About Us

Stephen Swad

Chief Executive Officer

Stephen Swad was named president and chief executive officer of Rosetta Stone in 2012 and has served on the company's Board of Directors since that time.

Previously, Steve served as Rosetta Stone's chief financial officer, directing all accounting, finance, and investor-relations activities and overseeing the company's information technology and global distribution and fulfillment functions.

Prior to joining Rosetta Stone in 2010, Steve was CFO at Comverse Technology. Before that, he was CFO for both Fannie Mae and AOL, and he held senior financial and operational management positions with Time Warner and its subsidiaries. Steve has also been a partner at KPMG and served as deputy chief accountant at the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Steve's career highlights include transforming business models, launching new businesses, identifying, acquiring and investing in strategic assets, and overseeing and expanding international operations. Steve holds a BBA from the University of Michigan. He speaks English and is learning Spanish.

Pragnesh Shah

President, Global Consumer Markets

Pragnesh (Prag) Shah is responsible for Rosetta Stone's consumer-facing business across the globe. Headquartered in Tokyo, he oversees consumer sales and marketing in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America.

Prior to joining Rosetta Stone, Prag was vice president and general manager of e-commerce at Network Solutions LLC, where he served on the senior executive team that led the company's turnaround and acquisition by Web.com Group. Before joining Network Solutions, he was president and chief executive officer of Mobilians International Inc.—a subsidiary of a South Korea mobile-payments company.

Prag served in key leadership roles at Sprint Corporation's wireless division and Sprint Nextel. His roles included vice president and general manager of the Internet Business Unit, vice president of Product Innovation, vice president of Customer Operations, and business assistant to the chairman and CEO of Sprint Corporation.

Prag began his career with NASA as an aerospace engineer. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, and MS and BS degrees in engineering from the George Washington University. Prag has served on boards of technology start-ups and is a member of the digital advisory group of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association. He speaks English and Gujarati and is learning Hindi and Japanese.

Judy Verses

President, Global Institutions

Judy Verses is responsible for Rosetta Stone's institutional business—education, corporate, and public sector—across all geographies.

Judy has extensive experience across business, government, education, and consumer sectors in technology and communications industries. Prior to joining Rosetta Stone, she served as president and chief client officer of Blackboard, where she was responsible for global sales and marketing. Previously, she was president and chief operating officer of Blackboard Learn.

Prior to joining Blackboard, Judy held several senior leadership roles at Verizon. Notably, she successfully launched Verizon FIOS. Her roles included senior vice president of Marketing for Verizon's portfolio of voice, video, and data products; senior vice president of Broadband Solutions; vice president for Business Sales; and vice president and general manager of Small Business Sales. Judy began her career with Xerox in sales.

Judy holds a BS in business administration from the University of Connecticut, and she was a 2009 recipient of the Washington Business Journal's Women Who Mean Business award. She speaks English and is learning Spanish.

Westley Stringfellow

Chief Product Officer

Westley Stringfellow is chief product officer at Rosetta Stone. He is responsible for the company's product research, development, design, and production.

West came to Rosetta Stone from PayPal, where he led the platform, architecture, experimentation, and developer product teams as the company's senior director and group head of Global Product Platform. Previously, he oversaw the design, development, and launch of PayPal's point-of-sale and multichannel product suite as the company's senior director of emerging opportunities.

Prior to his years at PayPal, West was VP of eCommerce and Innovation at VISA, where he proposed, designed, and built a new method of payment—now live as V.me. Previously, he worked at Amazon, where he conceived, designed, and launched the company's first billable web service and built its first digital video platform. Earlier in his career, West held leadership positions at various start-ups, including netLibrary, Alibris, VSpan, and Global Philanthropy Forum.

West graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a BA in Political Science, and later spent six years working overseas in England, Australia, and India. He speaks English and is learning Spanish and French.

Thomas Pierno

Chief Financial Officer

Tom Pierno is responsible for all financial functions at Rosetta Stone, including accounting, finance, tax, investor relations, and treasury. He also oversees the company's global distribution and fulfillment functions.

