trajectory. Knewton is poised to transform the world’s largest information industry.” said Liu. “I look forward to scaling Knewton’s leading adaptive learning platform to power content from top global educational institutions and publishers to enable anyone, anywhere to learn more effectively.”

See the write-up on Techcrunch.

About Knewton

Knewton has developed the industry’s first adaptive learning engine and platform, powering customized educational content to meet the individual needs of each student. Knewton delivers content matching each student’s ideal learning arc and preferred medium. Knewton’s GMAT prep, LSAT prep, and SAT prep courses provide live and on-demand instruction from the country’s brightest and most experienced teachers, powered by an adaptive learning engine that targets a student’s individual strengths and weaknesses. Knewton plans to apply its online adaptive learning platform to a wide range of education markets. Knewton was founded by Jose Ferreira, a former executive at Kaplan, with funding from Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, First Round Capital and prominent angel investors.