SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 8, 2015 -- NextLesson, a developer of K-12 supplemental resources that are personally relevant to students, today announced that education industry veteran, Thomas Motter, has joined the company as Head of Sales. In addition, Robin Richards, Chairman and CEO of CareerArc Group and former Chairman and CEO of Blackboard Connect, has been appointed to the company’s Advisory Board.
“Tom has a sterling reputation as a sales leader nationwide,” said Dion Lim, Founder and CEO of NextLesson. “He brings a wealth of knowledge of the K-12 edtech market and a proven track record of partnering with districts.”
Previously, Motter advised early-stage edtech companies and served as President and COO at Blackboard Connect where he worked collaboratively with over 2,500 districts. His extensive experience in sales leadership and executive management spans 30 years, with 20 devoted to the education space.
Richards joins NextLesson’s Advisory Board as a proven entrepreneur with 30 years of senior leadership in technology. Prior to CareerArc, he was Chairman and CEO at Blackboard Connect alongside Motter. Under his direction, Blackboard Connect became the top provider of hosted, mass notification services for schools. Earlier in his career, Richards founded or led Vivendi Universal Net USA, MP3.com and Tickets.com.
The additions of Motter and Richards build on NextLesson’s recent momentum. Last month, the company announced a seed funding round from leading Silicon Valley entrepreneurs including Marc Benioff, Michael Birch, Drew Houston, Thomas Layton, Marissa Mayer, Jeremy Stoppelman and Nirav Tolia.
“NextLesson will greatly benefit from Robin’s experience building successful businesses, particularly in the education market,” said Lim. “It is a privilege to have him join our distinguished list of entrepreneurs who support NextLesson.”
About NextLesson
NextLesson is a developer of K-12 supplemental resources that are personally relevant to students. It is utilized by 2 million students and 50,000 teachers in school districts nationwide. NextLesson offers teachers 8,000 standards-aligned projects and lessons that are relevant, rigorous and based on real world scenarios. Founded in 2013, NextLesson was the #1 app in the Edmodo Store in 2013 and 2014, and its Performance Tasks line was named a 2015 REVERE Awards finalist for Supplementary Mathematics Resources. The company is privately held and based in San Francisco, Calif. Learn more at http://www.nextlesson.org.