Thought Industries

Lisa Gelobter (1971-Present): Gelobter was critical in the creation of online video animations. If you’ve ever used a GIF (pronounced JIF), then you can thank Lisa! In 2016, she founded and became the Chief Executive Officer of tEQuitable. Gelobter raised more than $2 million for the start-up company, becoming one of only 34 Black women to ever raise $1 million or more in venture capital. Gelobter was also the Chief Digital Service Officer for the U.S. Department of education during the Obama administration. Gelobter helped with the launch of the popular streaming platform, Hulu.

Born on August 5, 1946, in Washington, D.C., Dr. Jackson paved the way for caller ID, call waiting, fiber-optic cable, and the touch-tone telephone. Growing up, Jackson studied the circadian rhythms of bees she captured from flowers and shrubs around her home. She arrived at MIT in the fall of 1964 as one of just a handful of Black students, after becoming the valedictorian of her public high school in Washington, D.C. While working on her first physics problem set, she emerged from her room and noticed all the other first-year women on her floor out in a common area, doing theirs together. “It was pretty isolating,” said Jackson of her undergraduate years. But after a while, she told herself, “Well, I do have to hand in these physics problems.” So, she says, “I got myself together and finished the work.” Despite the bigotry she encountered, she remained a quiet student who focused on her work. The assassination of Martin Luther King in April 1968 changed that. She helped organize a group of African-American students that ultimately became the Black Student Union. Jackson would need that kind of resilience to see her through nine years at MIT, as both an undergraduate and a graduate student in physics. She became the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. from the Institute—in any field—in 1973.

Dr. Jackson was inducted into the Women in Technology International Foundation Hall of Fame (WITI) in June 2000. WITI recognizes women technologists and scientists whose achievements are exceptional.

Clarence “Skip” Ellis (1943-2014): is the first African American ever to earn a Ph.D. in computer science. Ellis achieved this honor in 1969, graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Born in the South Side neighborhood of Park Manor, Chicago, Ellis’ journey as a computer scientist started when he secured a part-time security job guarding large mainframe computers. Ellis worked this job, “to help bring in money for his family, while he was still in high school.” After graduation, he was awarded a scholarship at Beloit College. Similar to much of American society at the time, not all of the students at Beloit were comfortable with racial integrations. Despite this, Ellis was involved in setting up the college’s computer laboratory, where he spent much of his time. After earning his Ph.D. Ellis went on to have an impressive career in the computer science field for organizations such as Xerox PARC, IBM, Micro-electronics, and Computer Technology. While at PARC, Ellis was key in creating the first office system to use icons and Ethernet which allowed people to collaborate from a distance.

Roy Clay Sr. is the second inventor we'd like to highlight in our Black History Month series. Known as the "Godfather of Silicon Valley," Clay Sr. was instrumental in the creation of Hewlett-Packard's computer division and was the leader of this team. Despite being a pivotal contributor to the lasting success of Hewlett-Packard, Roy Clay Sr. has reminisced on his time growing up near Ferguson, Missouri, and how he was almost the first “Michael Brown.” Clay discusses in the Silicon Valley newspaper on his 85th birthday his experiences growing up in Missouri, attending St. Louis University, and how he had to navigate racist institutions to be the computer scientist he is today.

We're very excited to announce that Thought Industries has been named as a ‘Potential Leader’ in the Fosway 2023 9-Grid™ for Learning Systems. We've been working with European clients for some years now, and our position in the 9-grid recognizes our ability to address the complex enterprise-scale learning management needs of global organizations focused on external enterprise learning for customers, partners, and professionals. Read more ==> https://hubs.ly/Q01zWdtq0

We're very excited to announce that Thought Industries was named the #1 Learning System in the World for 2023 by The Craig Weiss Group. This is the first time an external-facing LMS has received this recognition, just one more signal that this market is growing fast. Thank you to all our customers who work with us every day to grow and scale their customer, partner, and professional training businesses. We look forward to more great things in 2023! Read more about the award here: https://hubs.ly/Q01xGhJv0

The Brandon Hall Group announced the winners of its 2022 Technology Excellence Awards on December 8. Thought Industries is proud to have earned Gold in the 'Best Advance in Learning Management Technology for External Training' category. The award recognizes our multi-tenant solution, Panorama, which allows businesses to scale their learning to a vast array of partners, resellers, and other external customers from a single platform. Its powerful reporting functionality also allows business owners to measure success across all their instances from a single, simple interface. Read more about it here: https://hubs.ly/Q01vMnXn0

Happy Halloween everyone!!! We had a great time celebrating as a team with an online chocolate making class with z.cioccolato and of course a fabulous costume contest!

