[August 19, 2015]

Knod Forms Career Advisory Board to Better Meet the Needs of Employers

In continuing its mission of answering the needs of employers by producing candidates who are ready for the workforce, Knod announced today that it has formed a new Career Advisory Board. These advisors, who come from diverse fields, will lend their expertise to ensure Knod learners are on a smarter path to employment. The group will provide its point of view to help guide student learning outcomes that are relevant for today's employers.

Knod's Career Advisory Board is comprised of top professionals from leading global, regional and local organizations, including IBM, Google (News - Alert), Rio Tinto and TMP Worldwide. Advisors hold a variety of roles in their fields, ranging from engineers, human resources professionals, healthcare management, and IT experts. With their diverse experience, the advisors offer insight into the ever-evolving needs of today's employers in their industries and set apart the Knod model of higher education from traditional models.

In addition, Knod has established relationships with many employers, partnering with them to provide projects for learning in real environments. Employers from leading organizations with a variety of specialties, including IBM (News - Alert), GE Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, Metasource, Dell, EMC, PSTuners, Rio Tinto, Intermountain Health Care, TMP Worldwide, etc. recognize the importance of work-ready employees and welcome Knod learners to tackle their projects. These unique employer-environment based projects build the experience that strengthens learners' outcomes.

"By working with these organizations and experts, we are creating a model for concurrent employment that redefines the end goal for higher learning and addresses a serious challenge facing employers today: employees who lack the basic skills to do their jobs despite holding a college degree," said Graham Doxey, founder and CEO of Knod. "The Career Advisory Board plays a key role in Knod's talent development model, which focuses on the needs of employers, disrupting the current employment landscape. This approach leads to competent employees, ensuring companies find the candidates they need faster."

Members of the new Career Advisory Board include:

Craig Tingey, principal advisor of leadership development, Rio Tinto

Tingey has worked in human resources and organization development for over 25 years in a variety of companies, including Aetna Life & Casualty, AlliedSignal/Honeywell (News - Alert) and Ingersoll-Rand. He has served the last eight years with Rio Tinto working and living in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, developing the best and brightest talent for Rio Tinto. He brings to Knod his passion for developin global business leadership teams that produce results through collaboration and accountability.

Eve Andersson, manager of accessibility engineering, Google

Andersson understands the value of an experience-based learning model. Prior to joining Google, she was senior vice president of academics at Neumont University. Andersson also co-founded a global open-source software community called Ars Digita Corporation that was later acquired by Red Hat. At Google, she currently leads a team of software engineers who are innovating the next best thing to be released from the tech giant. Andersson's viewpoint as a tech employer, along with her background in business solutions, provides strong guidance for Knod students to further their career.

Jim Spohrer, director of Global University Programs, IBM

Having been involved in the tech industry for more than three decades, Spohrer has seen the fluctuations in trends and employment needs that come with the changes in the industry. Prior to joining IBM, Sphorer focused on learning research as a distinguished scientist at Apple (News - Alert). Building on his tech expertise, he moved on to further grow people and companies by working in venture capital relations, then most recently in global university programs at IBM. Sphorer holds nine patents and has published more than 90 publications.

Steven Lund, CEO, SourceThought

With more than 30 years of experience in sales, marketing and business development at Cisco, Apple and HP, Lund understands the needs of employers in both large scale and startup organizations. Currently, Lund is the CEO of SourceThought, an analytics company focused on solving the problems of big data. Prior to SourceThought, he was the worldwide director of business development for Cisco services, where he led a team dedicated to driving the company's $3 billion business in Smart Cloud services globally. With a career focusing on growth for both big and small companies, Lund recognizes the need for employees who are ready to innovate.

Stacey Lagala, vice president of global client development, TMP Worldwide

With more than 18 years' experience in recruiting marketing and advertising professionals, Lagala serves as a global resource for the account services team at TMP. Throughout her career, Lagala has had the opportunity to partner with leading organizations such as Accenture, Boeing (News - Alert), HSBC, Kaiser Permanente and PepsiCo. She lends her knowledge on the demands of the workforce to provide guidance to Knod educators and students as they prepare to be world ready.

Kalyan Kar, co-founder and managing director, Inthink Knowledge Ventures

As Chairman of the National Education, HR & Skill Development Expert Committee of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and founder of an initiative to leverage technology for "innovative inclusive initiatives," Kar understands how technology can contribute to sustainable growth and advancement of society. He also appreciates the needs of employers, having co-founded a healthcare services company in India that employed more than 500 people. He has more than 25 years of experience working closely with corporates in India and US and is a start-up expert and a serial entrepreneur.

Eric Welling, anesthesiologist and healthcare professional

In addition to his 28 years of clinical experience, Welling has served as a medical staff president for a hospital, consulted for several venture capital companies, and founded a healthcare company and a petroleum company. For the past ten years he has served as a medical director for an international charity, organizing partnerships with government agencies and national medical associations to teach neonatal resuscitation.

"The support of these highly respected professionals across several industries adds important perspective to our work at Knod," Doxey added. "Because our model prioritizes the employer as our primary consumer, their commitment to solving the education-to-employment gap and insight on employer needs are invaluable."

By working on real projects with real companies during their program, Knod learners are on a solid path to employment. Employers can find out how to engage with learners to help develop the next generation of work-ready employees by visiting www.knod.net.

About Knod

Knod (pronounced "node") was founded on the principle that all people should have the opportunity to take charge of their careers. Knod is committed to talent development through experience-based learning. The Knod model focuses on preparing learners around the globe to be work-ready employees, as part of its mission of ending the education-to-employment gap. By tackling real projects with real employers, Knod learners graduate with hands-on experience that enable them to seamlessly transition into the workforce and fulfill the needs of the employers.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150819005293/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]