Matthew Pittinsky | Mini Moments With Big Thinkers

Matthew Pittinsky (Ph.D. '08) is Chief Executive Officer of Parchment Inc., a Scottsdale, Arizona-based company that markets Docufide.com, a web-based, password-protected transcript exchange network  that allows participating high schools, higher-education institutions and employers to securely share electronic transcripts. Parchment.com is the company’s free, web-based service that helps transcript owners (students) to establish a secure credential account and to put their data to work in the college admissions process—for example, by identifying institutions where they are most likely to be accepted and to thrive. 

Pittinsky received his  doctorate from TC's Sociology and Education program, which was then in the College's Department of Human Development and is now in its Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis. Peviously, in 1997, he co-founded Blackboard Inc., serving first as Chief Executive Officer and then Executive Chairman. Millions of students across the world use Blackboard technologies. He left Blackboard in 2008 to teach and conduct research as an Assistant Professor of Sociology in Arizona State University’s (ASU) School of Social and Family Dynamics, but remained Chairman of Blackboard’s Board of Directors until 2011, when the company was sold to Providence Equity for $1.7 billion and taken private. Pittinsky serves on the Board of Trustees of The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. In 2012 he received President’s Medal of Excellence to recognize his impact and innovation in the field of education technology and entrepreneurship. 

Learn about TC's Department of Math, Science & Technology, which also produces many technology entrepreneurs.

Premiered on 10/20/2013