Tech Matters: Using tech for positive social change

After an intensive search period, I’m delighted to share that Benetech recently appointed seasoned executive Mark Roberts as our Vice President of Engineering. Mark is former Senior Vice President of Engineering, Consumer Products, and Operations at TiVo Inc. He’s leading the development, testing, and deployment of Benetech’s tools and services across all its program areas. We’re thrilled to have Mark join us in this leadership role. With his proven execution in scaling business systems and infrastructures that shaped the growth of award-winning service products for multiple high profile Silicon Valley technology companies, he has the perfect pedigree to spearhead engineering at Benetech as we continue to innovate in the technology-for-good space. Until 2011, Mark spent twelve years growing and developing TiVo. Under his leadership, TiVo’s engineering team received many awards for technical innovation, including an Emmy and several CES Best of Show, and the company was in the to...

Are you motivated by the power of technology as a force for good that can directly help the world’s poorest communities thrive? Do you believe ours could be a world in which the benefits of technology touch the lives of all people, not just the wealthiest and most able five percent of humanity? Are you driven to make a real difference from a leadership position in the open source community, at the heart of Silicon Valley and at the unique intersection of technology and social change? Are you willing to work on delivering maximum good for humanity, rather than maximum profits?  Then read on: we might just have the perfect job opportunity for you. Benetech is seeking a Vice President of Engineering to spearhead and expand our team of technologists committed to delivering social good at scale. We’re a nonprofit technology company on a mission to address unmet social needs by providing targeted software tools and services to groups left underserved by the market, such as human...

I’m thrilled to announce that Benetech has filled two key positions: Nadine Apelian Dobbs as Communications Director and Elaine Wallace as General Counsel. I think they will both make big contributions to building Benetech’s ability to deliver greater impact in the technology-for-good field. For more than a decade, Nadine has worked at the intersection of policy and media in major markets including New York, Chicago and Washington, DC. She was the Assistant Director of Communications at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and then head of media for Foreign Affairs magazine in New York. When connecting with reporters, she draws heavily on her own experience working in the newsroom for leading PBS news programs. We’re delighted Nadine has joined Benetech’s senior team to direct our communications program. Developing a strong culture of communications is critical for expanding Benetech’s impact. Nadine’s extensive experience in policy communications will allow us to build upon ou...

We're looking for someone great to take on a crucial new position at Benetech, Vice President, Fund Raising . Benetech has been expanding its impact rapidly over the last few years, and we need a dynamic executive to join our senior leadership team. Benetech gets the majority of its funding from revenues: from product and services sales paid for by our users (or third-party payers who buy our services for our users). The remainder of our funding comes from grants and donations. But, that remainder is incredibly important. That's our rocket fuel: how we grow our impact by another integer factor and get new ventures started. I need a senior partner to help me, our team and our board raise Benetech's profile, communicate our key messages and secure crucial resources. There are exciting new projects we could be launching today if we had more of this kind of risk capital. So, if you know someone highly capable, who would be energized by the challenge, send them our way. A c...

When we submitted our proposal to the competition to provide accessible books to U.S. students with print disabilities, I told my team that if we won an award, I'd cook smoked lobster for the whole company. Today's that day! We're just three weeks into this new world for Benetech. I think we've signed up more schools and students for Bookshare.org in the last three weeks than in the last three years! We're hiring like crazy: we have more than ten job openings posted. We issued our first official press release about the award and immediately had a great article in the San Jose Mercury News. The same article was on the cover of the Palo Alto Daily News with a great picture of Claire O'Brien, our newly promoted Collection Development Manager, scanning a book. 99,999 more books to go! So, as we celebrate this great award, we're also busy thinking about how we will dramatically improve the availability of quality textbooks and education materials to stud...