June 20, 2016
MADISON, Wis. (June 20, 2016) – On Wednesday, June 15, EY announced that Renaissance Learning CEO Jack Lynch received the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2016 Award in the Private Equity and Venture Capital Backed category for the Midwest. The awards program, which is celebrating its 30th year, recognizes entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance, and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Lynch was selected as the Midwest winner by a panel of independent judges and the award was presented to him at a gala celebration at the Navy Pier Grand Ballroom in Chicago.
“We are thrilled to see Jack receive this acknowledgement,” said Tarim Wasim, Managing Director at Hellman & Friedman, the private equity firm that acquired Renaissance Learning in 2014. “His passion for helping teachers accelerate student learning is contagious, and we are excited to be part of this journey with him.”
Since joining Renaissance Learning as CEO in October 2012, Lynch has worked tirelessly to build upon the company’s already well-established K12 solutions. Under his leadership, the company has adopted a more customer-centric product development methodology, and investment in new product development has risen 70 percent. New product offerings include Accelerated Reader 360™ and assessment tool STAR 360™. Strategic acquisitions since Lynch joined Renaissance include Subtext™, an award-winning integrated e-reading platform, and UClass™, a cloud storage and content management platform for district curricula. In addition, Renaissance Learning also launched Learnalytics™, the company’s research-backed learning science engine, under Lynch’s leadership. Learnalytics is designed to leverage billions of student data points to provide insight into what students know, what they connect with in the classroom, and how they learn.
“I am so honored to have been chosen as a 2016 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner,” Lynch says. “Since joining Renaissance Learning, I have worked to expand and innovate within our company, while continuing to serve the rapidly changing needs of the modern educator. It’s gratifying to be recognized for leadership that deepens and extends Renaissance Learning’s long-standing commitment of putting educators first. Teachers are real-life heroes and knowing that our solutions are proven to help maximize student achievement is extremely satisfying.”
As the Midwest award winner, Lynch is now eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2016 national program. Award winners in several national categories, as well as the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner, will be announced at the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards gala in Palm Springs, California, on November 19, 2016. The awards are the culminating event of the Strategic Growth Forum™, the nation’s most prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies. The US Entrepreneur Of The Year Overall Award winner then moves on to compete for the World Entrepreneur Of The Year Award in Monaco, June 2017.
Founded and produced by EY, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are sponsored nationally by SAP America, Merrill Corporation, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In the Midwest, region sponsors include LaSalle Network, Plexus Groupe, PNC Bank, Becker Professional Education, Cresa Chicago, Chatham Financial, DLA Piper, and 1871.
About Renaissance
Renaissance, the leader of K-12 cloud-based assessment and learning analytics, has a presence in more than one-third of U.S. schools and 60 countries around the world. By delivering deep insight into what students know, what they like and how they learn, Renaissance enables educators to deliver highly personalized and timely instruction while driving student growth in reading, writing and math. To learn more, visit: www.renaissance.com.