John Neuman, interim CEO of eCornell and a Cornell University alumnus, has been named CEO of the university's for-profit distance-learning subsidiary, it was announced today by Philip M. Young, chair of the board of directors of eCornell.

The board approved Neuman's appointment at its regular meeting, May 24.

"eCornell is fortunate to have someone of John Neuman's experience, Cornell connections and Ithaca presence who is both capable and enthusiastic about taking on the challenge and opportunity of building eCornell into a leading, profitable source of distance learning Ivy League educational programs," said Young, who is also a member of the Cornell Board of Trustees.

Hal Burlingame, a member of the eCornell board of directors, headed the CEO search that was initiated last November, when Francis Pandolfi resigned for health reasons. "John has demonstrated over the last six months as interim CEO that he has the skills and experience to integrate eCornell's distance learning capabilities into the fabric of Cornell," Burlingame added.

Before joining eCornell as interim CEO in November 2002, Neuman was president and chief executive officer of 1492 Consulting Group, a management-consulting firm based in Ithaca. He has 31 years of broad-based management consulting experience, with emphasis on market-driven revenue growth, e-business strategies, advanced alliances and product development. Before establishing his own business, he worked for such leading consulting firms as Coopers & Lybrand, A.T. Kearney, IBM, and for some 14 years with McKinsey & Co., where he was a partner. In the early '80s, he spent a few years with a Wall Street investment banking firm.

"I am very appreciative of the opportunity to continue to serve in the CEO position and to work with the extraordinarily dedicated and talented group of eCornell employees," Neuman said. "The last six months have been an intense period of change to strengthen the organizational capabilities, reposition our products and services and develop many new ones, and to develop a much broader and deeper set of relationships to the Cornell schools and faculty."

During that time, Neuman said, the company's corporate headquarters was moved from New York City to Ithaca to help accomplish those goals. Other steps have included:

• Developing an expanded network of campus relationships beyond the initial ones with the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the School of Hotel Administration;
• Creating several new corporate programs for professional skills development in such areas as management essentials, strategic management, change management and leadership program management, among others;
• Refocusing the eCornell sales and marketing activity from retail to corporate customers;
• Repositioning the business strategy to better align the extraordinary strength and promise of the Cornell brand with the inherent value of eCornell courses and services offered and support premium prices being charged;
• Augmenting the Web-based, asynchronous courses in the company's portfolio that incorporate instructor facilitation with shorter synchronous events and Web-based seminars, or "webinars," on selective topics of great market interest; and
• Actively pursuing international initiatives, including some in China and India.

"The key to the longer-term success of eCornell," Neuman said, "will be the creative visions that the various Cornell schools and faculties adopt to extend their reach and impact to other parts of the world enabled by the growing potential of the Internet."

Neuman graduated from Cornell in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and received his master's degree in engineering in 1963. He earned an MBA degree at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 1967.

Cornell University created eCornell in 2000. The wholly owned subsidiary offers executives, managers and professionals the highest quality educational experience using the latest Internet collaborative technologies.