Trained as a social studies teacher, Blackboard Inc. Chairman Matthew Pittinsky comes from a family of educators. A leading executive in the field of e-Learning, Matthew co-founded Blackboard in 1997 with a mission to "transform the Internet into a powerful environment for teaching and learning."

As Chairman, Matthew leads Blackboard's corporate and product strategy from an educator's perspective. He also serves as Blackboard's chief "evangelist" to the academic and financial communities, and leads the company's internal communications and culture-building activities.

While Blackboard's products began at Cornell University, Matthew based his original Blackboard business plan on research he conducted while a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Prior to co-founding Blackboard, he worked as a consultant in KPMG Consulting's Higher Education practice, where he was an early participant in the EDUCAUSE IMS standards project.

In addition to his full time responsibilities at Blackboard, Matthew is a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University Teacher's College studying the sociology of online learning. He recently completed his first book project on e-Education as editor of The Wired Tower (Prentice Hall: 2002), and serves as a contributor or commentator to numerous print, radio and television media.

Matthew serves on the advisory board of SMARTHINKING, an online tutoring company, Syllabus2000, an education technology forum, and on the Board of Trustees of American University.

Awards and Distinctions
In 1999, Washingtonian Magazine named Matthew one of the "100 People to Watch"; that same year he was also named one of "Washington's Youngest and Coolest Entrepreneurs" by Washington Business Forward. In 2000, Washington Techway magazine named Matthew as one of the area's top under-30 technology executives. Also in 2000, Ernst & Young named Matthew and co-founder Michael Chasen, CEO of Blackboard, "Entrepreneurs of the Year for Emerging Companies in Washington, D.C." In addition, both were honored as "Young Innovators" by the Kilby Awards Foundation, a distinction shared with other Kilby laureates, such as Vint Cerf, Marc Andreesen and Linus Torvald. Most recently, Matthew was awarded "Visionary of the Year (2001)" by the Northern Virginia Technology Council.