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William I. Jacobs, Beth Kaplan and Mark Walsh Named To Blackboard Board of Directors WASHINGTON, July 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackboard Inc., a leading Internet infrastructure company for e-Learning, today announced the election of three new members to its Board of Directors: William I. Jacobs, managing director and chief financial officer of The New Power Company; Beth Kaplan, managing director of Internet Capital Group (Nasdaq: ICGE); and Mark Walsh, president and chief executive officer of VerticalNet Inc. (Nasdaq: VERT). The addition of the new independent directors expands the board`s membership from six to nine and brings even greater breadth and depth of business skill and experience to the company`s strong leadership as it moves toward future growth. "We are delighted to have attracted these highly experienced leaders with such stellar backgrounds in operations, finance and marketing to the company`s board," said Matthew Pittinsky, chairman and co-founder of Blackboard Inc. "The additions of Bill, Beth and Mark further strengthen Blackboard`s leadership position as the Internet First Mover in e-Learning infrastructure. I know that our Chief Executive Officer Lou Pugliese, our President Michael Chasen and I will all benefit greatly from our new board members` expertise." William I. Jacobs is managing director and chief financial officer of The New Power Company, a new enterprise created to be the premier national provider of energy and related services to take full advantage of the rapidly deregulating energy markets. He serves on the company`s Board of Directors and is responsible for finance and corporate development. Mr. Jacobs brings over 30 years of business experience to Blackboard. Prior to his appointment at The New Power Company, Mr. Jacobs served as senior vice president of MasterCard International where he created the MasterCard VC Investment Fund and was responsible for the company`s "smart card" investment, Mondex International, its debit business, Maestro International, and various other investments and joint ventures. He has also served as executive vice president responsible for finance, audit, legal, M&A, government affairs, HR, and Communications. Before joining MasterCard he co-founded Financial Security Assurance (FSA), one of the leading bond insurance companies where he served as chief operating officer. He is on the Board of Directors of both Mondex International and Investment Technology Group Inc. (NYSE: ITG) and serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees of American University. Beth Kaplan is managing director of operations for Internet Capital Group, a leading business-to-business e-commerce company. Ms. Kaplan replaces Doug Alexander as a director of Blackboard on behalf of Internet Capital Group. Ms. Kaplan is a seasoned executive who brings 20 years of experience in marketing and general management to Blackboard. She has held executive positions at both Rite Aid and Procter and Gamble. She served as senior executive vice president at Rite Aid responsible for all marketing, merchandising, and logistics efforts, which transformed Rite Aid from a regional player to a nationally recognized leader in its industry. She also oversaw the company`s Internet strategy and the strategic alliance with drugstore.com. Earlier in her career, Ms. Kaplan was with Procter and Gamble for 16 years, most recently serving as president of the Noxell Division, the largest North American manufacturer and marketer of mass cosmetics. Ms. Kaplan serves as chairman of the Wharton Undergraduate Advisory Board. Mark Walsh is president and chief executive officer of VerticalNet, the Internet`s leading portfolio of business-to-business trading communities. As one of the Internet sector`s most accomplished CEOs, Mr. Walsh brings broad experience in hyper-growth companies and the public markets to Blackboard as it continues to build upon its position as the Internet infrastructure leader for e-Learning. Previously, Mr. Walsh was a senior vice president and corporate officer at America Online, where he founded and ran AOL Enterprise, the business-to-business division of AOL. Before he joined AOL, Mr. Walsh was president of General Electric`s Genie Online service and was the vice president and general manager of the interactive services division of CUC International. Mr. Walsh is a member of the Board of Trustees at Union College. "I am very excited to be part of the Blackboard team," said Mr. Walsh. "Blackboard has developed the leading e-Learning software platform and Web properties aimed at powering an enormous $800 billion education market." To date, Blackboard has raised more than $50 million in venture and strategic financing from Internet Capital Group, Pearson Education, The Carlyle Group, America Online, Novak-Biddle Venture Partners, The Aurora Funds, Dell Computer Corporation, Merrill Lynch, and Kaplan. About Blackboard Inc. Blackboard Inc. is a leading e-Learning infrastructure company powering the online transformation of the global higher education industry -- the ".edu" marketplace. Its products and Web properties, including the flagship Blackboard 5 software platform, are used by over 3,600 colleges, K-12 schools, professional organizations, and commercial education providers to bring their academic, administrative, community, and other educational services online. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Blackboard currently serves over 2.1 million unique users in every state and in 70 countries. Blackboard education partners include Academic Systems Corp., America Online, Dell Computer Corporation, FT Knowledge, Go Network, Harcourt Brace, Houghton Mifflin, Kaplan, KPMG Consulting, McGraw-Hill, Microsoft, NextEd, Oracle, Pearson Education, PeopleSoft, Sun Microsystems and The TLT Group. Additional information about Blackboard can be found at http://www.blackboard.com. Contact: Michael J. Stanton of Blackboard Inc., 202-463-4860, ext. 305, mstanton@blackboard.com; or Jeanne Abi-Nader of Robinson, Lerer & Montgomery, 212-484-7954, jabi-nader@rlmnet.com, for Blackboard Inc. /CONTACT: Michael J. Stanton of Blackboard Inc., 202-463-4860, ext. 305, mstanton@blackboard.com; or Jeanne Abi-Nader of Robinson, Lerer & Montgomery, 212-484-7954, jabi-nader@rlmnet.com, for Blackboard Inc./ |
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| aus der Diskussion: | VERTICALNET - NEWS - |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | lichh (12.07.00 20:51:51) |
| Beitrag: | 1 von 14 (ID:1297366) |
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