Ken, a chef educator and food anthropologist with 18 years of broad industry experience, oversees Rouxbe’s cooking course curriculum development and recruitment. Recognized for his expertise in education and training, food culture research, health and wellness and product development, Ken nevertheless considers himself a lifelong student of every aspect of food.

Ken has held top-level management positions at well-respected culinary academies including Le Cordon Bleu Schools North America, Chefs.com, the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Portland and the Natural Epicurean Academy. As a volunteer, he served as board director of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) and is currently a trustee and chair of The Culinary Trust, IACP’s philanthropic partner.

Ken studied the anthropology of food and developed ethnographic research methods to understand how people learn to cook. He received his BA from Colorado College and an MA in anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dawn is a co-founder of Rouxbe and a content guru with more than 15 years of professional food and beverage experience. She is passionate about understanding food: where it comes from, how it is grown and treated and, most importantly, how it affects our bodies and minds.

At Rouxbe, Dawn leads the production and instructional teams. She is also the friendly voice whose narrative brings Rouxbe’s instructional videos to life. When asked what the best part of Rouxbe is, she said, “I love sharing what I know with our students. But the best part is how much I get to connect with and learn from them. I am energized being part of a process where everyone grows.”

Dawn graduated with honors at the top of her class from the Pacific Culinary Institute in Vancouver, where she later became a culinary instructor. She has also held positions as a cook in top restaurants and hotels such as the Fairmont. Prior to co-founding Rouxbe, she co-owned and operated a successful film catering company, where she planned menus and cooked for more than 225,000 cast and crew.

Christophe brings 30 years of professional cooking experience to the Rouxbe e-learning team. He has also been a professional chef instructor since 1998.

As a co-owner of the Northwest Culinary Academy – a unique professional chef training school – Christophe is passionate about teaching and is dedicated to creating the ultimate learning experience for all of his students.

When he’s not in the classroom, Christophe owns and operates a successful catering company.

Tony has more than 20 years of professional cooking experience and has been teaching as a culinary chef instructor since 1993.

He is a co-owner of the Northwest Culinary Academy – a unique professional chef training school. Tony is committed to inspiring and empowering students with the skills and confidence necessary for success.

Having grown up in a family where food was life, Tony is driven by the Mediterranean’s intense food culture. He also teaches basic cooking fundamentals to passionate, at-home cooks in his foodie classes.

Barb is a Holistic Nutritionist (RHN), professional speaker, women’s health author, teacher and faculty member at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition and owner of Love2Eat Nutrition with 10 years of industry experience.

She is passionate about nutrition education, especially the idea that real, simple, whole food can bring balance to the health of families and the public. This passion is translated into her areas of expertise and continued research in women’s health and wellness, the importance of the family dinner table and local, sustainable food.

Christina is a Holistic Nutritionist (RHN), Red Seal Chef and owner of honeyandvanilla.com with more than 16 years of culinary experience including work in holistic nutrition and cooking for people with autism, celiac disease and breast cancer.

Her goal is to share the simplicity of delicious whole foods with others and educate them about where whole foods come from. She is passionate about traveling the world, eating delicious food, balancing the body systems with whole foods and learning how different cultures prepare their own authentic dishes.

Eagranie loves a good story. A writer, editor, reformed chocolatier and recovering chemist, she loves the challenge of explaining complicated things in simple ways.

Eagranie has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from the University of British Columbia and Queen’s University, respectively, as well as the Diplome de Patisserie from Le Cordon Bleu (Ottawa). She has been baking and writing for as long as she can remember, and her passion is to explore the intersection of food and science, especially when that means chocolate. She has a weakness for whisky, random acts of dancing and dogs with short legs.

Najat has worked in the world’s top kitchens with chefs such as Ferran Adria, Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, Rene Redzepi, Juan Mari Arzak, Martin Berasategui, Heston Blumenthal and Bill Yosses. She received a prestigious Master of Culinary Science from the University of Barcelona. She has also taught and lectured on the science of cooking at Harvard University and New York University.

Influenced by childhood experiences picking olives and milling her own wheat, Najat has always cultivated a very special connection with the food she cooks. Her passion is to apply revolutionary ideas to reach the creative spirit in all people through the magic of cooking.

As CEO, Joe oversees everything at Rouxbe, the online cooking school he created with Dawn Thomas, “to get people back into their kitchens, cooking more and cooking better.”

With 27 years of experience as a culinary professional and entrepreneur, Joe has developed expertise in operations, strategy and leadership for large-scale catering, culinary instruction, restaurants and hospitality, and transportation. He has founded and run three successful businesses over the past 15 years, leveraging both his talent for HR, strategic execution and technology and his incredible passion for food, decision trees and design.

Prior to founding Rouxbe, Joe and Rouxbe co-founder Dawn Thomas owned and operated a specialized mobile film catering operation that they built from the ground up, serving more than 250,000 cast and crew members. In addition, Joe built an alternative-transportation consulting firm that provided strategic planning for complex transport issues faced in urban environments.

