Berj Akian, Founder and CEO
There is a great adage about how often in life 1 degree makes all the difference. Berj is passionate about finding those 1 degrees and making a big difference in improving education. Knowing that a great carpenter is only masterful with the right tools, Berj set out to improve education through building the best tools for students and teachers. What started as an effort to help one local school integrate a cutting-edge technology environment became a stepping stone that would lead to the establishment of ClassLink, Inc. Founded in 1998 , today, ClassLink serves close to 4,000 schools and over 2.6 million students and teachers across the nation.
Prior to paving a new foundation for technology in the educational realm, Berj was with Technology Crossover Ventures, a leading mezzanine venture capital firm. Previous to TCV, he specialized in restructurings and attest services for large technology and educational publishing clients with Arthur Andersen.
Sneak Peek – Berj (pronounced bear-j), graduated cum laude from Baruch College in New York. Time outdoors and time with family and friends are his extracurricular activities. Combine them and you get beach trips, camping trips, snow ski trips all with family and friends. Berj knows great leadership requires great listening and teamwork. He gets to practice this mantra not only at work but also at home where he is outnumbered 4 women to 1 …lucky for us, his beautiful wife and three daughters keep him in check!
Stanley Watts, VP Development
Prior to teaming up with Berj to pave the way at ClassLink, Stan, a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology with a degree in Computer Engineering, was co-owner and operator of Hudson County’s very first Internet café! Stan is a devoted technology enthusiast always had a true knack for deriving better solutions to existing software capabilities. Enter ClassLink, where he has designed and architected our major products including, LaunchPad, OnTrack, Inquiry, ClassSync, LaunchPad Cloud, LaunchPad Portal, Adult Ed Web, Parent Portal and District Portal. Stan continues to push the envelope; always on the lookout for new designs and enhanced capabilities to the products that we offer.
Sneak Peek – Stan enjoys stress-buster workouts and tinkering with gadgets and new web technologies (no surprise there!). He’s also keen on quality time with his wife and children and furthering his interests in photography. Stan is also a big advocate for dining on ethnic foods, especially Korean and Indian. According to him, the spicier the better!
Kathy Ritch, VP, CTE, Alternative, Special, and Adult Education
Kathy has expertise like few others when it comes to achieving school improvement for non traditional schools! Whether it’s Career and Technical Education, Special Education, Alternative Education, Adult Education or the key components that bring it all together, Kathy is exceptional. Co-creator of ClassLink ClassMate CTE student software, (awarded “Best Classroom Management Tool” by Software Information & Industry Association – SIIA), Kathy’s dedication and hard work wins her deep respect by colleagues. Prior to joining the ClassLink family, Kathy was founder/CEO of SofTEQ Communications, providing career and technical schools with the tools, training, and technology to assist staff and students in greater avenues for success. She is also co-creator of Pennsylvania’s PowerSource career planning software and author of Career Planning Handbook, a career development study guide for middle and high school used to prep students for post-secondary education and workforce opportunities.
Sneak Peek – Kathy loves a challenge, so it’s no surprise that she’s a bit of a dare-devil! She’s an avid golfer and kayaker, and she enjoys relaxing while riding her brand new Harley motorcycle! (Go Kathy!) Given food to choose from and she’ll opt for green asparagus with melted butter every time! (And of course, chocolate too! Who wouldn’t?!)
Beatrice (‘Bea’) Elie-Pierre, Director of Professional Development Services
Bea lights up any classroom with her devotion and unwavering support of her educational colleagues. At ClassLink, Bea is responsible for Professional Development services and our award winning OnTrack Curriculum Management System. Rising from the classroom as a middle school social studies teacher Bea has held many school wide professional development responsibilities. Her ‘can do’ attitude brought her further on the leadership path to have district level responsibilities of a multi-city network of for education services across 100 schools.
