Ken Eisner

Director, Worldwide Education Programs and Global Lead, AWS Educate Amazon Web Services

Ken is an education technology leader with 20+ years-experience spearheading initiatives that improve educational outcomes and disrupt traditional delivery models. Ken founded AWS Educate, Amazon’s global initiative to dramatically accelerate cloud learning and prepare students for a cloud-enabled workforce. Program demand has far outstripped projections, with membership composed of hundreds of thousands of students and over 2,400 institutions including all of the top ten leading global computer science higher education institutions. Subsequent AWS Educate innovations include: 2016’s launch of “Cloud Career Pathways,” an education-to-employment environment with learning pathways, micro-credentials, and a job board; 2017’s opening up of the program to students 14 to 17 years-old and creation of Cloud Literacy content; and 2018’s launch of full degree offerings, beginning with vocational institutions and community colleges.

Ken's roles prior to AWS included: Senior Vice President, Business Development and Marketing for One Economy, where he helped guide some of the largest public private partnerships in digital education; Vice President of Marketing for e-commerce textbook provider VarsityBooks, where he contributed to its IPO and launched its marketing services division; and strategic advisor to Sprint Nextel.  In 2014, Ken was appointed to the D.C. Mayor’s Technology and Innovation Inclusion Council, where he currently chairs the Workforce Development committee.  He also sits on the edX customer advisory board and advises various educational institutions. Ken holds an MBA from Georgetown University, an MPP from the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, and a BA from Cornell University.