Download After Dinner Guest Speaker - Jason Palmer, Bill Melinda Gates Foundation - Bio

Jason Palmer
Deputy Director, Postsecondary Success
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Jason leads the Foundation’s postsecondary innovation efforts to improve the outcomes of
low-income, minority and first-generation college students, with the ultimate goal of
improving social mobility and reducing the equity gap. The innovations that Jason and his
team focus on include digital and adaptive learning, student coaching and advising,
financial aid structures, comprehensive credit transfer and employer pathways.
Prior to joining the Foundation in 2013, Jason founded and grew three investor-backed
technology and services companies before holding a series of executive positions at
Microsoft, SchoolNet, Kaplan and StraighterLine. At Microsoft Education, Jason was
responsible for developing and launching the world’s first learning management system for
tablet-based education. At SchoolNet, Jason was responsible for establishing partnerships
with Scantron, The Princeton Review, Kaplan and ETS. At Kaplan, Jason led three education
businesses as general manager or president, in addition to founding the company’s venture
capital effort and serving as a board member to startups like Moodlerooms and iProf India.
Jason was also one of the first employees at StraighterLine, serving as its first chief product
officer, as well as an entrepreneur-in-residence at New Markets Venture Partners, a leading
education-focused VC.
Jason holds a B.A. in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A.
from Harvard Business School, and has also served on the University of Virginia’s Curry
School of Education Foundation Board for eleven years.