Prior to joining Rosetta Stone in 2012, Tom served as CFO and directed supply-chain and IT operations at the marketing-communications firm Vertis Communications. Previously, he was vice president of Financial Planning and Treasury at Comverse Technology, a global provider of software and systems; in that role, he was responsible for worldwide budgets, forecasts, and treasury operations. Tom also served as senior vice president and controller at AOL for 11 years, during which he held various financial-leadership positions in the areas of subscription services, compliance, and strategic acquisition. Before that, Tom was CFO at World Color Press, a publicly traded printer of magazines, catalogs, direct mail, and books. He began his career at Ernst & Young as a certified public accountant.

TTom graduated summa cum laude with an MBA and BBA in accounting from Pace University. He speaks English and is learning Mandarin.

Pradeep Mannakkara

Chief Information Officer

Pradeep Mannakkara is responsible for driving the advancement, process optimization, and strategic direction of Rosetta Stone's Information Technology department.

Prior to joining Rosetta Stone, Pradeep gained extensive international experience integrating and implementing large-scale IT projects in North America, Europe, and Asia. He has held executive roles at CNET Networks, Visa, and, most recently, AOL.

Pradeep holds two BS degrees from the University of North Texas—in business computer information systems and accounting. He speaks English, French, and Sinhalese and is learning Italian.

Michael Wu

General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Michael Wu is responsible for all legal, corporate governance, government affairs, and compliance matters at Rosetta Stone. He established Rosetta Stone's corporate compliance and corporate governance functions, as well as its antipiracy and antifraud enforcement program. In 2009, Michael oversaw the company's successful initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.

Before joining Rosetta Stone, Michael was general counsel at Montreal-based Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd. In 2004, he led Teleglobe's acquisition of ITXC Corp., a VoIP provider, and the listing of the combined company on NASDAQ.

Previously, Michael was a senior attorney in the Hong Kong and Reston, Virginia, offices of Global One, the international joint venture between Sprint, Deutsche Telekom, and France Telecom. He was also associated with a predecessor firm of Bingham McCutchen LLP in Washington, DC, and Baker Botts LLP in Houston, Texas, focusing on corporate transactions.

Michael holds a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law and a BA in political science from Emory University. He is a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel and the Northern Virginia Technology Council general counsel committee, and he serves on the boards of the Business Software Alliance and the Washington Metropolitan Area Corporate Counsel Association. Michael speaks English and Mandarin Chinese.

Michaela Oliver

Senior Vice President, Human Resources

Michaela Oliver oversees all human resources functions globally for Rosetta Stone, including benefits, recruiting, and organizational development.

Prior to joining Rosetta Stone, Michaela served as senior vice president of Human Resources at AOL, where she led talent management, organizational effectiveness, total rewards, workforce analytics, payroll and operations, and HR technologies for approximately 7,500 employees worldwide. Previously, Michaela held various roles in human resources for ExxonMobil, including an assignment in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Michaela holds a BA in psychology from the University of Michigan and an MLIR (master of labor and industrial relations) from Michigan State University. She speaks English and is conversational in Russian and French.

Nino Ninov

Vice President, Strategic Research & Analysis

Nino Ninov leads market research, providing actionable data and insights to support decision making throughout the Rosetta Stone organization. With an emphasis on driving a deep understanding of customer needs, he studies trends in the language-learning industry and reports on developments among Rosetta Stone's competitors. Pricing analysis is a key area of focus for Nino's team. Partnering with the Finance team, Nino manages the strategic-planning process at Rosetta Stone and helps screen and evaluate critical business initiatives across the company.

Nino joined Rosetta Stone in 2004 as senior director of market research. Previously, he worked as an analyst for the United States Marine Corps and was involved in several start-up businesses in Eastern Europe, including a market-research company and a manufacturing firm.

Nino studied sociology at the University of Sofia in Bulgaria and received a degree in business administration from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. He speaks Bulgarian, English, Russian, and French.

