Management Team

The strength of the GlobalEnglish management team stems from its combined expertise in management and educational technology. The founders of the company have successfully created educational software, online services, and multimedia foreign language instruction companies.

Corporate Headquarters:
8000 Marina Boulevard, Suite 810
Brisbane, CA 94005
Corporate Phone: 1-650-246-6000


Deepak Desai

President and Chief Executive Officer
Deepak Desai is the President and Chief Executive Officer of GlobalEnglish Corporation. Mr. Desai has over 20 years of strong financial and operating experience, most notably with Time Warner Inc., where he spent twelve years in senior financial positions in New York and Asia. From 1995 to 1999, he served as General Manager/CFO for Time Life Asia, managing the children's education, ESL, and direct marketing businesses. He received a B.S. in commerce from the University of Bombay and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.


Mahesh Ram

Vice President of Worldwide Business Development and Corporate Sales Director - EMEA
Mahesh Ram is Vice President of Worldwide Business Development and Corporate Sales Director for EMEA. Mr. Ram previously held a variety of senior management positions with The Thomson Corporation, including Senior Vice President and General Manager of WisdomLink, a leading Internet learning service provider to the corporate, education, and lifelong learning markets. Mr. Ram received a B.S. in biology and a B.A. in American history from the University of Pennsylvania and the Advanced Information Technology Management (AITM) Certificate from Columbia University.


Tom Kahl

Corporate Sales Director - United States
Tom Kahl is the Corporate Sales Director for the United States. Mr. Kahl is responsible for corporate sales and support in America. Prior to joining GlobalEnglish, he was Vice President of EMEA for SmartForce (now SkillSoft). Mr. Kahl received his B.S. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.


Antonio Pastor

Corporate Sales Director - Latin America, Spain, Portugal & Italy
Antonio Pastor is the Corporate Sales Director for Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Prior to joining GlobalEnglish, he spent 7 years with SkillSoft (formerly SmartForce) serving in various management positions, including Latin American Business Development Director and EMEA Channel Sales Director. Mr. Pastor received his B.A. in economics and political science from the University of Connecticut and is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and his native English.


Joe Minutoli

Corporate Sales Director - Asia Pacific
Joe Minutoli is the Corporate Sales Director for Asia Pacific. He has been with GlobalEnglish since 2000, serving previously as Associate General Counsel and Director of Sales Operations. Prior to GlobalEnglish, he was corporate counsel for the Environmental Chemical Corporation, working closely with the operations and business development teams. Mr. Minutoli received his B.B.A. in management from the University of Notre Dame and his J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law.


Susan Pfendt

Vice President of Worldwide Consumer Business
Susan Pfendt is Vice President of Worldwide Consumer Business. Ms. Pfendt leads the GlobalEnglish e-commerce, consumer marketing, and consumer sales businesses. Ms. Pfendt has more than 18 years of experience in sales, marketing, and operations in the education and technology industry. She spent 14 years at Apple Computer Inc., where she was a founding member of Apple's e-commerce business and held the position of Director for the Education Product, Sales, and Marketing divisions. Ms. Pfendt received a B.S. in commerce from Santa Clara University.


Jinlei Ni

Director of GlobalEnglish Kids - China
Jinlei Ni is Director of GlobalEnglish Kids - China. Prior to joining GlobalEnglish, Mr. Ni was CEO and President of Beida-Online Network Co., a leading online learning service provider in China, from 2000 to 2004. Mr. Ni received a B.S. in computer science from Peking University.


Sam Neff

Vice President of Product Development
Sam Neff is Vice President of Product Development. Mr. Neff has over 16 years of experience in the field of educational software. Prior to joining GlobalEnglish, Mr. Neff designed and engineered personal investment software for Intuit. Mr. Neff received his B.A. in psychology from Stanford University and his M.S. in computer science from San Francisco State University.


Marci Davis

Controller
Marci Davis is Controller. Prior to joining GlobalEnglish, Ms. Davis had more than 20 years of experience in accounting and finance. She was the Director of Finance, Capital Projects and Commitments for DHL Worldwide Express. Ms. Davis earned a B.S. in accounting and finance from the University of California, Berkeley and is a Certified Public Accountant.


