New Corporate Executives
BELLEVUE, Wash.–Jan. 8, 2003–Click2learn (Nasdaq:CLKS) today announced that Gary Millrood has joined the company as its new senior vice president of North American sales.
Millrood, who brings 20 years of sales, business development, marketing and product development experience to Click2learn, will be responsible for managing the company’s sales force in the US and Canada and for driving sales strategy for Aspen, Click2learn’s acclaimed enterprise productivity platform and ToolBook, its industry-leading desktop authoring system.
“We’re very excited to be adding Gary to Click2learn’s executive team. I’ve known him for many years, and I believe his experience in e-learning and successful enterprise selling will be tremendously valuable in helping shape strategy, motivate our sales teams to excel, and continue to drive momentum among enterprise-level companies,” said Kevin Oakes, Click2learn chairman and CEO. “His enthusiasm and passion for this industry make him the ideal person to carry Click2learn’s brand and product philosophy to prospective customers across the continent.”
Millrood was most recently executive vice president of corporate development at Playback Media where, as the company’s second-in-command, he oversaw all sales, business development and marketing activities. While at Playback, Millrood grew the company’s customer base by 400%, selling Playback Media’s content applications into the Fortune 1000.
Before joining Playback Media, Gary served on the board of directors and was CEO and president of iGeneration, developers of training performance technology and services for the IT marketplace and a 1990’s spin-off of professional services firm, USWeb. At iGeneration, Millrood led all aspects of strategy, operations, sales, partnerships, marketing and personnel for the company.
Prior to iGeneration, Millrood was on the founding executive team of Hungry Minds, a pioneer in the e-learning space, and led the sale of the company to IDG Books (producers of the “For Dummies” series) in 1999. Before helping start Hungry Minds, Millrood helped drive the launch of ZD Studios for Softbank and Ziff Davis, and subsequently headed up ZD Studios’ business development and sales divisions.
“I’m delighted to be joining Click2learn. I believe corporate learning, and Aspen specifically, have enormous potential to increase productivity and performance for our customers and other Fortune 1000 enterprises,” said Millrood. “I am looking forward to evangelizing Click2learn’s innovative approach and to using my expertise and experience in this area to continue to grow Click2learn’s leadership in the marketplace.”
About Click2learn
Click2learn (Nasdaq:CLKS) is a provider of enterprise software for Global 2000 organizations seeking to capture, manage and disseminate knowledge throughout their extended enterprise. Using Click2learn’s Aspen Enterprise Productivity Suite(TM), organizations can deploy highly interactive, personalized learning initiatives to achieve strategic business objectives. Many of the world’s best-known corporations use Click2learn’s technology to improve workforce performance, educate customers, and publish large volumes of learning content. Click2learn’s clients include Accenture, American Airlines, AstraZeneca, Century 21, Fujitsu, Microsoft, Pfizer, Symantec, and Towers Perrin. Based in Bellevue, Wash., with offices throughout the U.S., Click2learn (www.click2learn.com, 800/448-6543) also is represented in Europe, Australia, Japan and India.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including information contained in this document where statements are preceded by, followed by or include the words “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “expects,” “anticipates” or similar expressions. For such statements, The Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements include, market acceptance of Click2learn’s e-learning solutions and competing e-learning offerings, the ability to successfully implement Click2learn’s solutions and increase revenues, the ability to successfully address technological developments and standards and the risk factors set forth in filings the Company has made with the SEC. Click2learn, Aspen and ToolBook are trademarks of Click2learn. All other company and product names are the trademarks of their respective owners.
CONTACT: Click2learn
Karen Peck, 425/637-1643
karen.peck@click2learn.com
or
John Atherly, 425/637-1557 (Investor Relations)
john.atherly@click2learn.com
Former Blackboard, Inc., Executive to Drive Growth of
Online Alcohol Education Leader
BOSTON, MA, Jan. 8, 2003-Outside The Classroom, Inc. today announced it has named electronic learning industry pioneer Susan L. Katz to the new position of Vice President of Sales. Previously responsible for the dramatic growth in sales of Blackboard, Inc., the world’s most successful e-education infrastructure company, Katz joins Outside The Classroom at a time when its flagship online alcohol education product, AlcoholEdu, is achieving rapid acceptance by hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide.
“Susan Katz is not only the most talented sales executive in the online education industry, but also a seasoned educator who truly understands the needs of the university administrators and students who subscribe to AlcoholEdu,” said Brandon Busteed, CEO of Outside The Classroom. “She will be critical to fulfilling Outside The Classroom’s mission to provide colleges and universities with the cornerstone of their comprehensive prevention programs.”
At Blackboard, Ms. Katz managed a sales organization responsible for sales growth greater than 300 percent over a two-year period to more than $70 million, as the company was setting the standard for online learning environments implemented by colleges and universities. She said the challenges and opportunities at Outside The Classroom are similar.
“The market for dynamic prevention products and services is growing extremely rapidly, and Outside The Classroom is perfectly positioned to meet the rapid growth in demand from colleges and universities for online, interactive solutions,” Ms. Katz said. “With AlcoholEdu, Outside The Classroom is poised to help educators solve one of their most vexing cultural problems-the plague of binge drinking and alcohol abuse on campuses-by using online education to effect real changes in students’ behavior.”
AlcoholEdu is an online course that students take in the privacy of their dorm rooms. Presenting valuable information in a non-opinionated format about the medical and social affects of drinking, the course empowers students to make more informed decisions. Prior to the introduction of AlcoholEdu, not a single university in the U.S. mandated alcohol education for incoming classes. Now, more than 35 universities have mandated that their entire incoming freshman classes take the course, and more than 300 institutions have adopted AlcoholEdu for certain segments of their student populations. Additionally, major national Greek-letter organizations have adopted the program and mandated its use by new pledges on campuses nationwide. In all, more than 100,000 students have participated in AlcoholEdu over the past year, making it the most widely used course on the Internet.
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Ms. Katz has more than 18 years of experience marketing online software and services, starting with some of the earliest online education services introduced in the 1980s. At Hazeltine/Ford Aerospace Corp., she helped implement the first computer-based training systems for customers including the Department of Defense and Fortune 500 companies. Later, she built and managed sales organizations for Systems Interactive Ltd., a custom courseware development company in London, and Hart Publishing, a subsidiary of Phillips Publishing International, in Maryland.
A native of the Washington, DC area, Ms. Katz holds a BA in Education from the University of Maryland and an MA in Education from the George Washington University, where she is a member of the George Washington University National Council for Education and Human Development. She spent her early career with the Montgomery County Public School system, where she was a professional development specialist and classroom teacher.
About Outside The Classroom
Outside The Classroom (www.outsidetheclassroom.com), a Boston-based health education company, was founded to address critical behavioral health issues. The company’s flagship product, AlcoholEdu, is a non-opinionated, online course about alcohol and its effects on the body. This progressive approach to educating college students about the dangers associated with high-risk drinking was developed in answer to the increasingly urgent demands of college students and administrators throughout the country. Universities nationwide are gaining insight about key campus health trends and environmental policy issues by using AlcoholEdu in conjunction with The HealthSurvey, a comprehensive, online assessment tool. In addition to the college market, Outside The Classroom provides world-class online health education for individuals and institutions including and high schools, parents and the armed forces.
Outside The Classroom is a partner to many prominent organizations including Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drugs, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), and the American College Personnel Association (ACPA).