Steve Quan

Head of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships

Steve Quan leads business development and strategic partnership efforts across Rosetta Stone's business units—both in the US and globally. He is responsible for driving the advancement of the company's goals through strategic alliances, distribution and marketing, joint product development, product integration, and content/technology/brand licensing deals.

Steve has nearly 20 years of commercial transaction expertise—both as a lawyer and in business development—in the areas of digital services, online media, mobile/wireless, and business intelligence solutions. Before joining Rosetta Stone, he held executive roles at AOL, LightSquared, and newBrandAnalytics.

Steve received a BA in History from the University of Michigan and a JD from Georgetown University. He began his career as an attorney focusing on administrative law and commercial transactions for transportation clients. He speaks English and is currently learning Spanish and Portuguese.

Sarah Van Dyck

Vice President of Global Brand Marketing

Sarah Van Dyck oversees global brand marketing, communications, and customer engagement at Rosetta Stone.

Sarah came to Rosetta Stone from Living Social, where she held the position of Senior Director of Marketing and led brand strategy, marketing planning, advertising, and promotional campaign development. Before that, she was a managing director at the brand consulting agency MODO Group, where she helped build and reposition brands such as Starbucks, Corona, and Microsoft in both B2C and B2B environments. Sarah began her marketing career as a brand manager with The Procter & Gamble Company and later established her own brand consultancy, The Paxson Group, in Seattle.

Sarah graduated with a BA from Brown University and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. She speaks English and French and is learning Spanish.

Patrick W. Gross

Chairman of the Board

Patrick Gross has served on the Board of Directors for Rosetta Stone since February 2006 and was named Chairman of the Board in 2013.

Patrick is chairman of the Lovell Group, a private business and technology advisory and investment firm that he founded in 2002. He was a founder of American Management Systems Inc., a publicly traded firm offering information technology consulting, software development, and systems integration. From 1970 to September 2002, Patrick served as the principal executive officer of AMS. Patrick is a director of Capital One Financial Corporation, Career Education Corporation, Liquidity Services Inc., Taleo Corporation, and Waste Management Inc. He also serves on the boards of various private companies. Patrick previously served on the boards of Computer Network Technology Corporation from 1997 to 2006 and Mobius Management Systems Inc. from 2002 to 2007.

He holds a BSE from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an MSE from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

James Bankoff

James Bankoff was appointed to the Rosetta Stone Board of Directors in November 2012.

James is chairman and CEO of Vox Media Inc., publisher of the SB Nation family of sports communities; The Verge, a leading consumer-technology website; and Polygon, a website dedicated to covering the world of games and the people who love them. He has served in this capacity since January 2009. Prior to joining Vox Media, James served as a senior adviser with Providence Equity Partners, a leading private equity firm focused on media and telecommunications. Before joining Providence in 2008, he served as executive vice president of programming and products at AOL, where he led the development of and/or presided over AOL.com, TMZ.com, Moviefone, MapQuest, BloggingStocks, AOL Music, and Engadget. He also oversaw AOL's instant-messaging services, AIM and ICQ, and new social-networking and community applications, including Blogsmith and Netscape. James joined AOL in 1995 and held a number of leadership positions, including president, AOL web properties; president, Netscape; and vice president of strategy and operations, AOL brand.

James holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Emory University.

Phil A. Clough

Phil Clough has served on the Rosetta Stone Board of Directors since January 2006.

Phil is a managing general partner of ABS Capital Partners, where he has been a general partner since September 2001. Prior to joining ABS Capital Partners, he was president and chief executive officer of Sitel Corporation, a publicly traded global provider of outsourced customer-support services, from May 1998 to March 2001 and president of Sitel from January 1997 to May 1998. Prior to that, Phil was an investment banker with Alex Brown & Sons, an investment bank, from 1990 to 1997, and he served in the United States Army from 1983 to 1988, rising to the rank of captain. He served on the board of American Public Education Inc. from August 2002 to May 2010. Phil currently serves on the boards of Liquidity Services Inc. and various private companies.

