David Linke – Managing Director
I started EdAlliance in early 2006 primarily to continue the development of the Accelerated Reader reading management software system in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
My time personally managing Accelerated Reader across the region has been great fun, hugely rewarding and more importantly I feel part of an exceptional Accelerated Reader community in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. The schools in our community are fabulous to work with, they truly help us drive the product forward in this region. Many of our customers are intimately involved in helping with title selection for quizzes, regional user groups, providing training to other users or simply being an active member of the wider Accelerated Reader community in the region.
On a daily basis I personally set the sales and marketing strategy for Accelerated Reader across the region. Locally I define how the product we market in the region, how we position it and finally how we actually take that product to schools. I’m sure I’ve gotten a few things wrong over the past decade but generally I feel we have a successful product that is great to support students’ reading.
The work that I truly love is getting out on the road and supporting the Accelerated Reader users across the region. My travels over the years has taken me to many places in the country, from the large cities to the smallest Aboriginal settlement in Far North Queensland. Actually training teachers in how to implement Accelerated Reader into their classrooms is the most exciting thing I get to do each day. This hands on experience with many hundreds of schools as given me a true insight into the best methods of using Accelerated Reader with Australian and New Zealand students.
Prior to establishing EdAlliance I was the Managing Director for Renaissance Learning Australia, a subsidiary of Renaissance Learning Inc. It was during this time that I came to see the power of Accelerated Reader when coupled with a dedicated teaching team in achieving a great implementation.
The early part of my career has all been in the IT industry either in consulting or product development or business transformation.
The EdAlliance Team:
Ms Del Merrick – Implementation Consultant
Del has been an integral part of developing our local Accelerated Reader Implementation program.
Prior to work with EdAlliance, Del had an extensive teaching career including Key Teacher, English; Further Literacy In-service Project Consultant; ‘First Steps’ Tutor; Education Adviser, Literacy and Key Learning Area Regional Coordinator, English and played a key role in the conduct of the 1996 National Literacy Survey. She has worked extensively in both the state and non-state systems, providing strong leadership and professional expertise while guiding and supporting changed classroom methodology and improved literacy practices.
Today Del balances her work with EdAlliance as an author of a vast collection of teacher reference materials, fiction books, guided readers and more recently electronic teaching tools.
Mr Greg Farlow – Implementation Consultant
Greg works with schools around Australia training them on using Accelerated Reader in their classrooms.
In addition to his consulting work with EdAlliance, Greg is currently a Teacher Librarian employed in Queensland. His extensive teaching career has seen him placed in many different roles of responsibility across school and regional based roles. He has many decades of experience in the classroom, the library and principal positions.
Mr Ashley Tan – Singapore
Mr Paul Philpott – Singapore
Office Support Team:
The team rely heavily on the people in the Melbourne office who ensure we are at the right place on the right day, that customers get support and that everything pretty much runs smoothly.