Mike Barger
Vice President, Chief Learning Officer
JetBlue University

Mike Barger, JetBlue University vice president and chief learning officer, attended the University of Michigan, where he received his undergraduate degree in economics and psychology in 1986. He then received his commission as an officer in the Navy and served three deployments, flying the F/A-18 Hornet aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Dwight David Eisenhower. While in the Navy, Barger spent three years as an instructor at the Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN). He also wrote numerous articles on strategy, training techniques and complex weapons systems employment. Barger was part of the JetBlue start-up team in early 1999. He founded JetBlue University, the corporate learning organization, which is now supported by more than 180 faculty members at five campuses across the United States. Barger flies for JetBlue as a captain and check airman (instructor pilot).

Dennis Brown
Senior Director, Market Development, Co-Founder
SkillSoft

Dennis Brown is a co-founder of SkillSoft, where he began by establishing and managing strategic partnerships with worldwide course development companies and putting more than 200 SkillSoft courses into production. During the past 16 years, he has been published in trade publications and presented at hundreds of conventions and seminars on topics such as blended learning, e-learning for the knowledge economy, organizational effectiveness and the ROI of learning. Brown now focuses on establishing SkillSoft’s worldwide presence in the business and professional management computer-based training industry, offering more than 25 years of expertise in the sales and international marketing arenas. Prior to SkillSoft, he worked with NETg as the senior director of product development running the video studio until it closed. Brown has held positions as international product marketing manager for Sterling Software and international marketing manager for Pansophic Systems. He also has owned and run his own video production company.

Michael E. Echols, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Bellevue University
and Director of Bellevue University's Human Capital Lab

Michael Echols is a significant force in corporate learning and an internationally known thought leader on evaluating and improving the ROI on human capital. He is the author of three books on human capital: ROI on Human Capital Investment, Competitive Advantage from Human Capital Investment and Creating Value With Human Capital Investment. Training Industry Inc. named him one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Previously, Echols was a corporate executive with General Electric Co. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Carnegie Mellon University, his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh and his doctorate from the College of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Bob Lee
WebEx Learning Solutions Strategist
Cisco

With more than 20 years of experience in the training marketplace, Bob Lee has served in a variety of roles, including training manager, practitioner, consultant and marketer. An early adopter of virtual classroom technologies, Lee has designed and taught more than 200 online classes as an e-learning consultant for IBM, director of training with Bank One and as an independent e-learning consultant. Lee manages the marketing of solutions for training organizations at WebEx Communications Inc.