Sharbani has 10 years of experience in research, strategy and financial valuation of technology products. She manages Rouxbe’s marketing and business development and is a key player in developing our operations strategy. She brings her lifelong passion for food to her work and is driven to help make the world a better place to eat.

Prior to joining Rouxbe, Sharbani worked as a senior product manager for Intellectual Ventures and as a financial analyst for NERA Economic Consulting in the practice areas of intellectual property, financial services and antitrust. Her earliest job was as the family sous-chef, starting at the age of three, chopping vegetables for pasties and curries. Sharbani also acts as an advisor for several startups in the technology and online retail space.

Sharbani received her bachelor’s degrees in physics and mathematics from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Stanford University, with a focus on entrepreneurship.

Steve is a veteran of Vancouver’s bustling film industry. He manages the day-to-day operations at Rouxbe so we can keep the cameras rolling.

In addition to his production and operational roles at Rouxbe, Steve oversees Rouxbe’s affiliate program and social media efforts, managing relationships with food bloggers and publishers from around the world. He also helps develop and implement strategic plans, including tracking mechanisms and metrics that ensure Rouxbe stays on course and ahead of other major players in the food space.

Corey has 20 years of experience creating and developing tech companies on Canada’s East Coast. His passion for food and technology led him to Vancouver, where he is responsible for creating and maintaining our core architecture so Rouxbe can work when you need it to, how you need it to.

Caleb has seven years of web development experience, specializing in front-end design, javascript and Ruby on Rails. As one of Rouxbe’s software engineers, he is responsible for bringing Rouxbe’s vision to life on the web.

As a long-time vegetarian, Caleb loves to find new and delicious ways to cook without the use of animal products. He graduated with honors from the University of Washington with bachelors degrees in both physics and astronomy.

Robert has nine years of experience as an advocate and practitioner for improving user experience. He specializes in information architecture, interaction design and media arts. He is passionate not only about the study of human behavior and culture but also that of cooking, food, storytelling, technology and the arts.

At Rouxbe, Robert represents the voice of every student to ensure they have the best possible learning experience. He received his BSc in interactive arts from the School of Interactive Arts + Technology at Simon Fraser University.

Daniela is passionate about the process of creation and innovation. At Rouxbe, Daniela helps craft the story behind each lesson in an engaging yet teachable way. She is involved in both production as a camera operator and post-production as a media creative and video editor.

Daniela’s involvement in visual arts extends the domains of documentary and fiction filmmaking and painting. Daniela holds degrees in architecture from Universidad La Salle in Mexico City and film production from the Vancouver Film School.

Prior to completing her film production degree, Daniela worked as a licensed architect and co-founded the architectural firm The Random Protocol. Her experience in filmmaking and editing includes TV, documentaries, fiction and commercial endeavors.

Patrick is the post-production wizard and operational guru. He has the enormous responsibility of managing Rouxbe’s post-production workflow, moving digital media through the picture and sound editing process to final deployment.

Patrick has completed more than 50 short and feature-length films, including work for Disney and Relic Entertainment. His work has both screened and won awards at multiple international festivals and has been broadcast in more than 20 countries.

Chad is a Vancouver-based filmmaker and photographer specializing in documentary storytelling. He works primarily on commissioned assignments from broadcasters, production companies, marketing firms and non-profit NGOs creating work that is both cinematic and reflective of reality.

Carolyn has more than 24 years of experience helping people learn. She leverages this experience to find innovative solutions to learning challenges. Her experience spans from designing online courses for Rouxbe to working with teams in architecture, learning management system design and course design to develop customized programs.

Carolyn has a Masters of Liberal Studies from Simon Fraser University and a Bachelor of Education from Mount Allison University. She is also an independent researcher whose writing about the intersection of food, culture and literature has been published in journals such as Food and the Journal of Short Stories in English (JSSE).

Eric is one of the developers responsible for coding Rouxbe’s website. This includes building and overseeing the complex back-end database and server infrastructure that is required to ensure our deployment architecture continues to provide seamless service to our customers.

Michael has 25 years of experience in production as an assistant director in the music and film industries. At Rouxbe, he directs sales initiatives and student support, helping students understand how and why Rouxbe can work for them.

A few years ago, before he joined the Rouxbe team, Michael was a Rouxbe student (developing his cooking skills from scratch). This experience helped him understand the transformative process of learning to cook better and fuels his passion for helping others find healthier and happier lives through learning to cook, just like he did.

During his more than 27 years of experience in management and innovation in the hospitality, food & beverage and proprietary education industries, Jon has led organizations with revenues of over $30 million annually and over 200 employees. He has been a general manager for several large hospitality organizations, served as the president for both the Portland and Scottsdale locations of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, and was the former C.O.O. for Laughing Planet Cafe, a chain of twelve restaurants under two brands, Laughing Planet Café and Dick’s Kitchen.

