Team Bios

Management Team  |  Board of Directors  |  Investors

Management Team

Kevin Walker, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Kevin has more than 11 years experience in the student lending business. He was an early employee of First Marblehead, the leading provider of back-office services for private student loans. He led the company’s GATE Student Loan program and worked closely with financial aid and finance professionals at dozens of colleges and universities. Most recently he was SVP for Marketing. In addition to his time at First Marblehead, Kevin also served as a Principal at the management consulting firm, The Parthenon Group, where he advised CEOs in financial services, publishing, and manufacturing on business strategy. Kevin also founded and ran an education company in Russia. Kevin holds a BA from Amherst and an MBA from Harvard.

Patrick Kandianis, Co-Founder, EVP & Chief Sales Officer
Patrick has worked in different sectors serving the higher education market for the past 21 years, including education finance, systems/software and travel. Most recently, as VP of Business Development for First Marblehead Corp, Patrick led the company’s sales efforts in the Midwest and Western regions and helped formulate product strategy and development before and after the company’s IPO. Previously, Patrick had a role as Director of Business Development for Jenzabar, a startup which became a leading systems provider for colleges and universities. Earlier on, Pat was one of the original principals of Student Travel Services and Suncoast Vacations, leading student tour companies where, as VP of Sales and Operations, he led business development, marketing and advertising efforts nationwide. Pat holds a BA from Cornell.

David Rodger, SVP Engineering
Dave brings over fifteen years of technology and product development expertise to SimpleTuition. He spent 5 years as VP Engineering and VP Product Development at Experience, Inc., a company that delivers on-campus recruiting technologies to hundreds of schools and universities, hundreds of thousands of employers, and millions of students. In these roles, Dave was responsible for all aspects of delivering technology and applications to Experience’s customers, including requirements gathering, product definition and design, development, quality assurance, and rollout for a series of high-traffic, high-performance applications. Prior to that, Dave held positions as consultant or engineering manager at internet companies ranging from Firefly to Exchange.com to Avicenna to Athena Design, as well as work at NASA Headquarters and Cornell University. Dave holds a BA from Cornell University.

Larry Rausch, VP of Sales
Larry has been working in the Financial Services Industry since 1988. For the past 15 years he was with CUNA Mutual Group, the leading provider of financial services to credit unions and their members worldwide. In his role as Account Vice President, Larry worked closely with credit union leaders to drive consumer lending growth and maximize the sales of lending related products. Larry holds a BA from the University of Massachusetts.

Chris Stevens, VP of Business Development
With more than a dozen years converting conventional businesses to innovative online businesses, Chris joins SimpleTuition from Worldspan where he grew the e-commerce business with Expedia.com, its partners, and suppliers. Before working with Worldspan, he began a successful media sales and merchandising business for Cendant Travel and CheapTickets. In prior positions, Chris drove business development efforts for ad-serving, affiliate, and middleware software companies. Chris was a leading industry analyst in the mid-90s, consulting with Fortune-class executives at software companies and end-user organizations in several vertical markets for how to adopt technology and adapt business models for the next age. Chris holds a BS from Tulane University.

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Board of Directors

Jeffrey Bussgang, General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners
Jeff is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in consumer, Internet commerce, marketing services, software and wireless start-ups.

Jeff currently represents the firm on the boards of BzzAgent, Click Tactics, go2 Media, i4cp, InnerWireless, Mall Networks, SimpleTuition, and Transpera and was previously a director at Brontes Technologies (acquired by 3M) and PanGo Networks (merged with InnerWireless)

Jeff's popular blog on helping demystify the venture business for entrepreneurs, "Seeing Both Sides", can be found at www.bostonvcblog.com. Jeff was named to the Boston Business Journal's "40 under 40" list in 2006.

Prior to joining the firm in January 2003, Jeff co-founded Upromise (acquired by Sallie Mae), a loyalty marketing and financial services firm that currently manages $20 billion in college savings assets, where he served as President, Chief Operating Officer and Board Director. Prior to Upromise, Jeff was an executive at Open Market, an Internet commerce software leader that went public in 1996 and grew to nearly $100 million in revenues. During his five-year tenure, he served as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Business Development, Vice President of Worldwide Professional Services and head of Product Management. Prior to Open Market, Jeff was with the strategy consulting firm, The Boston Consulting Group, and served on the executive team of Athena Design, an object-oriented software start-up.

