Christopher Etesse, Director of Technology and Commerce, brings a strong
technical background to the development of Blackboard's technical strategy,
including experience in both the academic and private sectors. Mr. Etesse's
understanding of the education market also comes from direct experience as a
instructor as well as a designer of enterprise institutional and course
management systems. Mr. Etesse has taught C++ programming to undergraduates,
developed web-based education products as well as helped launch enterprise
level educational suites.
Mr. Etesse has been heavily involved in e-Education from the earliest days
of the Internet. From having one of the first course sites for students to
retrieve course materials and check grades in the beginning of 1996 to
architecting the first Course Management System for International Thomson
Publishing in late 1997.
Mr. Etesse joined Blackboard in late 1998 and had helped nurture numerous
technical strategies and initiatives within the corporation. From the
initial technical service deployments, enterprise integrations, direct
leadership in development of Blackboard 5 and the Blackboard Platform
Builder as well as technical due diligence in M&A's.
Mr. Etesse received his Master of Science in Computer Science from the
University of Kentucky.
