Chad’s background in business and education positions him well to handle the challenges of starting an EdTech company. He has a strong grasp on the technical aspects of finance from his work experience in investment banking and his entrepreneurial approach benefits from ongoing learning, guidance, and direct support from the Chicago Booth entrepreneurial department, where he plans to enter immersionED into the Social New Venture Challenge. Conversely, Chad has a lifelong passion for history and learning more broadly that led him to pursue historical studies as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, including a study abroad program on ancient Greek history. He has already found novel ways as a teacher to instill this passion for learning upon younger generations of students through engaging digital learning solutions that draw on video games and is ready to expand on this successful approach through immersionED.

Dave’s successful ventures include Lightspan (IPO-2000), Co-nect (sold to Pearson in ‘05), Connections Academy (sold to Pearson in ‘11), Middlebury Interactive Languages (sold to K12 in 2016, won award for excellence at Serious Play Conference in 2011), and ScholarCentric (sold to Advance Path in 2015).  He also received the EdNet Rookie of the Year Award as best new company and product (Waking Minds, Writing) in the K-12 market for CDI America, an English language company he launched in 2004.

His recent work includes the launching of Hudson Global Scholars (created an OPM Model for Catholic market), and building the go-to-market strategy for Riiid Labs, a S. Korean AI developer entering the US market.  Dave also navigated the challenges of translating classroom skills to the workplace in a partnership between Rio Grande College (OH) and Olive AI, leading development of a software engineering program for students from SE Ohio.  Turning his focus to teacher training, he partnered with Eduscape to expand access to its online PD platform.  He created new partnerships with edtech companies (white labeling the platform) from Korea and the US (Capstone), as well as a major tech partner(Intel).  These partnerships will reach thousands of teachers and fuel new growth.

Now, Dave functions as Chief Sales officer at immersionED. He brings decades of experience running school sales at EdTech startups and will help immersionED navigate its broad launch in Fall 2024 and beyond.

Dave is married with three adult sons that he and his wife (Janice) coached and mentored in suburban Chicago for many decades.  He also takes great pride in mentoring young student-athletes playing football for his alma mater (Northwestern ’86 – majored in journalism and played fullback).  Additionally, he serves on several boards and advises a number of companies in the education market.

Dr. Williams is currently serving as art director and environment artist with immersionED. As art director he helps set game art workflows and coordinates with the team of artists in producing game assets that are high quality, visually consistent and historically accurate. As environment artist, he is developing the architectural and prop assets for several gameplay spaces including the large outdoor King Street environment, the print shop of Thomas Johnston, and the Royal Exchange Tavern. He is drawn to immersionED because of the opportunity to work with others who share a passion for creating historically immersive worlds to help bring the wonder of history to larger audiences.

In 2004, Seropian left Bungie and created Wideload Games, with the goal of streamlining game development. Wideload’s small core development team worked with outside contractors to produce Stubbs the Zombie and Hail to the Chimp. Wideload was acquired by Disney in 2009. As part of the deal Seropian became vice president of game development for Disney Interactive Studios. In 2012 he left the position to start Industrial Toys, a company focusing on mobile games, that was acquired in 2018 by EA.

As a member of the immersionED advisory board, Alex provides guidance on the creation of engaging gameplay for learning modules and helps immersionED navigate the video game industry using his extensive experience and unparalleled network.