Jeff holds a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar.

Eric Hjerpe, Partner, Atlas Venture
Eric Hjerpe is a Partner in the technology sector at Atlas Venture, and joined the firm in early 2003 as a Venture Partner. He focuses on emerging companies in the software and services markets.

Previously, Eric held executive positions at Siebel Systems, where he built the first professional services organization serving the Northeast US and Canada. He then founded the subsidiary SiebelNet, which he built to a $20M revenue backlog and $10M revenue run-rate business in less than two years. Then as General Manager of the Product Configurator and Pricer product groups, he accelerated software revenue from $16M to over $80M per year. He was also a charter member of the "Founder’s Circle," a select group of staff chosen by company founder Tom Siebel to be involved in strategic company initiatives. Prior to joining Siebel Systems, Eric served as Chief Information Officer, Sales and Marketing North America, for Digital Equipment Corporation. He also worked for Silicon Graphics and Arthur D. Little. Eric oversaw Atlas Venture’s investment in Fireclick, which was acquired by Digital River (NASDAQ: DRIV) in June 2004. Eric holds a Master of Science in Management from MIT Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor's degree from Brown University.

Ralph James, Independent Board Member
Ralph James is Executive Director of Executive Education at Harvard Business School. From 1996 to 2005 he served in various roles at the First Marblehead Corporation (NYSE: FMD), including Vice Chairman, President, COO and EVP. From 1994 to 1996, Ralph was Associate Dean and Senior Executive Officer of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. From 1993 to 1994, Ralph served as Director of Major Gifts for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. From 1982 to 1993, Ralph served in various administrative capacities in executive education and fundraising for the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Ralph received a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

Scott Savitz, Independent Board Member
Scott Savitz is founder and CEO of Shoebuy.com, the largest retailer on the Internet focused on all categories of footwear and related apparel. Shoebuy.com is now a subsidiary of IAC/Interactive Corp. (Nasdaq: IACI). Prior to founding Shoebuy.com, Scott was a director at BancBoston Robertson Stephens, and a loan originator with Advantage Mortgage. Prior to that, Scott developed and managed a full service marketing company specializing in direct mail, telemarketing, and list maintenance.

Kevin Walker, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, SimpleTuition
See above

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Investors

Atlas Venture
Atlas Venture is the leading international early-stage venture capital firm, investing in communications, information technology and life sciences companies. With investing offices in Waltham, MA, London, Munich and Paris, Atlas Venture divides its investments between the United States and Europe.

Since we started in 1980, our Partners have helped build over 300 companies in more than 15 different countries. Since 1995, 40 of our companies have been acquired and 39 are now public companies with an aggregate market capitalization of over $12 billion. We are currently investing from our seventh fund and manage over $2 billion in capital.

For more information about Atlas Venture, go to www.atlasventure.com.

Flybridge Capital Partners
Flybridge Capital Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm whose mission is to assist entrepreneurs in growing innovative, global companies. With $560 million under management, the firm is focused on investing in consumer, healthcare and information technology markets and is led by a team with domain expertise and more than half a century of combined experience in venture capital. For more information, visit www.flybridge.com.

North Hill Ventures
Founded in 1999, North Hill Ventures specializes in early-stage financial technology and marketing technology companies. Through our experience as investors, advisors, and operating managers, we have developed strong networks of industry contacts, a deep understanding of our target markets, and the skills to help our portfolio companies grow and prosper.

Our operating philosophy is simple. We approach every new investment opportunity in a pragmatic, results-oriented fashion. We communicate clearly and directly with prospective entrepreneurs and co-investors. And once we make the decision to invest, we devote our time, energy, and considerable resources to do whatever it takes to help our portfolio companies succeed.

We also believe that close, productive relationships among the key players are a significant component in the success of any venture. That's why we work hard to establish cooperative working relationships with our entrepreneurs, management teams, and co-investors. At any time, we're ready to share ideas, lend our support, or simply act as a sounding board.

For more information, visit North Hill Ventures.

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