Paul Krause named new CEO of eCornell

eCornell, Cornell University’s wholly-owned online education company, announced today that Paul Krause will become its next CEO, starting October 7, 2014. Krause will be replacing Chris Proulx who announced in the spring, after ten years leading eCornell , that he was leaving to be the CEO of an international NGO providing scalable learning and education to anyone working in international development and relief.

Krause was formerly the CEO of Element K, an online learning company based in Rochester NY. He grew Element K into the second largest corporate e-learning company in the world before it was sold in 2011 to Skillsoft. He also recently co-founded Matrix Insights, an online platform for personalized leadership development. He was selected after the eCornell Board conduced a national search for Chris’ successor to lead the next phase of eCornell’s online education growth strategy. “Paul Krause has the track record and experience, leadership skills, and passion for online education that will not only continue but accelerate the growth of eCornell into an international leader in high-quality online higher education”, said Phil Young, Cornell Trustee Emeritus and chair of the eCornell Board of Directors.

“Our strategic plan at Cornell recognizes and embraces the fact that online learning will play a significant role in the delivery of academic programs in the future. eCornell’s experience, know-how and capabilities represent a major strategic advantage to the University as we compete for the best and the brightest around the world in the years ahead,” added Bob Harrison, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Cornell University.

The addition of Paul Krause comes just days after the announcement by Cornell of the selection of its new President, Elizabeth Garrett, currently the Provost at the University Southern California (USC), which has one of the largest and most comprehensive online education programs offered by a traditional, world-class University. “With eCornell’s powerful, proven delivery platform and its advanced pedagogy for content creation that supports a Cornell-quality learning experience that is second to none, Cornell is well-positioned to significantly expand its online ivy-league-quality education program offerings and reach more people around the world with a broad range of subject matter content”, continued Phil Young.

“With the creation of eCornell in 2000, Cornell was among the first among its peers to deliver online learning programs. I am excited by the opportunity to expand eCornell’s innovative online programs and bring high quality educational experiences to more people”, said Krause, who is a 1991 graduate of Cornell University.

In addition to a range of professional certificate programs, eCornell has expanded its offerings to include online for-credit courses. In the next year, eCornell will support the School of Industrial and Labor Relations in launching a blended Executive Master’s in Human Resources degree program.

About eCornell

eCornell, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cornell University, provides the world’s leading organizations with over 150 online professional and executive development courses in the areas of leadership and management; human resource management; financial management; healthcare; marketing; and hospitality and foodservice management. eCornell has delivered nearly 250,000 enrollments to more than 75,000 working professionals across more than 200 countries. It has recently launched new enterprise solutions featuring subscription-based online certificate programs for business leaders.

Contact: pr@ecornell.com for more information.