Matthew Pittinsky is an American technology entrepreneur, educator and academic. He is the CEO of Parchment and a co-founder of Blackboard Inc. Pittinsky is also affiliated with Arizona State University as an assistant research professor. Early life The youngest of four children, Matthew Pittinsky grew up in a family of educators. His father worked as a university administrator, and was the president of the local school board. Pittinsky's mother was a teacher at a public elementary school. As a child, Pittinsky was interested in technology and used his family's Atari 800 computer to program in BASIC and later learned to program on an Atari 1040st. He was also active in Boy Scouts, earning the rank of Eagle Scout. Pittinsky wanted to become a teacher from an early age, though he initially struggled as a student and had to repeat failed classes in summer school. After high school, he attended American University with the goal of becoming a social studies teacher. At American, Pittinsky served as student body president his senior year. He graduated in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in political science. While at American, Pittinsky met Michael Chasen, who would later become his business partner. The two met after Pittinsky borrowed a printer from Chasen. They later became roommates and fraternity brothers. After graduating from American, Pittinsky earned a Master's of Education in 1995 from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Career Early career While at Harvard, Pittinsky developed software for online college admissions applications with Chasen. They called the venture Search and Apply Group. Pittinsky and Chasen were unable to sell the idea to universities and later abandoned the project. In 1995, Pittinsky took a job at KPMG Peat Marwick as a higher education consultant. Chasen was hired by KPMG the following year and together they created technology solutions for universities. In 1996, while jogging along the Charles River near Harvard, Pittinsky had the idea to create online software for course instruction. Pittinsky and Chasen left KPMG to start Blackboard in 1997. They used computers loaned from their boss and also stole desk chairs by using them to move the borrowed computers out of the office. Blackboard Inc Pittinsky founded Blackboard LLC, with Chasen in 1997. At the time of the company’s foundation, it operated as a consulting group to the IMS e-Learning standards project, where Pittinsky was an early member. In 1998, Blackboard LLC merged with CourseInfo LLC,