John Ramo M.Ed., has over 35 years experience in education entrepreneurship, educational technology and distance learning. Mr. Ramo, founded and built a successful Washington D.C. educational software company, and completed a successful IPO on the NASDAQ. Mr. Ramo was a pioneer in interactive multimedia technologies, pre and post internet. His company, Sonic Images, was the first domestic licensee of the Philips/Sony Red Book technology and he partnered with Philips and Philips Interactive Media on the first wave of digital tech on the CD-I platform in the '80's. Mr. Ramo conceptualized and produced the first interactive multimedia music instruction software for the CD-I platform, The Private Lessons Series (Classical Guitar, Jazz Guitar, Rock Guitar, Piano), for Philips Interactive Media. More recently, Mr. Ramo completed a successful merger of Digital Directions International (DDI) and Boulder Language Technologies to form Boulder Learning Inc. With DDI, he formed a public private partnership with the University of Colorado, Rocky Mountain PBS to research and develop the award winning"HELP Math Program", the first research proven digital supplemental Math curriculum for Hispanic ELL and other struggling students under a major grants from the U.S. Department of Education and other foundations and private investment. He is an award-winning producer of educational multimedia software for other clients such as The Smithsonian Institute,Simon & Schuster, American Association for the Advancement of Science for whom he led the team that developed the first multimedia encyclopedia of the environment “Earth Explorer” for middle school students which was distributed by Apple. He has also worked for America On-Line as an Executive Producer, and on multi-media projects with names such as Jean Michel Cousteau John Denver, Jodie Foster and others. Mr. Ramo is a former Special Ed Teacher and has worked with Special Needs children ranging from learning disabled, autism spectrum, to cognitive and behavioral disorders. He holds a Masters in Educational Psychology; fellowship awarded from American University and graduated with honors.Specialties:Ed Tech Companies/start-up/early stage strategies, holds a Black Belt in Aikido, and is a classical guitarist