Management Team
Benjamin L. Noel - President & Chief Executive Officer
Ben founded 360Ed and its parent company, Interactive Learning Network, LLC in 2006 with a vision to converge the best of interactive online distribution with world class pedagogy. The mission to create significant value in the growing online education market requires exceptional talent and an optimal environment for creativity and execution. To this end, in 2003, Ben embarked upon creating the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) www.fiea.ucf.edu with then Governor Jeb Bush. In 2005, Ben left Electronic Arts (EA) to become executive director of FIEA via an agreement with Dynamic Consultants, LLC, where he and 7 other faculty from EA, Microsoft and Disney created FIEA. This master's degree program located in downtown Orlando, Florida is a partnership among the State of Florida, the University of Central Florida and the City of Orlando. FIEA is focused on creating high-wage talent for the growing interactive and simulation industries. Today, FIEA is home to over 50 graduate students and has generated over 100 alumni with a 95% placement rate in the fields of video games, animated film, simulation & training and education software. The success of the program has given birth to the Center for Emerging Media in downtown Orlando including FIEA, Vicon House of Moves motion capture company, University of Florida's CitiLab architecture graduate studio, Flying Horse Editions, art, animation and digital media programs in state-of-the-art studios. These studios are used by students and faculty for projects and research, and commercially by such companies as EA, BBDO, Gillette, Midway, n-Space, 360Ed and the Florida Virtual School. Ben recently chaired the City of Orlando's executive committee which was charged with setting the vision for the development of the City's proposed "creative village", a 60-acre redevelopment in the heart of downtown. Mr. Noel also serves on the board of PRISM, a regional initiative for K-12 advancement of math and science and serves the State of Florida Film & Entertainment Commission as an expert in digital media and education.
Ben came to 360Ed and FIEA from Electronic Arts, where he served as vice president and studio chief operating officer of EA's Orlando-based studio Tiburon. Ben was part of the management team that oversaw the explosive growth from a small studio of 150 in 2003 to over 700 in 2005 as EA focused on leveraging its management. Today, Tiburon is home to some of the world's most popular titles including Madden NFL Football, NCAA Football and Tiger Woods PGA Golf. The experience of growing a mega-studio included the collaboration of state and local governments with educational institutions across the southeast. This experience was instrumental in launching the environment that is allowing 360Ed to grow and solidify itself as a national leader in online education.
Prior to Tiburon, Mr. Noel was vice president and studio manager for EA's Austin, Texas studio, Origin, which pioneered the "massively multiplayer online" business with the award-winning franchise, Ultima Online. The technologies and services created at Origin is a very similar model to those being created at 360Ed. Prior to the game industry, Ben was vice president, chief financial officer and director of project management for ESCO Technologies in Austin, Texas, where he helped develop the world-leading company, ETS-Lingren, that creates and manufactures anechoic and shielding facilities and equipment in the electromagnetic compatibility industry with such customers as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Cisco, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Xerox and the US Government. Ben earned his BS from the University of Florida and his MBA from Rollins College. Ben also is a licensed CPA in the State of Florida.
Thomas F. Carbone - Chief Technology Officer
Tom is currently 360Ed Chief Technical Officer. As CTO, Tom is responsible for the technical delivery and maintenance of 360Ed's entire product suite. Tom is also the technical director of the University of Central Florida's Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) where he teaches advanced game programming and management systems. Mr. Carbone's experience and leadership through multiple generations across many platforms adds significant value to 360Ed's management team and reduces the overall technical risks.
Before joining 360Ed and FIEA, Tom Carbone was one of the lead programmers on Madden NFL Football 2005 and 2006, produced by EA at its Orlando-based Tiburon studio. Prior to joining EA in 2003, he worked for Microsoft Game Studios, Kodiak Interactive, and Sculptured Software Studios where he served in lead roles. Tom's previous game credits include Amped 2 (XBOX), Inside Pitch Baseball (XBOX), WCW Backstage Assault (N64/PS), WCW Mayhem (N64/PS), Breakaway Hockey (N64/PS), Space Jam (PS/Saturn/PC), MonsterTruck (Genesis) and Tecmo Super Baseball (Genesis).
Prior to the game industry, Mr. Carbone was a member of the design team at Hughes Aircraft Company in Conoga Park, CA. He also contributed to General Motors (parent company) in the development automation systems. Tom received his BS and MS in Electrical Engineering at the University of Utah and is currently complete with his doctoral coursework for his PhD from the University of Central Florida.
Richard M. Hall - Chief Creative Officer
Rick Hall is the driving force behind 360Ed's design and programming business plan. Rick works directly with the Florida Virtual School to ensure we are optimally utilizing subject matter experts and content to effectively delivery an advanced student and teacher experience. Rick also teaches game design and multi-media production at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) in downtown Orlando, Florida.
