Our Team

Mr. Roland Dietz (CEO) – Roland studied artificial intelligence at Delft University, the Netherlands. He spent a large part of his career in scientific publishing leading Reed Elsevier Business Units and subsidiary companies. He launched the world’s largest STM internet service (Science Direct). He has been working in the US since 1994 and holds dual citizenship (US/NL).

Mr. Aart Houwink (Chief Financial Officer/Legal) – Aart studied business administration at Groningen University, The Netherlands. He spent most of his career in international wholesale and investment banking and obtained both transaction experience and financial management skills working for ABN AMRO Bank, lastly as CFO/COO BU Global Clients.

Mr. Hans Wackwitz (Founder – Chairman) – Hans has a strong background in international banking, private equity and venture capital.  After a career at Bankers Trust and Paribas Capital Markets, he has concentrated his activities in Partners in Equity, his own investment company, on education and other disruptive technologies such as Adyen on payments, Borderlinx on shopping and beCherry on telecom.

Mr. Kaushik Ray (CEO India) – Kaushik is an electronics engineer with an MBA in Marketing from IIT Delhi. He has extensive sales and marketing experience with leading multi-national companies in the telecom, education and healthcare fields. Most recently he served as Head of Strategic Alliances with Stryker, India.

Mr. Michael Berkowitz  (CTO - Chief Technology Officer ) - Michael brings a graduate degree in Computer Science and thirty years of experience to bear on all aspects of our development and technology direction.  From Bell Labs through Wall Street to a series of start-ups, he has worked with practically every language, platform and framework that make up today’s software ecosystem, on both the client and server side.  Prior to joining BrightStar, Michael served as VP of R&D of XConnect Global Networks, Chief Architect of Answers.com and Senior Architect at VerticalNet.

Mr. Jose  Kullok (Founder/Chief Science Officer) – Jose is a seasoned inventor/scientist in the field of Life Sciences and Learning. Jose was the co-founder and VP of R&D at Epoch Innovations Inc., a neuroperformance company that developed the first neuro cardio-visual feedback technology to ameliorate dyslexia. In his current capacity at BrightStar Learning, Jose invents new technologies, in charge of the company’s science, draft patents, participates in product development and designs clinical testing protocols.

Mr. David Kats (Product Manager / Systems Architect) - David comes with a strong background in system design and integration, database development and system administration.  His experience crosses a variety of industries including wireless technology, financial, and advertisement. He has worked at Franklin Templeton Investments, Vodafone Americas and several San Francisco startups. In his present role at BrightStar Learning, David is responsible for product development, system architecture and administration, databases and business intelligence.