Mike Feerick, CEO and Founder of ALISON

Episode Overview

Among other topics, Mike discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

• The genesis of the idea behind ALISON
• The strategy behind ALISON’s focus on corporate and vocational training content online
• ALISON’s revenue model and key performance indicators used
• The rationale behind ALISON’s lack of affiliation with universities
• Why platforms like ALISON cannot compensate for learning through others and networking, as Mike experienced at Harvard
• How ALISON functions as a filter for the content that exists online in the vocational space
• Eye on the Trends: There will be great emphasis on skills-based hiring in the future, a departure from the traditional route that heavily weights an applicant’s college or university name,  and ALISON is positioning itself to provide employers with such candidates

Mike Feerick’s Biography

Mike is the founder and CEO of ALISON (Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online), a MOOC-based e-learning platform headquartered in Galway, Ireland.

ALISON is considered by some to be the first ever MOOC, as Mike launched the company in 2007, which has since became a noted global provider in the e-learning community, and in September of 2013, ALISON was announced as one of six winners at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) awards, an initiative of the Qatar Foundation.

Prior to founding ALISON, Mike founded YAC, a unified messaging/telecoms company (acquired by J2COM NASD in July of 2007), and he also founded Advance Learning, a global provider of interactive multimedia courseware for IT literacy. Mike also served as Acting MD of Interactive Investor and on the Board of BMG Music UK.

Mike holds a BBS (University of Limerick) and MBA (Harvard University).

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