Eric W. Young

Eric was born in 1966 in Washington DC, USA. He graduated from the American School in Japan in 1984 and received a degree in Chemical Engineering from Yale University in 1988. Eric had an eleven-year career in Capital Markets prior to co-founding Cerego in 2000. He worked at Bankers Trust as a bond and currency derivatives trader and then became CEO of Westdeutsche Landesbank’s Asian securities company. As Global CEO, Eric currently directs all company strategy and operations worldwide in Cerego. He authored “Social Learning Revolution” with Co-Founder Andrew Smith Lewis in 2008. Eric is a long-term resident of Japan and is fluent in Japanese.

Andrew Smith Lewis

Andrew was born in New York City in 1967 and studied at the Bronx High School of Science, where he became a Westinghouse Science Talent Search semifinalist. He went onto the University of Virginia where he graduated in 1989. Andrew is one of the original co-inventors of the Cerego Learning Methodology and has several patents in his name. Prior to becoming Executive Chairman of Cerego, in 1989, Andrew founded AGOS Japan (formerly known as The Princeton Review of Japan)–a prep school for Japanese students applying for MBA and graduate courses. He then co-founded Cerego in 2000. He wrote his first book in Japanese “Learn Faster, Remember Longer,” published by Nikkei BP in 2002, and he co-authored “Social Learning Revolution” in 2008 with Eric Young. Andrew heads Cerego’s US operations and runs Cerego’s Advisory Board, which is an international group of experts and practitioners in scientific, technological, and commercial areas directly relevant to the company’s activities. Currently based in Palo Alto, Andrew lived in Japan for 25 years and is fluent in Japanese.

Paul Mumma

Paul joined Cerego to grow our team as we expand from Japan to the US. An avid technologist, amateur linguist, and admirer of classical education, he is passionate about the potential to improve how people learn with technology. Prior to joining Cerego, Paul worked in the Chicago office of McKinsey & Co., and holds degrees in classical philology from Harvard College and the University of Oxford. He is based in the Bay Area.

Luke McCrohon

Luke heads our research and development group at Cerego. He has a long standing interest in the science of learning and has conducted research on topics such as vocabulary acquisition, cultural transmission, and language evolution. At Cerego he works to combine the research of learning and memory with our data driven memory models to provide the optimal experiences for our users. He has a PhD in Computer Science from The University of Tokyo and has published extensively on the evolution of human cognition.

Russell Moench

Russell graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University where he spent an excessive amount of time learning languages, including Latin, Ancient Greek, Classical and Modern Chinese, and Japanese. He knew there had to be a better way, so he was--and is still--excited to build one. As one of the primary people behind the Cerego English service in Japan, he has worked on everything from content and support to strategy and product development. He's excited to bring to Cerego his many years of work optimizing the learning experience via web technology.

James Benedict

James works on a variety of strategic initiatives, from fund raising and strategic partnerships to talent acquisition. Prior to joining Cerego, James was a partner in a private equity firm. He has helped launch companies in the education, life sciences and energy sectors in the US, Japan, Brazil & East Africa. He has a passion for bringing people together in novel and synergistic ways to drive value for mission-oriented enterprises. James is a member of the Acupera & Long Island Plastic Surgery Group Advisory Boards. James is also a member of the Young Audiences Board of Directors where he is on the Executive Committee, Chairs the Advocacy Committee and is a Member of the Nominating Committee. James has a Ph.D. in International Economics from Columbia University, a B.A. from Baylor University, and a Certificate on Monetary and Fiscal Policy from the Japanese Ministry of Finance.

Scott McNealy

Scott McNealy co-founded Sun Microsystems, Inc.in 1982, serving as Chief Executive Officer and Board Chairman for over 22 years. During his tenure, McNealy transformed Sun from a Silicon Valley start-up to a leading provider of network computing.

In October 2011, McNealy announced his next venture, Wayin. Wayin offers a fun, entertaining way for users and enterprise partners to post photos, ask questions, play live games, share results, and spark conversation amongst friends, consumers and people worldwide with similar interests, anywhere, anytime. McNealy serves as Wayin’s Chairman. McNealy continues his longstanding commitment to education and advocacy for open and competitive business practices. In March 2004, he led Sun to create the Global Education & Learning Community. Now called Curriki, (“curriculum”+“wiki”), its mission is to eliminate the Education Divide. Curriki’s global online community creates quality materials that benefit teachers, parents and students.
BA, Harvard, 1976
MBA, Stanford, 1980