Phil holds a BS from the US Military Academy at West Point and an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

John T. Coleman

John Coleman has served on the Board of Directors for Rosetta Stone since May 2006.

John was president, chief operating officer, and a director of Bose Corporation, a manufacturer of high-end audio products, from July 2001 to July 2005. Prior to that, he was executive vice president and vice president of Human Resources at Bose, and before that, he was general manager of Bose's European manufacturing operations. Prior to joining Bose, John was director of Human Resources for General Electric in Ireland. He was head of the College of Business and Law at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland from May 2006 to June 2007. He is a member of the board of advisors of the School of Economics at UCC. John has a background in the retail industry building an international brand. He has served on the board of directors of Nortek Inc. since July 2010.

John holds diplomas in personnel management and in training and development from the Irish Management Institute and a diploma in management studies and an MBA from the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland.

Laurence Franklin

Laurence Franklin has served on the Rosetta Stone Board of Directors since May 2006.

In July 2011, Laurence was named chief executive officer of Frette Srl, a manufacturer and retailer of luxury linens and home furnishings. He is the retired president and CEO of Tumi Inc., a manufacturer and retailer of luxury travel, business, and lifestyle accessories, where he served from January 2002 until March 2009. Prior to joining Tumi, Laurence served as president of Coach Leatherware Company Inc. and general manager of Elizabeth Arden Inc. He began his career in the audit division at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., and later worked in the Management Consulting Services group at Price Waterhouse & Co.

Laurence earned a BA from Colgate University and an MS from the New York University Graduate School of Business. He serves on the boards of two private companies in addition to his role at Rosetta Stone.

Marguerite Kondracke

Marguerite W. Kondracke has served on the Rosetta Stone Board of Directors since December 2011.

From October 2004 to May 2012, Marguerite served as president and chief executive officer of America's Promise Alliance, and she continues to serve as its senior advisor. America's Promise Alliance is a nonprofit children's advocacy organization founded in 1997 by General Colin L. Powell. With more than 400 national partners, America's Promise Alliance is leading a ten-year campaign, Grad Nation, mobilizing America to end the dropout crisis.

During her 40-year career, Marguerite has been an entrepreneur and a public servant. She brings to America's Promise Alliance extensive multi-sector experience as an advocate for children and families. Before joining the organization, she served as special assistant to US Senator Lamar Alexander and staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families. Previously, Marguerite cofounded and was CEO of the nation's largest employer-sponsored child-care company, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, one of Fortune magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For. For the past three years, she has been named one of the Top 50 People of Power and Influence by the NonProfit Times. She is a board member of Saks Inc., LifePoint Hospitals, and Teachscape, and is a trustee of Duke University.

Laura L. Witt

Laura Witt has served on the Rosetta Stone Board of Directors since December 2005; she served as chair of the board from December 2005 to February 2011.

In September 1997, Laura joined ABS Capital Partners, a private equity-investment partnership, where she has been a general partner since January 2001. She served on the boards of Double-Take Software Inc. from 2002 to 2008 and Familymeds Group Inc. from 2004 to 2007. Laura currently serves on the boards of several private companies. She earned a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

• Stephen Swad Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
• Pragnesh Shah President, Global Consumer Markets
• Judy Verses President, Global Institutions
• Westley Stringfellow Chief Product Officer

• Thomas Pierno Chief Financial Officer
• Pradeep Mannakkara Chief Information Officer
• Michael Wu General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
• Michaela Oliver Sr. Vice President, Human Resources

• Nino Ninov Vice President, Strategic Research & Analysis
• Steve Quan Head of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships
• Sarah Van Dyck Vice President of Global Brand Marketing
• Patrick W. Gross Chairman of the Board

• James Bankoff Board Member
• Phil A. Clough Board Member
• John T. Coleman Board Member
• Laurence Franklin Board Member

• Marguerite Kondrake Board Member
• Laura Witt Board Member
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