PAUL ROMER | Founder and Chief Learning Advisor

Paul Romer was the primary developer of New Growth Theory, a body of work in economics that provides a fresh foundation for business and government thinking about wealth creation. He was awarded the Horst Claus Recktenwald Prize in Economics in 2002, and was named one of America's 25 most influential people by TIME magazine in 1997. Paul is currently the STANCO 25 Professor of Economics in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He previously taught economics at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Chicago, and the University of Rochester. He is also the founder of Aplia, which develops and applies technologies for improving student learning. This work springs from his conviction that improving education will be the key to sustaining technological progress in the twenty-first century.

NICHOLAS SMITH | President

Nicholas Smith brings to Aplia 15 years of experience in education and instructional technology. Nicholas joined Aplia in 2001, and has since helped to build or lead a number of key teams, including content production, customer support, and sales. Before joining Aplia, Nicholas developed and produced online courses for Pensare, Inc., a web-based professional training and development company. Prior experiences include establishing and managing employee computer training programs throughout Europe and the United States for SRI Consulting; providing consulting services for the Alliance for Lifelong Learning, an online educational partnership of Oxford, Stanford, and Yale; and helping to found and grow the middle-school program at Keys School in Palo Alto, CA.

Nicholas holds a master's degree from Brandeis University.

RICK MEYERS | CTO

Rick Meyers is an expert in using multimedia technology in education. His skills in Flash, ActionScript, XML, and a host of authoring, graphic arts, and sound editing tools are backed by more than 30 years of training and experience in physics, mathematics, engineering, computer science, human factors, and multimedia. Prior to joining Aplia, Rick owned and operated Meyers Labs, a contract engineering house specializing in CD-ROM and Internet-based multimedia for education. Past clients include Summit Performance Group, Zeeks.com, Alfy.com, Pensare, LightSurf, ThinkBox, and Pierian Spring Software, as well as Aplia. Rick created and continues to operate the educational kids' site Zoopz.com. Rick has served as a Systems Software Engineer and Engineering Manager at Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, and Taligent. His many credits at these firms include Lisa Smalltalk, Apple's MPW 1.0 for Macintosh, and Taligent's acclaimed CompTech C++ compiler.

Rick holds a BA in physics and mathematics from Hope College and an MS in IEEE/computer science from the University of California at Berkeley.

SHELBY MACKAY WELSCH | Director of Sales

Shelby MacKay Welsch brings more than 11 years of direct sales and management experience to Aplia, where she is responsible for directing the sales team. Prior to joining Aplia, Shelby was instrumental in steering the growth of MailFrontier, Inc., the leader in e-mail security, until its profitable acquisition by SonicWall in 2006. As the first sales representative at MailFrontier, she was responsible for acquiring customers as well as building and leading a strong sales team. Shelby has worked extensively throughout the Bay Area with companies such as Calico, Inc., and Enviz, Inc., and brings an energetic spirit to Aplia.

DANIEL WHITE | Director of Strategic Development

Daniel White brings strategic and analytic leadership to Aplia. He has been with Aplia for over 3 years, working in channel management, business development, and sales. Before coming to Aplia, Daniel received his MS in Economics from Georgia Institute of Technology where he also completed a concentration in Educational Technology from the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) program.