About Us
APL's mission is to help bring academic teams together as they work to accomplish their academic mission.
APL's vision is to provide the best, comprehensive, integrated, flexible and affordable academic operations platform coupled with remarkable service and support.
- Learning Everyday
- Listening Carefully
- Creating Genuine Relationships
Meet The Team
We know that the APL platform is going to bring your academic team together to help you accomplish your goals.
At APL we believe in the power of coming together. Everyone on our team has a unique set of skills, aptitudes, perspectives and experiences that makes their contributions to our team vital.
Kathleen Gibson is the CEO and Founder of APL nextED, a comprehensive academic operations platform that provides workflow support and links faculty and student data to optimize teaching, advising and mentoring to increase student success.
Kathleen has worked as a lawyer, college dean, program developer, professor, and writer. She is a wife, mother, avid reader and yoga enthusiast. Kathleen has studied and written about trends in higher education for the last 20 years.
Kathleen has been described as an audacious leader who knows how to solve big problems by building executable plans and by assembling strong, talented teams. Kathleen has a contagious passion for connecting diverse people around a common vision.
Marie is an experienced partner success leader and marketing associate with a demonstrated history of working in the education technology industry. Marie advises and guides APL's customers, ensuring they implement APL nextED successfully, adopt it widely, and are continually using the platform to its fullest potential. She is skilled in Project Management, Leadership, Content Marketing, and Customer Success and Support.
Kurt Knipp is a broadly experienced C-level leader skilled in delivering positive outcomes in difficult situations to enhance shareholder value. Kurt has 20+ years of line-management and advisory roles driving revenue growth and operations optimization initiatives for primarily middle-market companies. He is a strategic thinker, creative problem solver, team builder, and best-practices implementer. Kurt consistently demonstrates an entrepreneurial spirit, measured risk-taking and a natural curiosity for learning.
Chris is a extremely versatile systems architect. He has spent the past 20 years in the web development industry developing large scale applications to meet client needs. Chris is a very creative and skilled developer, and is outstanding at working with clients and understanding requirements.
Chris excels at developing state of the art applications from scratch. He has advanced level expertise with Mac and Linux server administration, and has designed and administered multiple large scale physical and cloud data centers. He succeeds in creating platforms that are both fully scalable and fully redundant, providing cost efficient alternatives in achieving service level agreements to clients.
Elaine Bogner, a native of Northwest Indiana brings a distinct set of skills and experience to our APL nextED team. She is a proud veteran of the US Navy (6.5 yrs.) and her career paths have always been geared towards serving others. She was a Riverside County Sheriff in California (5 yrs.) and a police officer for the Town of Merrillville, IN (1.5 yrs.). After being compelled to volunteer as a short- term missionary in West Africa, she stepped away from law enforcement completely. Upon her return, she worked for a local security company, honed her financial skills and gradually became a freelance bookkeeper for several businesses in the Porter County area. In the interim, she became a mother, inventor, and entrepreneur - and it was here she discovered her passion to be connected to a local enterprise with a large vision.
Tom is a technical lead who enjoys working with web-based applications across multiple technologies and working with dynamic teams.
Tom has participated in a variety of startups and custom software firms with client ranging from fortune 1000 to more local and family run organizations. He is used to wearing many hats in any organization and is comfortable in many roles from being an individual contributor to strategist and leader of product and process.
He is technically fluent in building Full SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) applications utilizing PHP, JS, SQL (or various forms), systems administration, dev ops workflows, RESTFul API's, and a variety cloud platforms.
In his off-time you may see him riding his bike, falling down a mountain (AKA skiing), or swimming in lakes, rivers, or seas. He is also known to frequent retro arcade establishments, craft breweries, as well as the abodes of family and friends.
Norman Braidy is, a Software Engineer who has been tasked with various roles and responsibilities within the field of software development. Norman has focused primarily on providing simplified solutions for the everyday complicated and simple business operational requirements.
Having the trait of being very meticulous, Norman has what it takes to achieve the desired results which may at times be unique to the requirements set forth.
The ethical use of technology, commitment, professionalism and charisma are the attributes he possess which drives him to accomplish the day to day activities of generating suitable and acceptable solutions.
Being an avid researcher, he enjoys learning new techniques for software development, system administration and dev op practices while still improving his social awareness.
Nick Janquart is a Product Professional focusing on web-based technologies. Nick brings over ten years of experience working in Education based software to APL. He has worked in multiple roles in software development including front line client support, implementation, sales, and QA. The past five years Nick has focused his time leading product development.
When not building great products, Nick enjoys reading, biking, and traveling.
Jim Brodzinski is Dean and Professor of Management in the College of Business at Valparaiso University. He has been involved in business and management education at a variety of levels, including Dean of the Graham School of Management at Saint Xavier University, Associate Dean of the Williams College of Business at Xavier University, and department chair at the College of Mount St. Joseph, Salisbury University and Xavier University. His work experience includes consulting for Arthur Andersen and directing executive training for the Hecht Company. He has also served as a consultant to many organizations on a variety of organizational development issues. His community service has included board memberships with the Minerva Institute (Occupational Safety and Health), the Joy Outdoor Education Center (experiences for underserved youth and families), and the Human Resource Certification Institute of the Society for Human Resources (Director of Codification and Research). He is a peer assessor for AACSB (The Association for the Advancement of Colleges and Schools of Business). He has engaged in a variety of educational endeavors throughout the world, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, China, Dubai, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
His consulting specialities include: strategic planning, quantitative analysis & research, educational administration and educational assessment.
