Christian Chabot is CEO and co-founder of Tableau Software. Prior to Tableau he was an associate partner at Softbank Venture Capital, where he specialized in enterprise applications. Before Softbank, Christian was CEO and co-founder of BeeLine Software, which was acquired by Vicinity Corporation. Christian started his career as a data analyst at Cornerstone Research, an
SM: I am observing that you have a segment out there, which is teachers who are teaching middle school and high school math and science without significant math and science backgrounds. If you take that segment of teachers and teach them how to teach with technology, then you have a very interesting segment. That is
SM: As long as a university is regionally accredited, it qualifies for financial aid? JK: Yes. There are other specific requirements along as well, but that is the most important issue.
SM: You said that your students are working adults. Do they take your programs out of convenience? JK: While there is a level of flexibility and convenience in distance learning, it is also hard. It is challenging to sit down for school after a full day of work. Students spend dinner with their families, put
SM: Your focus is to train nurse educators but not nurse practitioners, is that correct? JK: Yes. We do not have a nursing licensing program. There are a lot of programs like that out there. Those programs have a challenge finding enough educators.
SM: What is the focus of Walden University today? JK: Today, our focus remains entirely on the mission of the university. That mission remains positive social change. Entrepreneurs are incredibly mission-focused.
Jonathan A. Kaplan has served as president of Walden University since September 2007. Prior to joining Walden University, Jonathan had a distinguished career in government, public policy, and law. He served in the White House as chief of staff of the National Economic Council and special assistant to the president for economic policy under President
SM: What is the role of networking going forward? What does the future hold? PS: In the grand scheme of things, networking is a phenomenally important part of society’s infrastructure. It is the technology that is used to connect people and things together for the purposes of sharing information. It existed 10,000 years ago in