Introducing John Baker
John Baker is the founder, president and CEO of Kitchener, Ontario company Desire2Learn. John founded the company in 1999 when he was still an engineering student at the University of Waterloo.
Desire2Learn is a company that provides a learning management system (LMS) to K to 12 and post-secondary institutions, corporations, government and healthcare organizations. Major customers include both local universities in Waterloo (Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo), as well as the Ontario Ministry of Education. The company’s core values are learner success, creativity, passion and collaboration. In addition to a LMS, Desire2Learn’s products also include a learning repository that enables sharing of learning resources, an ePortfolio that is a social learning tool, an analytics product that enables data to be used by educators, mobile learning via tablets and smartphone and a product that allows presentations to be captured and broadcast to audiences on-demand and real time (Desire2Learn, 2012a). The company also provides services including cloud hosting, consulting, training and creative services such as web design, graphics and course development (Desire2Learn, 2012b).
John Baker graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honours B.A. Sc. in Systems Design Engineering with an option in Management Science. He wanted to create a program that would “break down all the barriers to education and allow everyone a chance to get an education” (The Record, 2009, para. 7). Mr. Baker demonstrates a number of entrepreneurial characteristics including perseverance and determination, self-confidence, creativity and imagination and he is action-oriented. When faced with a multi-million dollar patent infringement lawsuit from Blackboard in 2008, Mr. Baker continued to believe in his company, and pressed on to the U.S. Court of Appeals after losing a judgement in a lower court (Reinhart, 2012). He was rewarded with a victory. He displayed creativity and imagination by envisioning an alternative to professors putting notes on a chalkboard. He also demonstrates ambition, and by his own admission, “I’ve always had that drive to make an impact, to really make a difference in people’s lives” (Reinhart, 2012).
John is a board member at Communitech, a not-for-profit organization in Waterloo Region that supports and promotes the technology sector in the area, as well as the National Ballet School. He has earned a number of awards and designations including: top 40 under 40 recipient in Waterloo Region in 2009, a Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Waterloo Region in 2008, as well as a Young Alumni Achievement Medal from the University of Waterloo in 2010 (Desire2Learn Webinar, 2012).
The management team of Desire2Learn was bolstered in January of this year by the addition of Mr. Dennis Kavelman, the former CFO and CEO of RIM. He joined Desire2Learn after a 15-year career with RIM to focus on emerging markets in Latin America, Asia and Europe (Marlow, 2012). Mr. Kavelman will be a great addition to the company as he has hands-on experience helping a smaller technology company achieve international success. In addition to Mr. Kavelman who is the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), the management team consists of Mr. John McLeod, VP Marketing, and Mr. Jeremy Auger, Chief Technology Officer and Executive VP (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2012). I was unable to locate any information about the company’s Board of Directors.
Personal Reflection
I use the BDC Entrepreneurial Profile with my Entrepreneurship class to help them self-assess their entrepreneurial characteristics. My own profile indicated a strong need for challenge and ambition, and high ratings for self-sufficiency and freedom, and perseverance and determination. I have been called “stubborn” on many occasions, but I prefer to view it as dogged determination instead! The one area where I am at odds with a successful entrepreneur is risk-taking. As an accountant, I am more risk-averse and conservative by nature, and am not as comfortable in the world of ambiguity. If I were serious about an entrepreneurial venture, this attribute would certainly require some work.
References
Bloomberg Businessweek. (2012). Company overview of Desire2Learn incorporated. Retrieved from http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=9412776
Desire2Learn. (2012). Desire2Learn products. Retrieved from http://www.desire2learn.com/products/learning-suite/
Desire2Learn. (2012). Desire2Learn global services. Retrieved from http://www.desire2learn.com/services/
Desire2Learn Webinar. (2012). An Introduction to Desire2Learn: Transformation from the LMS to a complete learning platform webinar. Retrieved from http://www.cvent.com/events/an-introduction-to-desire2learn-transformation-from-the-lms-to-a-complete-learning-platform-webinar/event-summary-30c645444ffe4fa198d4c6695c39e366.aspx
John Baker [Photograph]. (2009). Retrieved May 26, 2012, from: http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~eng-alum/medals/gallery.html
Marlow, I. (2012). Former RIM exec joins tech startup Desire2Learn. Retrieved from Globe & Mail website: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/former-rim-executive-joins-tech-startup-desire2learn/article2307290/
Reinhart, A. (2012). D2L’s John Baker: Desire to make a difference. Retrieved from Communitech website: http://www.communitech.ca/d2ls-john-baker-desire-to-make-a-difference/
The Record. (2009, February 25). 40 under 40: John Baker. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20100410182008/http:/news.therecord.com/article/493729
HJDeW 5:07 am on May 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Deb, this is a well written bio and venture presentation. I spent several hours reviewing this company as well, since it is located in Ontario and provides essential service to the Education Ministry for blended and online learning. I was particularly interested in John Baker’s reflections and response to the patent infringement litigation he has successfully fought as shared in the Communitech interview. He shared his response to the challenge by being open and honest in his communication strategy, which certainly helped build a stronger brand support from employees and customers. With a growing workforce and a vision of global service provision, this is certainly one venture to watch.
Deborah S 7:14 am on May 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks, Helen. I was interested in the company because of their link to the Ministry and they were recently chosen as the LMS provider for the University of Waterloo. Until I researched the company in more detail, I had no idea they were so diversified in terms of the products and services they offer.
Deborah
HJDeW 8:45 am on May 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Now that I have reviewed and investigated other ventures, I realize how polished and user centered their website information is, in terms of the visual images, vocabulary choices, and readily accessible links to important information. I was struck by the current and future vision for this company and sent the job posting link to a few people I know. I am interested in seeing how the LMS works, in comparison to Moodle or WebCT, as well as the co-ordination of the e-portfolio component, since this is an area of current research for me. Have you (or any others) used this product or know more about it?
Deborah S 5:49 am on May 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Helen,
I would agree with you about the website. Not only is it easy to navigate, but I like how they split the customer base into K-12, higher education, corporate and government so you can easily see the services available.
My daughter completed several online courses with school boards that used the LMS. I really liked the way it was set up and navigation was very intuitive. I personally haven’t used the e-portfolio component, so I can’t offer any assistance.
Deborah