Family, Friends, and Advisors are Important to the Success of Your Company

Family friends, and advisors are very important to a new company. Senthil and I had the early support of family and friends but we felt an Advisory Board was equally important.

We began in the months leading up to the October launch to recruit an Advisory Board which would be composed of renowned international experts in areas related to higher education, research and human resources. They would act as an advocate for the company to friends and colleagues. The members would bring a wide breadth of knowledge and experience gained through years of professional involvement of knowledge of the United Arab Emirates, Gulf Regions and as well as in the international settings. We could also call upon them to serve as expert consultants as the need arises.

The Advisory Board currently consists of 10 members who are from the UAE, United Sates, Europe, Asia and Australia. They have expertise in the fields of higher and vocational education, medicine-allied health and technology.

To learn more about our Advisory members go to Advisors on the Edu Alliance website. One of the first to accept our invitation to be an advisor was Marci Powell.

Marci Powell is Global Director for Education & Training at Polycom and Chair Emerita and Past President of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA). She is an industry expert in the field of educational technology and telecommunications with extensive experience in applications related to lifelong learning and innovation.

Powell began her career as a classroom teacher and has served as an administrator at various educational institutions. With over 20 years of educational leadership Marci shares global best practices and trends as a fellow educator and futurist through her keynote addresses and serves as an advisor to public and private sectors worldwide.

Most recently, Marci was recognized by the European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) as an EDEN Fellow, an honor reserved for those the association believes are distinguished leaders in distance and e-learning across Europe. In 2012, Marci was inducted into the USDLA Hall of Fame and in 2011, the Texas Distance Learning Association (TxDLA) Hall of Fame. Marci currently serves on the USDLA Board of Directors, the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) High Level Advisory Board, and The Learning Consortium Thought Leaders group.

On a personal note I have known Marci for a number of years going back to my days as Co-Founder and COO of Connected Learning Network a comprehensive e-learning provider based in Louisville, Kentucky.  She has been a guest keynote speaker for me at the Ankabut Users Meeting discussing the use of high-quality video to deliver educational content.

Marci recently did an article for Information Week titled “The Right Training Tech For A Tech Career”

In future postings I will be writing about other Edu Alliance advisory board members so you may learn more about these outstanding people.