Our Team

StraighterLine created an innovative, new way for students to complete required college courses by building on the expertise of seasoned, respected, and proven educators and partners.

Burck Smith

Burck Smith is the CEO and founder of StraighterLine. Before launching StraighterLine, he was the founder and CEO of SMARTHINKING, the dominant online tutoring provider for schools and colleges. In addition to building StraighterLine, Burck is writing chapters for two books on education policy for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He is a member of the American Enterprise Institute's Higher Education Working Group. Burck worked as an independent consultant who contracted with for-profit and non-profit educational organizations, including clients such as the Gates Foundation, Microsoft, Computer Curriculum Corporation, the CEO Forum on Education and Technology, the Milken Exchange on Education and Technology, Teaching Matters Inc., Converge Magazine and others. As a writer about education and technology issues, Burck has been published by Wired Magazine, Wired News, Converge Magazine, University Business and the National School Boards Association. In the early 1990's, he wrote articles on a variety of subjects including creating community telecommunication networks, electronic access to political information, telecommunications deregulation and the ability of utilities to serve as telecommunications service providers. Burck holds a Master's Degree in Public Policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. from Williams College. Recent publications include:

• Public Policy Barriers to Post-Secondary Cost Control - Prepared for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) conference, "Increasing Accountability in American Higher Education," November 17, 2009. To be published as part of a book sponsored by the Gates Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
• Price Competition and Course-Level Choice in K-12 Education: Lessons from Higher Ed - Prepared for the American Enterprise Institute Conference, "More Than Just Schools: Rethinking the Demand for Educational Entrepreneurship," December 7, 2009. To be published as part of a book sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute.
• College by Subscription - American Enterprises Institute, September, 2009.

David Parento

David Parento serves as Chief Operating and Financial Officer at StraighterLine, where he is responsible for managing the company's day-to-day operations, including overall financial, administration, legal and corporate development activities. He has spent the last twelve years building early-stage and growth companies as a venture capitalist and attorney. Most recently, David was a venture capitalist at Chrysalis Ventures, a leading technology and healthcare-focused venture capital fund doing early and growth-stage investments, where he focused on education and training sector investments. Earlier in his career, David was corporate finance and transactional lawyer with Davis Polk & Wardwell in California, London and New York, where he worked extensively in the firm's venture capital, private equity, capital markets and M&A practices. David has a BA from Yale University, a JD from Vermont Law School and a MSc, Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was a Sloan Fellow.

Jason Palmer

Jason Palmer serves as Chief Product Officer at StraighterLine, where he is responsible for product strategy, course development, design and user experience.  With almost 20 years of experience starting, managing and growing education technology companies, Jason is a leading entrepreneur, innovator, and thought-leader in the field of online education.  Prior to joining StraighterLine, he founded and grew three venture-backed technology and services companies in the 1990's, before holding a series of executive positions at Microsoft, SchoolNet and Kaplan over the past decade.  Most recently at Kaplan, Jason led three businesses as GM and President, in addition to rebuilding the company's Kaplan Ventures investment arm, making minority investments and serving as a Board Member to some of the world's top education startups.  He holds a BA in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Harvard Business School.  Jason also serves on the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education Foundation Board, and retains an affiliation with New Markets Venture Partners as an investment advisor.

Sharon Spooler

Sharon Spooler serves as Chief Marketing Officer at StraighterLine, where she is responsible for consumer marketing, business intelligence, and strategic alliances.  Sharon brings significant experience in strategy, marketing, business intelligence, and analytics from leading financial services and software companies including Capital One, Wells Fargo, and Fair Isaac. Prior to joining StraighterLine, Sharon was responsible for Product Marketing and Channel Development for ID Analytics, a fraud and risk analytics company where she launched new products and developed marketing channels and partnerships.  Sharon has a passion for bringing analytics discipline and strategy to small companies, and spent three years running a boutique consulting business focused on start-ups and small businesses.  Prior to that, Sharon developed a business intelligence capability for PeopleFirst, an on-line company that was purchased by CapitalOne, which enabled the company to grow quickly and efficiently.  Sharon graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E.) in Civil Engineering and Operations Research with a focus on Engineering Management Systems.  She is also a graduate of the Coaches Training Institute’s Co-Active Coaching and Leadership Development programs and has worked with companies and individuals across industries as an executive coach and meeting facilitator.

Jaime Cocuy

Jaime Cocuy serves as Vice President of Strategic Alliances at StraighterLine, where he is responsible for developing and managing partnerships with major corporations, channel/distribution partners, and academic institutions.   Jaime is a senior level executive with over 25 years of experience leading organizations in a variety of industries and market segments. He has experience in developing aggressive business strategies that drive penetration of new products and services into new markets.  Most recently, Jaime served as Vice President and General Manager of the Strategic Alliances Organization for Kaplan University.  Earlier in his career, Jaime held senior executive level positions with NextiraOne (owned by Platinum Equity), a multi-billion dollar technology services company.  At NextiraOne, Jaime served as Vice President of Major Account Organization and Worldwide Vice President of Strategic Partner Organization.  Jaime spent several years with Xerox Corporation responsible for Xerox’ Professional Service practice in Florida and Puerto Rico.  At Xerox, Jaime held various roles including mid-level management responsibilities and global solution portfolio management.  Jaime graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Accounting.  He has also completed graduate study courses at Nova Southeastern University with an emphasis in International Business and is currently enrolled in a Master of Science in Management program at Kaplan University.

Josef Katz

Josef Katz serves as the Vice President of Marketing for StraighterLine. He is responsible for putting in place marketing plans, strategies, partners and systems to bring the StraighterLine programs to market. Josef is a veteran marketer within the educational industry and has a proven track record of success. Prior to StraighterLine Josef was the Vice President of Marketing for Trump University where he drove the University's growth and international expansion. Before joining Trump University, he served as the Executive Director of Integrated Marketing for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. While in this role he was an integral part of their direct mail, email, Internet, and relationship marketing initiatives. Josef's other experiences include providing direct marketing and data strategy for leading brands such as Intel, NASDAQ, Nestle, Volvo, Philips Electronics, New Balance, and Rogaine while working for Draft Worldwide and Fuel NA (part of the Euro RSCG agency network). Mr. Katz was elected to serve on the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) Ethics Operating Committee. He is a member of the DMA's CRM Segment Advisory Committee and has presented at the DMA's annual conferences. Josef has judged the DMEF Collegiate Echo awards and is a member of Direct Marketing Idea Exchange. You can read Josef's marketing blog to learn more or follow him on Twitter and start a conversation.

Joseph Thibault

Joseph Thibault is the Course Director for StraighterLine's catalog of online college courses.  He is responsible for the ongoing maintenance and development of current and future course offerings.  Before joining StraighterLine, Joseph worked for three years managing the course catalog of 80+ courses at GlobalClassroom.us, a low-cost provider of professional development courses for K-12 teachers throughout the US.  In his spare time he works to advance open education and content and manages a growing eLearning technology news site (http://moodlenews.com).  Joseph received his Bachelors and M. Ed. from the University of Vermont.