The Announcement of My New Role

A message from Anne Saunders, Chief Marketing Officer

I am pleased to announce that Burt Rosen has joined Knowledge Learning Corporation as Vice President, Digital and Customer Experience, reporting to me.

In this position, Burt will lead the team responsible for value-add customer experiences online; areas of focus will include developing a search COE (center of excellence) for the enterprise, building a state of the art digital community for KLC parents and students, assist businesses in optimizing their lead generation, and establishment of a “web community” of existing site owners to drive consistency, best practice, etc. Burt will collaborate closely with other Shared Services and all lines of business to ensure alignment and integration of strategies, projects and programs for successful implementation and results.

Burt comes to KLC with more than 20 years experience in interactive and traditional marketing. Most recently he was the Vice President, Starwood Preferred Guest and Brand Interactive Marketing for Starwood Hotels and Resorts, one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with 960 properties in 97 countries and approximately 145,000 employees. In this position, Burt oversaw the team responsible for leading interactive marketing, integrated marketing, web site development and a call center strategy for the company’s nine hotel brands and its Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) loyalty program. He was responsible for using all marketing channels including hotel, online, call center, email, offline, PR and social networking to launch member engagement efforts including the “SPG You Choose” program and leading numerous innovation projects including blogs, Web 2.0 and other strategic initiatives.

Burt also built an internal digital agency at Starwood, creating and leading a client
services team that acted as the single point of contact between the web and call center
teams, the brands and other stakeholders. He also managed and directed numerous outside agencies including online media, interactive marketing, research, and offline and loyalty/direct marketing agencies. Prior to joining Starwood, Burt spent six years in account management at interactive agencies, Modem and Avenue A Razorfish, leading efforts including website development and interactive marketing for clients including Starwood, GE, Delta, Marriott, Philips, JC Penney, Kodak and others.

I’m very excited to have a leader with Burt’s depth and breadth-of-experience join our company. His extensive experience in leveraging interactive and social media on behalf of brands, web strategy and development and online media acquisition will change the way we reach potential customers and retain current customers. Burt’s leadership combined with his creativity and passion for a holistic marketing approach will positively impact our families and support our business goals.

Burt holds a bachelor’s degree in European History from the University of Chicago . He and his family will be relocating to Portland from Connecticut within the next few months. As you might expect, in addition to his professional social media experience, Burt authors two blogs, Tweets, and can be found on FaceBook, LinkedIn, 12seconds and TripIt.

Burt has expressed his excitement to be joining the company and to “hit the ground running.” He is looking forward to meeting with many of you soon to learn more about the lines of business, departments and initiatives at KLC. When you have the opportunity to meet him, please take the time to welcome him to our team.