Can’t get enough of Daniel Quick? Well you’re in luck! Daniel, the SVP of Content Strategy here at Thought Industries, reflects on the importance of optimizing reach and profitability in enterprise learning. Click here to read a Q&A with Daniel’s quick takes! https://hubs.ly/Q01p7dXL0

We're incredibly excited to celebrate this year's Customer Award winners, who are all pushing the boundaries of what's possible with external-facing, enterprise learning programs. 🎉 Check out the winners here ==> https://hubs.ly/Q01nQ2vg0

Hear from one of our brightest minds when it comes to the products here at Thought Industries, in this Q&A with Todd Boes, Chief Product Officer. Todd will talk about the importance of customization, extensibility, and the use of a headless LMS, which allows organizations to build without limits! Click here to learn more! https://hubs.ly/Q01p5n4Z0

Want to learn more about Helium, the latest release from Thought Industries? Our CEO Barry Kelly talks more about Helium, learning everywhere, and the headless LMS. Click here for a Q&A with Barry and read more about his vision! https://hubs.ly/Q01nV5-z0

Hurry, there's only a few hours left to join us at Cognition22! You won’t want to miss out on this LIVE three day event, Oct 4-6, featuring interactive sessions with customer, partner, and professional training icons, a special live showing of Hot Takes, and opportunities to network at our daily roundtable discussions! Register here to get in on the action ==> https://hubs.ly/Q01nKS1v0 !

Did someone say Cognition swag? Hopefully everyone has received their welcome boxes for Cognition22! These welcome boxes have gone out to those of you who registered for Cognition 22. There is still time to get in on the action… register here https://hubs.ly/Q01ndmj40 ! We can’t wait to see you so soon!

Cognition 2022 is right around the corner, so get excited to hear from many of the women leading the enterprise learning industry! We have an amazing lineup of female speakers that participants will be able to interact with live during presentations, workshops, and roundtables! Read here to learn more about the speakers and previews for a few sessions that we know you won’t want to miss! https://hubs.ly/Q01nnXP60 Make sure to register here while you still have a chance to get involved in these live conversations! https://hubs.ly/Q01np0zR0

Join Ryan Dillion, Host of Hot Takes and Thought Industries VP of Corporate Development, as he sits down with Niyati Shah, the Senior Director of Education Services at GitLab, tomorrow at 2:00pm EST for a live discussion over a spicy selection of hot wings! These two will be discussing Niyati’s upcoming segment at Cognition 22, Building Advocacy with Education. Get ready to hear some spicy opinions, an exciting preview of Cognition 22, and bring your burning questions for these two! Register for the LinkedIn Live here! https://hubs.ly/Q01mWYSC0

At Cognition we gather some of the brightest minds in customer, partner, and professional training, and we love to hear from everyone. This year we'll include a leaderboard that highlights our participants' engagement live throughout the event. The top three on the leaderboard will be eligible for three amazing gifts representing our event themes: a Meta Quest 2 Oculus, a JBL Boombox 2, and a Yeti Tundra 45 cooler! Register now as you don’t want to miss out on all the fun! https://hubs.ly/Q01m-zC50

What is Helium? And how can a 'headless LMS' be a game changer for your learning business? You'll see all the details and a get a full demo from Thought Industries CTO Chris McClelland at October 4-6. Don't be the last one in your industry to take advantage of this new approach to learning customization, extensibility, and scalability. Are you registered yet? Don't wait! https://hubs.ly/Q01mT1dH0

Join us at for a special LIVE! edition of Hot Takes on Wednesday, October 5 at 1:05 ET, featuring Peter Scott, President & CEO of the American Pet Products Association, Katie Barr, Chief Digital Officer at Haymarket Media US, and Thought Industries own Ryan Dillon as they debate the best way to scale and grow a profitable learning business. Register now to be there LIVE! https://hubs.ly/Q01mPcqQ0

Do you have questions about your learning program? Experiences to share with the community? Join us at and select from live, 60-minute roundtables with your peers and Thought Industries staff. Monetization strategies? Check. Content best practices? Check. Using community for peer-to-peer learning? Check. Future industry trends? Check. It's all here October 4-6. These sessions will *not* be recorded, so join us live to participate. Don't wait!! Register Now ==> https://hubs.ly/Q01mynSx0

ZoomInfo's strategic commitment to has resulted in a 10-15% increase in renewals from educated customers. How did they do it? Join us October 4-6 at to hear from their Customer Education leader, Tom Studdert, who will take you step-by-step from Excel sheets to automated dashboards and show you how you can do it yourself.
https://hubs.ly/Q01lpB8n0

Did you know that every 6 seconds an underground facility, like gas pipelines, and electrical and fiber optic lines, are damaged by someone digging? $30 Billion is the estimated annual societal cost of damages to buried utilities in the U.S. That cost is paid by the taxpayer (AKA you and me) every year. Register to listen to Jay Stephens the CEO of Damage Prevention Academy breakdown how they are tackling this with VR →https://hubs.ly/Q01lpq9m0

Tune in to Cognition this October to hear Dallin Kay of Ceros discuss his design career. Kay has been in the customer education world for six years and while at Ceros his team has worked together to design interactive, engaging, and scalable digital learning experiences. Register for Cognition22 here → https://hubs.ly/Q01lmQP30

Are your learners bored? At , Jeff Campbell, CEO and founder of Motrain, will be sharing his insights in his session "Motivational Design Strategies to Engage Learners." In this session, you will discover how to capture the attention and imaginations of your learners, using motivational techniques such as gamification.

Jeff will join Britt Andreatta, Geoffrey Moore, Barry Kelly, and plenty of other fantastic speakers on October 4th-6th, 2022. Register now! https://hubs.ly/Q01km2rp0