Jon has developed expertise in multi-unit operations, strategic and financial planning, branding and PR, organizational efficiency and staff development, and sales and customer service. In addition to leveraging these abilities in his former roles, Jon applies his broad skill set to pursue his passion for advising smaller companies, such as Rouxbe.

Jon graduated with honors from the Culinary Institute of America, and studied business at Marylhurst University and Colorado Technical University – Online. He is a former member of several non-profit boards including the Northwest Career Colleges Federation and the Valley Hotel and Resort Association.

Stewart was a co-founder of Flickr and was the president of Ludicorp, Flickr’s parent company, before its acquisition by Yahoo! in the spring of 2005. Until July 2008, he oversaw the development of Flickr.com as its General Manager inside Yahoo! where it has grown to one of the largest web sites in the world with over 60 million unique visitors a month.

In over a decade of working on the web, he has had a distinguished career as a designer, entrepreneur, and technologist. He has been honored with awards ranging from being named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine in 2006 to BusinessWeek’s Top 50 Leaders for 2005 and MIT Technology Review’s “TR 35” award for technology innovators under 35. He has been featured in interviews and articles by over 100 publications and broadcasters including the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, The New York Times, CNN, the Financial Times and has appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine.

Butterfield graduated from the Universities of Victoria and Cambridge, with degrees in philosophy and retains academic interests in cognitive science, the history and philosophy of science, and economics. He lives in San Francisco.

Warren is an Emmy award-winning film and television producer with more than 30 years experience in the film industry.

He has extensive experience in educational video-based programming, having played a key role in the development of distance learning programs in Canada. He also has more than 35 feature film and television credits and manages projects for American Studios and major television networks with budgets up to $100M.

In 2004, Warren was awarded an “Emmy” for his producing role in “Door to Door” (William H. Macy). Other production credits include, “I Spy” (Eddie Murphy), “Romeo Must Die” (Jet Li), “Little Woman” (Winona Ryder), “Saving Silverman” (Jack Black), “Dudley Do Right” (Sarah Jessica Parker & Brendan Fraser), “Connie & Carla” (Nia Vardalos) and “RV”, featuring Robin Williams.

Scott is the Director of Business Development at Perkins Coie, a Seattle-based law firm, the largest in the Northwest.

In his current capacity, Scott identifies strategic, new business opportunities that could add significant value to the firm and/or its clients. He works closely with selected partners in the development and execution of business development strategy and has oversight of the firm’s client service teams and industry teams programs.

Prior to joining Perkins Coie, Scott was the Chief Development Officer at Lewis & Clark College and Law School where he played a leadership role in raising over $150M. He has also been instrumental in raising millions of dollars for both private and non-profit organizations. Scott was previously a member of the Board of Directors at Fat Earth, Inc. and earlier in his career was the National Sales Manager for a graphic arts and publishing company.

Rick was the Vice President of Brand Communications for Nike and brings a wealth of marketing and branding experience to the Rouxbe Team. As VP, he was responsible for strategic development and management of global public relations, business media and investor relations.

Rick is now a principal in the firm, Guidance Counsel, which provides strategic capital market and brand communications counseling to public and private company clients. He works one-on-one with clients to develop an integrated communications platform that addresses clients’ multiple audiences including consumers, investors, media, customers and employees.

Meredith has over 15 years of marketing experience, having worked for high-profile firms such as Gardner, Geary, Coll & Young, J. Walter Thompson and Wieden & Kennedy.

Her clients are known worldwide and include Sprint Telecommunications, Restoration Hardware, and Nike.

Most recently, she spent five years implementing and managing branding and marketing strategies for Nike U.S. in the apparel and women’s categories. In May of 2006, she began her own consulting firm, Chase Marketing. She was promptly hired by Nike to launch a new category giving her responsibility over developing the consumer profile, positioning, advertising and marketing.

Meredith brings with her a range of skills that include all areas of marketing: advertising, creative analysis, developing marketing strategies, online strategies, positioning, and branding.

The passion and dedication she shows her two daughters is reflected in the enthusiasm she brings to her clients. She looks forward to making Rouxbe a household name, in exchange for a boost to her own culinary skills, of course.

Paul brings 20 years experience building disruptive consumer and educational technology businesses. Most recently Paul served as Rouxbe’s CEO. Prior to Rouxbe, Paul was co-founder and Vice President of Products and Marketing at Avvo.com, the most visited legal directory on the Internet. In this role Paul conceived and drove the product vision and led the company’s marketing efforts to both consumers and the legal industry.

Prior to Avvo Paul served as Senior Director of New Product Marketing at Classmates Online and Vice President and General Manager at e-learning pioneer Apex Learning. He held several management roles during 7 years at Microsoft, including Group Marketing Manager for its kids educational software group. Paul has also consulted for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s education division, as well as several early stage technology companies.

Paul holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from Stanford University. Paul lives in Seattle with his wife, son, and twin daughters.