Thomas "Tom" Kalinske is executive chairman of Global Education Learning, a company dedicated to children's education in China. Mr. Kalinske is the former CEO of Mattel, Matchbox, president and CEO of Sega of America, and CEO and COB of LeapFrog. Mr. Kalinske served on the board of directors of the Toy Manufacturers of America, Blackboard, and currently serves on the board of Cambium Learning Group, Genyous, WCEPS, is the Vice Chairman of LeapFrog Inc., and is Emeritus Advisor to both the UW Business School and University of Arizona Eller School of Management.
Carl Kutsmode is a passionate, outsourced recruiting (RPO), executive search & management consulting firm leader with over 20 years experience as a corporate talent acquisition management consultant and recruiting industry entrepreneur / thought leader. He has extensive experience leading the growth of three start-up recruiting and management consulting firms. Carl's expertise lies in successfully implementing solutions to address corporate critical talent hiring spikes in professional services / consulting, healthcare, financial services, sales, and technology.
A success-driven senior business executive and strategic investor, John identifies and translates opportunities into strategies that drive profit and sustainability in for- and not-for-profit companies. Merging in-depth financial and business experience with an entrepreneurial, forward-thinking mindset, he optimizes and delivers tangible business outcomes. A high-energy leader, John brings experience in operations, business development and investing to overcome challenges, conflicts and market volatility for strong bottom-line impact. He is respected for his proven ability to spur change and bring purpose and focus to organizations undergoing transformation while facilitating consensus between the C-suite, Boards of Directors and internal and external stakeholders.
Patrick is a senior executive with experience across several industries including industrial equipment manufacturing, Internet/software, telecommunications, and for-profit and non-profit education. He has significant general management and mergers and acquisitions experience. Patrick has successfully led efforts to restructure organizations and drive new strategies to increase value.
Brian is an accomplished Senior Sales Executive with a successful track record of selling cloud-based applications to enterprise customers. He is highly effective in generating new business, driving market growth, strategic account management and customer retention. Brian brings valuable experience in sales strategy, sales enablement and cloud delivery. He upholds a reputation of overcoming challenges and obstacles that impact technology and solution execution.
Roger Novak is co-founder and General Partner of Novak Biddle Venture Partners, a premier, early-stage venture capital firm and serves on many private, civic and advisory boards. With over two decades of experience, Mr. Novak blends his Information Technology and Investment expertise to help the companies he works with succeed. Mr. Novak speaks frequently about venture capital, risk, innovation, has contributed to numerous local and national media programs and has advised Congress and other government agencies.
Eric Kingery is a technology leader and community-builder. As founder of Refactor::Chicago and co-organizer of the Chicago CTO Forum, Mr. Kingery has provided an environment for technology professionals to learn, share and succeed. As CTO of Wellspring and Director of Technology at Sittercity, Mr. Kingery built and scaled successful products and teams in high growth environments. His technical expertise includes web scalability, systems architecture, software engineering, and is fluent in a variety of programming languages including C, PHP, Ruby, and Go. Eric holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Engineering.
George is an experienced early stage investor, and also a senior executive skilled at developing, executing and sustaining strategic and new business initiatives, building and leading cross-functional teams, and dramatically enhancing revenues. He has served in senior leadership and founder roles with Internet-based ventures including start ups and mature enterprises. Currently he is investing in early stage education technology ventures focused on access, efficiency and efficacy in higher education and professional learning.
George is extremely active as a hands on advisor to BV portfolio companies, leveraging prior experience as senior strategy officer at industry-leading online program management services firm Bisk, where he had direct relationship responsibility for university presidents, provosts and deans creating and supporting enterprise online degree and executive education programs. He has also served in executive legal roles, handling regulatory matters at the highest levels of the federal government, and negotiating complex technology services, software, M&A and IP agreements with many of the Fortune 500.
Michael S. Johnson recently retired from the staff of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), where he served as Vice President, and later as Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff. Prior to his work in regional accreditation, Dr. Johnson served in academic administration and as a faculty member at Spring Hill College. He previously held faculty positions at the University of New Orleans and at Cornell University. He earned degrees in economics from Davidson College and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Jamienne S. Studley, a champion for students, civil rights and public engagement, has served in the US Dept of Education as deputy and acting general counsel, deputy and acting under secretary, and chair of the national advisory panel on accreditation. Her higher education experience also includes President, Skidmore College; associate dean and lecturer in law, Yale Law School; adjunct faculty at Stanford and UC Berkeley Law Schools, and board member, Assn of American Colleges & Universities. Jamie graduated from Barnard College and Harvard Law School, and is currently an advisor to the Aspen Institute; national policy advisor to Beyond 12, a college success initiative; and a consultant to colleges, universities and foundations, focusing on college completion, student and institutional success broadly defined, and leadership.
Group Creative Director with proven success in shopper and brand activation. Passion for leadership – inspiring and developing creative talent, producing award-winning work, and partnering across disciplines to identify growth opportunities for brands to compete and grow. And win. Lots of winning.
Bio will be added soon...
Bio will be added soon...
Bio will be added soon...
Bio will be added soon...
