Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> February 19, 2001
JOHN T. KERNAN is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
Lightspan, Inc. Mr. Kernan was formerly Chairman and CEO of
Jostens Learning Corporation, the nation's largest educational
software company. He developed Jostens Learning from a startup
company in 1985 (then named Education Systems Technology
Corporation) to one of the largest software businesses in the US,
with 2,000 employees, revenues of over $225 million, and systems
in use by some 7 million children at 14,000 schools nationwide.
Under Mr. Kernan's leadership, Jostens Learning also was the
nation's largest provider of adult education software, and a
leader in high tech training for the military and commercial
aviation. Prior to founding Jostens Learning, Mr. Kernan helped
Gill Management Services in developing addressable descrambler
and subscriber billing software technology for the cable
television industry. He also was Vice President of Product
Development for DELTAK, Inc. (now NetG), then the nation's
largest provider of video-based training. Mr. Kernan also has
served as Director of Information Systems for two Fortune 500
companies. Mr. Kernan has served as Chairman and President of the
Software and Information Industry Association, the primary trade
association of the computer software industry. He has been
selected the regional Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. magazine,
Educator of the Decade by Electronic Learning magazine, and
Portfolio Company Executive of the Year by the National
Association of Small Business Investment Companies. Profile
Mr. Kernan: Lightspan is in the education technology business and
fundamentally we do three kinds of things. First, we have