Joi Ito

Alongside his role at MIT Media Lab, Joi Ito is the Chair of Creative Commons, on the Board of the MacArthur Foundation, on the Board of Trustees of The Knight Foundation, and co-founder and board member of Digital Garage, an Internet company in Japan. He is on the board of a number of non-profit organizations including The Mozilla Foundation and WITNESS. He is a member of the IT Strategic Headquarters of the Japanese Cabinet. He has created numerous Internet companies including PSINet Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan and was an early stage investor in Twitter, Six Apart, Wikia, Flickr, Last.fm, Kongregate, Fotonauts/Fotopedia, Kickstarter and other Internet companies. He is the Guild Custodian of the World of Warcraft guild, We Know (http://weknow.to/). He is a PADI IDC Staff Instructor, an Emergency First Responder instructor and a Divers Alert Network instructor. Ito was named by Businessweek as one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web in 2008. In 2011, Ito was chosen by Nikkei Business as one of the 100 most influential people for the future of Japan and by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers”. In 2011, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oxford Internet Institute in recognition of his role as one of the world’s leading advocates of Internet freedom.

Kevin Chavous

Kevin P. Chavous is a noted attorney, author, and national school reform leader. He currently heads The Chavous Group, an education consulting firm, and is a founding board member and senior advisor to the American Federation for Children. He also presides as board chair for Democrats for Education Reform and is a former chair and board member for the Black Alliance for Educational Options. In recent years, Mr. Chavous has continued to support charter schools and parental choice programs across the country. Most notably, he spearheaded a team working with Governor Bobby Jindal that helped pass a scholarship bill giving low-income children the chance to attend private schools in New Orleans. In 2008, Mr. Chavous served on the education policy committee of the Obama for President campaign. Mr. Chavous is an accomplished author, having published Serving Our Children: Charter Schools and the Reform of American Public Education and his new book,Voice of Determination: Children that Defy the Odds. Mr. Chavous writes a regular education blog for The Huffington Post and his editorials have appeared in several prominent newspapers. Mr. Chavous graduated from Wabash College, where he was an NCAA All-American in basketball. He earned his law degree from Howard University School of Law and was the president of his graduating class.

Jagdish Bhagwati

A frequent nominee for the Nobel Prize in Economics, Jagdish Bhagwati is one of the most influential economists of his generation. His writings and work have influenced trade, development and immigration policy around the world. He has been an advisor to India’s Finance Minister, now Prime Minister, on India’s economic reforms, was an advisor to Director General Arthur Dunkel on architecting the transition of the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade (GATT) to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and currently Co-Chairs with President Halonen of Finland the Eminent Persons Group on Developing Countries in the World Economy.

One of thirteen University Professors at Columbia University, Professor Bhagwati is a Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds honorary degrees from several universities and has received numerous awards and prizes, including awards from the governments of India (Padma Vibhushan) and Japan (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star).

Robert Knowling

Mr. Knowling brings over 30 years of experience in the telecommunications and technology sectors, leading companies through periods of high growth and organizational turnaround. Currently, he is Chairman of Eagles Landing Partners. ELP specializes in helping senior management formulate strategy, lead organizational transformations, and re-engineering businesses. ELP serves as an advisor to chief executive officers. Mr. Knowling is the former CEO of several companies, including Covad Communications, SimDesk Technologies, and Telwares.

Takeshi Natsuno

Takeshi Natsuno, Professor at KEIO University, former Senior Vice President of NTT DoCoMo, developed the business strategy of all of NTT DoCoMo’s multimedia-related services, including i-mode strategic alliances with global application/content providers and key Internet players. Mr. Natsuno, one of the key developers of i-mode business models, managed the Japan launch of i-mode in 1999. The service has achieved tremendous success, attracting about 48 million subscribers to date while pioneering the world’s non-voice communications market. Widely regarded as a leading expert on the Internet and multimedia, he was named one of the world’s 25 most influential e-business leaders by Business Week in 2001. Mr. Natsuno started his career with Tokyo Gas, one of Japan’s largest utilities. He later held key executive positions with HyperNet, a leading Internet venture company. He joined DoCoMo in 1997 and he started his new career as a professor at KEIO University. He also served on the board of directors of Dwango, Sega Sammy Holdings, SBI Holdings, Pia, Trans Cosmos from 2008 and Gree from 2009. Since 2000, Mr. Natsuno has regularly published books on trends in the mobile and web industries, most recently “iPhone vs Android” in 2011. He graduated from Waseda University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics in 1988 and received a master’s degree in business administration from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1995.

Net Jacobsson

Net Jacobsson is a former Facebook executive and serial entrepreneur. At Facebook, Net led International Business Development, mobile business and early M&A activities. Net is also a founder of Playhopper, Inc. and Opportunistic Ventures LLC, and an advisor to many startups such as Crowdstar, OpenFeint (Sold to GREE), Pixowl, Padworx as well as a board member of the Chinese social network P1. Previously, Net has held leading positions in companies like Maxthon (China), Mashup Media, ICQ and SonyEricsson. Net is a frequent conference speaker in areas of entrepreneurship, social platforms, social games and mobile, and has been featured in New York Times, CNN, Financial Times, Business Week, and many other media outlets.