Patti Halprin

Executive Producer of Kids Product Development
Patti Halprin is the Executive Producer of Kids Product Development. Ms. Halprin has more than 20 years of experience developing award-winning educational software products. Prior to joining GlobalEnglish, she served as Director of Product Design for The Learning Company, where she designed and produced best-selling products that included Reader Rabbit's Interactive Reading Journey, Reader Rabbit 2, Treasure Mountain!, and Treasure MathStorm!. Ms. Halprin holds an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University.


Scott Ludeke

Director of Engineering
Scott Ludeke is Director of Engineering. Mr. Ludeke manages the engineering and technical operations for all GlobalEnglish products. His previous software experience includes the startup Personal News, Inc., and Intuit, where he worked on the Quicken.com team. Mr. Ludeke received his B.S. in geophysics from Stanford University.


Inga Pedersen

Director of Sales Operations
Inga Pedersen is the Director of Sales Operations. She has over 13 years of experience in the educational software industry, holding a variety of roles in sales operations, project management, and client services. Ms. Pedersen received her B.A. in rhetoric and communications from the University of California, Davis.




Founders and Board Members


Reece Duca

Founder, Chairman of the Board, and Director
Reece Duca is a founder and is the Chairman of the Board. He served as the Chairman of the Board of The Learning Company, Inc., and was Chairman of the Board of Advent Software, Inc. Mr. Duca has been a founder or cofounder and a lead investor in approximately fifteen companies over the last thirty years. Seven of those companies became publicly traded and six of them merged with public corporations. Mr. Duca is the founder and managing partner of the Investment Group of Santa Barbara (IGSB), a private investment company managing both private and public equity portfolios solely for the principals of the organization. IGSB is the lead investor in GlobalEnglish. Mr. Duca received his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his M.B.A. from Stanford University.


Ron Hoge

Vice Chairman and Director
Ron Hoge is the Vice Chairman of the Board. Prior to being named to this position, Mr. Hoge served as President and Chief Executive Officer of GlobalEnglish for four years. He has been a Board Director since 2001. Mr. Hoge has over 30 years of global business and Internet experience, most recently as President and Chief Operating Officer at CenterBeam, Inc., an innovative provider of IT services for large corporations. He has served on several public company and community service boards. Mr. Hoge holds a B.A. in mathematics from Amherst College and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.


William A. Dinsmore

Director and Advisor
William A. Dinsmore has served as a Director of GlobalEnglish since November 2000 and has been an investor in and senior advisor to the Company since its founding. From 1985 to 1995 Mr. Dinsmore served as the Chief Executive Officer of The Learning Company, Inc. and developed the company's extensive product line into the leading quality brand of educational software. Mr. Dinsmore received his M.B.A. from the University of Southern California and his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees.


Wendell G. Van Auken

Director
Wendell G. Van Auken has served as a Director of GlobalEnglish since May 1999. Mr. Van Auken has been a General Partner of the Mayfield Fund since October 1986. Prior to joining Mayfield, Mr. Van Auken was an officer, founder or chief executive officer of several successful start-ups in three different technology-oriented fields. Mr. Van Auken holds a B.E.E. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.


Deepak Desai

Director, President and Chief Executive Officer


William Rauth

Corporate Secretary
William Rauth is Corporate Secretary of the Company. Since 1975, he has been a founding partner in the Newport Beach law firm of Stradling, Yocca, Carlson & Rauth. Mr. Rauth is a general partner at IGSB, a private investment company managing both private and public equity portfolios solely for the principals of the organization. Mr. Rauth received his B.A. in economics with high honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara and his J.D. from the University of California School of Law at Berkeley, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif.


Stephen Patrick

Founder
Stephen Patrick is a GlobalEnglish founder. He served as the Chief Technology Officer for GlobalEnglish for eight years. Mr. Patrick was a founder and President of Sensei Software, a high school science and math company. He also was a cofounder and President of Personal News, Inc., an online service for individual investors, which was acquired by Intuit in 1995. Mr. Patrick received his B.A. in international relations from Yale University and his M.B.A. from Stanford University.


Martin Rice

Founder
Martin Rice is a GlobalEnglish founder. From 1995 to 1997, he served as Senior Vice President of Research and Development for The Learning Company, Inc., where he managed approximately 300 product development employees worldwide. In addition, Dr. Rice was a professor of Slavic languages and Russian literature for 23 years. Dr. Rice received his B.A. in Russian literature from the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in Russian literature from Vanderbilt University.
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