Prior to 360Ed, Mr. Hall held multiple senior and executive producer positions for Electronic Arts (EA). Rick was a multiple platform producer on the Madden NFL Football franchise for EA's Tiburon studio. Prior to Tiburon, he was executive producer of the Ultima Online franchise at Origin, EA's Austin-based studio. Rick was responsible for the content creation and management of the development team of the award winning "massively multiplayer online" product. Mr. Hall's 15 year career in the video game industry includes experience as a producer, studio head, programmer and game designer. He has experience with many genres such as RPGs, adventure games, RTS games, fighting games, flight and sport sims. His platform experience includes PC, PlayStation, N64, PS2, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, and online platforms. Mr. Hall started his video game career at Paragon Software in Latrobe, PA, a studio that eventually became the core development group for the Take-Two Interactive initial 1994 start-up.
Rick began his career as an engineer for the US Navy systems in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Rick earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University.
Erik J. Sand - Vice President, Business Development
Erik Sand is responsible for developing and managing 360Ed's sales and distribution channels. Prior to 360Ed, Mr. Sand spent 12 years with IBM, most recently as an Associate Partner in IBM's Global Business Services where he was responsible for sales and deliver of full life-cycle application development projects, particularly in the area of mobility and emerging technologies. His contributions to clients have ranged from defining the operational strategy and supporting business processes, to leading requirements gathering and developing technical specifications, and leading development projects. Mr. Sand has held positions with Gensym, Digital Equipment Corporation, and General Electric spanning many different sales, consulting, engineering, and technical roles.
He has more than 20 years of wide-ranging leadership experience in the application of technology to business concerns, ranging from robotics and artificial intelligence-based decision support systems in manufacturing to object-oriented programming and wireless and custom application development. Mr. Sand holds a BS, MS, and MBA degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Why 360ed?
Ben Noel, Chief Executive Officer |
Rick Hall, Chief Creative Officer |
Tom Carbone, Chief Technical Officer |
Ben Noel
Chief Executive Officer, 44
Why 360Ed?
We became fascinated with the massively multiplayer online business in the late 90s. We managed the world's first MMO, Ultima Online, to significant success by serving a quarter of a million global customers out of one central location in Austin, Texas. We told ourselves then that "education is going to leverage this technology."
Why Orlando?
I grew up here... and Orlando is the next great digital media capital. Orlando has grown through the space coast, simulation, theme park, and entertainment industries, and it has a quality of life that will attract tomorrow's creative workforce. Florida is a leader in online education and leveraging what we have in digital media is a no-brainer... which is necessary with us sometimes.
What cool stuff have you done?
I have three great kids. I can't think of anything cooler.
What else?
Recently, I have helped supply the vision and execution for Orlando's digital media surge. In addition to leading 360Ed, I'm the Executive Director of the Center for Emerging Media at UCF, which includes the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, UCF's School of Film and Digital Media, and Vicon Motion Systems', House of Moves East Coast motion-capture studio - talk about a fun assignment!
Before then, EA was my life as VP and COO in Austin and later back in Orlando, where we built a 700-person studio with some of the world's best-selling video games such as Madden NFL Football. In Austin, we pioneered the MMO world with Ultima Online, and it's still generating significant profits over 10 years from launch. I landed in Austin via ESCO Technologies, where I was relocated to this beauty in the middle of Texas as VP, CFO and director of projects and we built the world's largest electromagnetic compatibility business, ETS-Lindgren. The growth potential of video gaming and the online subscription model lured me to Electronic Arts, and it's been growth ever since.
What's your education?
Besides the significant value of my experiences with people, teams, products, and complex problem-solving, my formal education is a MBA from Rollins College and BS in Accounting from the University of Florida. I also have a CPA. I know - geeky.
What is your plan?
We are going to be the content provider that changes the world of education. Education changed my life many years ago. The chance to work in digital media and education and grow significant profits is a dream come true for an accountant who has three kids he sends off to school each day and whose world was changed by those very things.
Rick Hall
Chief Creative Officer, 44
Why 360Ed?
Instructional and educational games are still a virtually untapped frontier. To date, I've been distinctly unimpressed with the existing products, and I think the problem lies in the notion that people approach it from a single perspective: either it's a title created by entertainers that serves limited educational purposes, or it's a product developed by educators that is so boring and flat that it fails to capture the imagination of the students. Given that I have both developed videogames and taught at the college level, this seems like a natural direction for me to take now.
Why Orlando?
Orlando enjoys the unique situation of being a city "on the verge." With planning underway to almost reinvent the downtown area to accommodate more high tech industry, simulations, and games, I think it's only a matter of a couple of more years before things ramp up and the city becomes an epicenter of cutting edge digital technology.
What cool stuff have you done?
I was one of the original twelve developers at Take 2 Interactive Software. It was an incredible experience to participate in a company that grew from $2 million to $250 million in only a five year time span.
My last two dogs have been hybrid wolves.
I stood at ground zero in Hiroshima.
I met my wife as a result of a random phone number I dialed, just to see how long I could talk to whoever I reached. We've been married for 19 years.
