Education at Our Core

Respondus develops assessment applications for the education, training and certification markets. Each year hundreds of millions of assessments are created, delivered, proctored, or analyzed using Respondus technology.

Respondus is an education company at its core, with a deep understanding of online testing. For over 20 years, Respondus has partnered with universities, K-12 districts, assessment vendors, and other education companies to develop world-class learning technologies. We invite you to learn more about our people and mission.

K-12 | Higher Education | Partnerships & SDK

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Our People

The talented team at Respondus is a mix of education veterans, technology entrepreneurs, and customer-obsessed wonks.

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David S.
David founded Respondus in 2000 because he didn’t want to interview for a new job. Prior to Respondus, David spent nine years with an EdTech startup that was purchased by a large learning company. The acquiring company was later assimilated by an even larger learning company, and is now owned by a much larger private equity firm. David lives in Seattle, is married, has a couple of kids, and is ambidextrous.

Jodi F.
Jodi is COO and has worked with David for over 25 years. The success of this partnership might be that she works from Boston, 3000 miles away. The COO is responsible for getting things done, micro-managing the rest of the executive team, and implementing the “vision” of the CEO. Jodi has two children born on the same date, and is left-handed.

Luis C.
Luis is our head technical person. He really likes technology and will talk about it all the time (if you let him). Luis started using Amazon AWS before it was really a thing – maybe even before they picked an acronym for its name. Luis tells people he likes “architecture” more than programming, but that’s hard to believe since he hardly looks up from his computer. Luis is married, has one child, and a dog named Aurora.

Scott S.
If Scott had a middle name it would be API. If he had a last name it would be SDK. Scott manages technical integrations with partner companies, including educational publishers, LMS vendors, and dairy farmers. Actually, Scott doesn’t work with dairy farmers, but he is a foodie, and can properly pronounce words like sommelier, charcuterie, and quinoa.

Arie S.
Arie likes to show off. Thanks to the advent of webcams and the internet, she is viewed by thousands of people each month during webinars and customer trainings. Arie’s deep knowledge of Respondus’ products earned her the title of Product Specialist.  When she became successful at helping customers use the products, we added Customer Success to her title. She is now too embarrassed to tell people her full title, so you can call her Arie.

Scott M.
Scott should not be confused with the Scott mentioned above. Or a couple of other Scotts we aren’t telling you about. This Scott is the lead Weeble of our 24/7 technical support team. He’s utterly unflappable. You can poke him in the eye and he’ll just laugh and break into a big smile. The only time he’s a bit melancholy is when there’s a lull in customer support and live chat. It’s kind of weird.

Eileen V.
Eileen is responsible for everything seen by Respondus users (except for this page, which she thought was a bad idea). She’s one of those designers who insists on everything looking perfect. We make fun of her “Uber Xray” vision and her “Understated Icons,” but she doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, she started putting “UX/UI” as her job title, which shows she’s a good sport.

There are many at Respondus who contribute to the company’s success. We don’t list them all here because we’d need to come up with a lot of clever things to say. But they are dedicated to the mission of education and want to see others succeed.

Giving Back

We believe that education transforms lives. But believing, and hoping, and wishing isn’t enough. Giving back to the education community is at the heart of what we do as a company.

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Do you ask yourself why you work in education? We do. Team members at Respondus don’t view education as a market, but as a mission. It’s a company-wide strategy that permeates everything we do. It starts with software applications that solve real problems in education. It’s evident in low pricing that allows even the most budget-strapped schools to use our tools and services. It’s seen in our amazing customer support and training teams who go the extra mile to ensure your success.

But perhaps the clearest way we show our passion for education is through charitable and philanthropic giving. Respondus employees have given millions of dollars to charities this past decade, with the majority going to educational initiatives for minority and disadvantaged students.

You won’t hear about our philanthropy beyond this page. That’s very intentional because we don’t do philanthropy for marketing reasons. We do it because that’s who we are.

Investors

Great companies begin with investors who have a long-term vision of the future.

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Tricked you.

Respondus doesn’t have outside investors, nor do we seek them. Our company is debt free and 100% employee owned. Private equity and venture-backed companies generally focus on exit plans, not customers. By contrast, we focus on long-term relationships, customer success, and best-of-category products that delight users. The fruits of this strategy can be seen in customer renewal rates that exceed 95% annually. It’s also evidenced in our 20 consecutive years of increased revenues and profitability.

It’s fine to call us frugal, or even old-fashioned. Just don’t call about wanting to invest in us. We’re good there.

Our responsibility is to empower our faculty to provide a fair, secure, and consistent experience to students – one where the technology fades into the background and their excellent content can shine through.
Respondus helps us to do just that.

Steve Kaufman - Senior Instructional Designer, University of Akron
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