Lou Pugliese is a nationally respected leader in the education technology business, responsible for the growth and success of some of the best companies in the industry.

Over the past twenty years, Pugliese has developed a strong track record managing growth businesses and acquiring and developing a number of education organizations. His vision and management skills have help organizations of all sizes attract top talent and build teams to meet specific business objectives. Pugliese has earned a reputation as an expert in working with capital markets, helping companies acquire (tens/hundreds) of millions of dollars in venture capital. He has served a number of companies as interim CEO and worked closely alongside founders, current executives and other team members to expand their market share, sales and visibility.

Pugliese is president of Learning Diagnostics Inc., an education a consulting organization that provides assistance in corporate growth to Fortune 500 organizations and private equity organizations involved in global e-learning initiatives.

He was recently vice president of corporate development at Educational Testing Service (ETS) and is now providing strategic consulting to the company. In this capacity, Pugliese led corporate strategy and growth and strategic alliances for the secondary, post secondary, workforce and international education markets. Prior to his appointment in corporate development, Pugliese served as the vice president of market development, which included marketing, sales, market research, and business development. Prior to this post, he was the CEO of ETS Pulliam, LLC, an ETS K-12 subsidiary, and vice president of elementary and secondary education products and services where he led ETS's elementary and secondary education product development and customer-facing activities. These included professional development, technology products and services and assessments.

Prior to ETS, Pugliese was an entrepreneur in residence at Novak Biddle Venture Partners, an equity-financing firm established in 1997 to provide assistance to the management of young, information technology businesses. There he shaped the strategy for private equity investments in early stage educational technology companies.

While working with Novak Biddle, Pugliese was named CEO of AnswerLogic, a software company that delivers online question-answering solutions for business through its innovative natural language processing technology.

Pugliese’s affiliation with Novak Biddle began with the firm’s early stage lead position in Blackboard, Inc., where he was founding CEO. Under Pugliese's leadership, Blackboard experienced 500-percent annual revenue growth rates, international customer expansion to more than three million individuals teaching and learning on Blackboard, the roll-out of multiple products and services and attainment over $50 million in private financing.

Before joining Blackboard, Pugliese served as vice president and chief operating officer of ETC, a subsidiary of Denver-based Telecommunications Inc. (TCI). Prior to joining ETC, he was director of marketing and sales with Scholastic New Media in New York, and vice president of Turner Educational Services in Atlanta where he successfully launched CNN Newsroom and a variety of other educational ventures.

Pugliese is active in the Washington, DC regional and national technology communities and serves on the numerous local and regional boards in education- and software-related businesses. He also served on George W. Bush’s Presidential IT Steering Committee and the Commission on Technology and Adult Learning. Pugliese is a noted international speaker on educational technology and has addressed a wide range of issues in education and education policy.