Leadership
The People Leading Our Mission
Meet those striving that realize our vision from development to delivery.

Manoj Kulkarni
Chief Executive Officer
Manoj leads all aspects of Realizeit’s commercial development, growth agenda and operations in the US and Europe.
Manoj has held senior executive roles for more than 15 years providing transformational leadership in high volume, high growth and global businesses in Education, Technology and Retail sectors.
He is the former Chief Technology and Innovation Officer for Career Education Corporation where he and his team pioneered the implementation of predictive analytics-based personalized learning across large-scale ground and online institutions powered by the Realizeit platform. His work at Career Education Corporation has resulted in awards and accolades from Information Week Top Innovators, Computerworld “Best in Best” in Education Technology and others.
Prior to Career Education Corporation, he served as the Vice President of Information Technology for Toys R Us Inc., leading technology operations and engineering in the US and internationally.
Manoj earned his Bachelor in Engineering from India’s College of Engineering, Pune and his Masters in Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

John Keane
Chief Architect & Technology Officer

John Keane
Chief Architect & Technology Officer
John co-founded Realizeit in 2007 to create a new generation of learning technology that would help people to realize their full potential, by bringing to life techniques that are inspired and backed by research in a modern software system.
As CTO and Chief Architect, John has directed all Research and Development strategy at Realizeit since its inception. He is responsible for the overall architecture and design of Realizeit at both a conceptual and technical level.
John has over 25 years of experience leading innovation and change within educational technology. His last company, CCM Software, which was acquired by a FTSE 100 global enterprise in 2002, developed enterprise-grade management information systems and scheduling systems that were used globally – from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and London School of Economics, to universities and colleges in Asia and Europe.
A computer scientist at heart, John has been creating software to solve complex problems since he was quite young. He sold his first commercial software application at just 12 years of age. John received his formal education at Queen’s University of Belfast, winning every available prize throughout his time there, and achieved the highest Computer Science degree standard QUB had ever awarded.

Ty Roberts
Chief Sales, Marketing & Strategy Officer
Ty is responsible for sales, marketing and strategy including partnerships and alliances.
Ty’s passion for adult education began more than 15 years ago when he began leading the professional education group for DeVry, Inc. Subsequent leadership experiences in online operations and higher education with Career Education Corporation further cemented Ty’s commitment to digital innovation. He has held leadership roles in business development, brand marketing, product management and general management domestically and internationally throughout his career. His foundation in technology and consumer services earlier in his career at Nortel, E&J Gallo and Pepsico taught him the importance of super-serving customers and delivering value for all stakeholders.
He earned his Masters of Management from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and his Bachelor of Science in Operations Research & Engineering Management from Southern Methodist University.

Frank Claffey
Chief Product Officer
Building on extensive company board experience as a founder of international businesses including Realizeit, Frank is the Chief Product Officer for Realizeit. He heads the company’s product management team and oversees quality assurance of the system, championing the educator and learner to bring innovative ideas to a finished product.
Frank is a serial entrepreneur, having previously co-founded CCM Software, which was acquired by Serco PLC in 2002. A former high school teacher, Frank was an early innovator in the use of hybrid models of learning. He crafted personalized instruction for multitudes of students before personalized and adaptive online learning became a possibility.
Frank brought these valuable experiences to the educational software sector, exploiting creative design, critical analysis, and constructive development skills which naturally led him to Senior Systems Analyst, Lead Architect, Senior Consultant, and Head of Development positions.
He has been central to consultancy in educational systems for such institutions as The London School of Economics and Singapore Polytechnic, as well as working with ministries/departments of education in different countries. Frank enjoys delivering technical presentations to global organizations eager to harness his insights.
Frank earned his degree in Mathematics and Economics at Trinity College Dublin before completing a second degree in Computer Science at the same institution.

Prabhu Balashanmugam
Vice President - Client Success
Prabhu leads Realizeit’s Client Success team. The Client Success team is responsible for managing customer accounts and engagements delivering solution design, development and implementation services and providing technical support for Realizeit’s platform.
Prior to joining Realizeit, Prabhu served in Product Management, Solutions Architecture and Consulting Services roles across the Higher Education, Corporate Training and Enterprise Software sectors. His professional experiences includes leadership roles at Career Education Corp. (now Perdoceo Education Corp.), ACT, LRN and Sun Microsystems (now Oracle).
Prabhu earned his Masters in Computer Science from Crescent Engineering College, University of Madras, India and Masters in Business Administration from University of California, Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business.

Dr. George Mitchell
Chief Operating Officer
George is responsible for directing research, technology, and security efforts for Realizeit, as well as maintaining daily operations.
With his impeccable business acumen and deep insights into the way people work best, George was the obvious choice for Realizeit’s COO. George has served as a project management, software systems, and software research consultant for some of the most prestigious companies and institutions in the world. His clients included the European Commission, the Federal German Government, and also smaller European Governments, as well as Ericsson and Neusoft.
George’s insights and professional demeanor placed him in high demand as a lecturer for universities such as the National University of Ireland Maynooth, Dublin City University, and the Dublin Business School. During his nine-year lecture circuit, George also served as a visiting International Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Evolutionary Computation, and Software Systems at Dalian University of Technology (China).
George is a graduate of the Smurfit Business School University College Dublin and developed his award-winning lecture profile at Dublin City University after completing his B.Sc., M.Sc., in Computer Science and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence.

Colm Howlin, PhD
Principal Data Scientist
Colm leads all aspects of research and data science at Realizeit, where his learning research powers the algorithmic models that underpin the platform’s intelligent engine.
He has been with the company since its founding and has extensive experience working on learning science research, educational data, machine learning and statistical analysis. Before joining Realizeit, he spent time as a Consultant Statistician with SPSS, and as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Loughborough University studying the dynamics of nonlinear water waves.
He has a background in mathematics earning his BSc in Applied Mathematics and Computing and PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Limerick, Ireland. During his PhD studies, he was part of the Advance Scholars Programme and was the recipient of an IRCSET Scholarship.

Richard Culatta
Advisor – Corporate Training & Learning
Richard Culatta is an internationally recognized leader in innovation and learning. His work has centered around using technology to accelerate innovation in the public and private sectors. After 9/11, Culatta was recruited to the CIA to help improve collaboration among intelligence officers to help them adapt to the changing realities of intelligence collection. Richard was the first Chief Innovation Officer for the State of Rhode Island where he created the Government Innovation League and pioneered new ways to engage citizens and policy makers to solve tough problems. Culatta was appointed by President Obama as the Executive Director for Educational Technology and charged with developing a plan to transform US schools through technology.
Culatta is currently serving as the CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). He is on the board of Ethical AI Association and the World Economic Forum for 5G Networks. Culatta is also the Innovation Dean for the Masie Learning Consortium, a senior fellow at NYU’s GovLab, and a design resident for the San Francisco-based innovation and design firm IDEO.