I wrote my first computer game in 1981 on the high school's PDP-11 mainframe computer. Someone told me a couple of years ago that it's still there and people still play it.
What else?
I have a diverse set of interests, ranging from history to chess (I have managed to score a few wins against International Masters in tournament play, and even a draw against a Grand Master), investing, programming, philosophy, game design, and writing. In one way or another, each of these interests has influenced my approach to problem solving and creative thinking. I hope I never get so busy that I stop learning.
What's your education and experience?
BS in Electrical Engineering from Penn State - 1986. After working on avionics and weapons systems for the navy for a few years, I got into C programming and then game design in the gaming industry. I did that for fifteen years before becoming a teacher in a Master's Degree program for game development at UCF. I recently completed writing a book on Massively Multiplayer Online Game Development, as well as co-authoring a white paper on pedagogical techniques as they apply to educational computer games.
What is your plan?
I'd like to help "bridge the gap" between educators and entertainment. As I said earlier, up to this point, educational games have either been created by educators, who know absolutely nothing about capturing the imagination of the audience, or entertainers, who have no concept of instructional design. The implications of achieving such a cross-disciplinary collaboration are far reaching, and I'd like to be at the heart of that.
Tom Carbone
Chief Technical Officer, 42
Why 360Ed?
When I saw my kids taking an online course, and compared the quality of their course content with what I've been doing my whole life, I thought "We can revolutionize this."
Why not just stay in the game industry?
I enjoy the game industry, but I wanted to change the rules. I proved I could entertain them with Madden - but could I teach them math? I love challenges.
You graduated from Utah, what took you there?
I grew up in Orlando, but eventually my family ended up in Utah during my college years. With my dad's encouragement, I got my BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Utah. After a stint in California working in the defense industry, and a year in Michigan working for GM, I decided the game industry sounded like fun and moved back to Utah to pursue my dream. When an offer came along to return home and work on Madden, how could I say no? I've been happy, and warmer, ever since!
You mentioned the defense industry. What did you do there?
I worked on the AMRAAM missile program, specifically the radar software. We used large anechoic chambers to simulate enemy targets, with computers to simulate the aerodynamic properties of the missile, to test our radar software. It was the first time I really saw the benefit of simulating an otherwise very expensive test to get real data.
And now a PhD? Don't you ever take a break?
Sure, the availability of the Modeling and Simulation PhD program at UCF was a big reason why I came to FIEA in the first place. They've been very supportive with my schedule, and I'm learning a lot about creating software for simulation and training. Games that make people better, whether it's doing schoolwork, military training, or learning new medical techniques, feels like a huge untapped market, and I'm looking forward to using my experience in this new arena.
Mission
The field of entertainment is a demanding one. With the success or failure of an idea determined by its public reception, every endeavor must revolve around engaging the consumer. At the same time, the goal of audience engagement is no less important - or challenging - in the world of education. The most successful teachers are those who can engage their students in a subject and impart a true desire to learn, just as the most successful entertainment developers are the ones that draw their players into a virtual world. As such, formal education (not to mention medical, military, and business training) can benefit greatly from the experience of the designers and creators of these interactive products.
Getting students as strongly interested in educational material as they are in the best games and movies is the reason 360Ed was founded. We will take the finest approaches and innovations of entertainment design and put them to work educating our country's young minds.
There are over 50 million students in this country spending the majority of each day in a K-12 education environment, with approximately 3% of our eligible workforce teaching them. The annual cost is over $500 billion - approximately $10,000 per child. We are spending more than ever on the education of our Millennial generation, but with few exceptions, we are using increasingly outdated and ineffective teaching methods. Truly engaging this new generation requires compelling content and direction. While today's best teachers are always looking for new ways of accomplishing this, technological advancements in brick-and-mortar institutions must bow before budget constraints.
These difficulties parallel the ever-increasing rate at which virtual schools and computer learning programs are being encouraged and accepted across the United States. Over 300 million credits are earned annually, and computer education will only grow in the coming years. However, today's online content is inhibited by the static nature of its learning management systems and basic material, making many of its courses little more than electronic textbooks. At 360Ed, we will leverage our experience in interactive entertainment and online content distribution to build the necessary next steps in the evolution of this field. We will not pay lip service to the need for providing truly enriching material - besides our founders' work in graduate education, we are currently working with veteran teachers and advanced educational theorists to ensure that our products are pedagogically sound. Our knowledge of interactive media design and development, combined with our experience in education, will allow us to provide rich content that teaches as it engages.
360Ed is committed to providing compelling and effective learning tools that incorporate modern educational theories while harnessing all the polish and engagement of the best entertainment media.
Partners
If you would like to learn more about some of 360Ed's affiliates, please follow the links below.
Florida Virtual School - http://www.flvs.net
Florida Virtual School Global Services - http://www.flvsgs.net
University of Florida College of Medicine - http://www.med.ufl.edu
University of Central Florida College of Education - http://education.ucf.edu