John C. Blakley
co-CEO and Founder
Kate Valenti
co-CEO
Dan McCallum
Vice President Technology
Patience Breinholt
Vice President Human Resources
Kenna Ose
Vice President Market Development
Jim Layne
Vice President Marketing
Curious, passionate, and trusted…Unicon is a team of
people, enabled by tools, delivering solutions to the market.
Unicon is a technology consulting firm focused solely on the education ecosystem. We partner with institutions and companies to create learner-centric digital experiences to transform online teaching and learning. We believe in the power of technology to expand access to education and in the power of education to create a better future for all.
Founded by two dedicated engineers who graduated from Arizona State University, Unicon operates by two fundamental principles:
Our hiring practices distribute job postings across specialized populations in order to reach and attract diverse talent.
It is our aim to fill each role based on merit, qualifications and abilities, as selected from a diverse pool of applicants.
Our Employee Resource Groups focus on representing the needs of our employees in company decisions that impact the employee experience.
We encourage our ERG participants to share their stories and lived experiences. We offer our employees opportunities to collaborate with one another across a variety of identities in support of community, mental health, and overall wellness.
Employee feedback is critical to our ongoing inspection and adjustment of company culture.
Our employee engagement process regularly surveys our employees to inspect how well we are living our core values of integrity, mastery, impact, curiosity, and uplift. On our most recent employee survey, we scored above 4.0 for each of our core values (on a scale of 1 - 5).
Our company’s north star acknowledges that education has the power to create a better future for all.
As a company centered around learners, we fully recognize that learning never ends and this is true in the pursuit of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. We are still learning and will continue to inspect and broaden our diversity and inclusion efforts in order to continue to be the workplace our employees, clients, and communities need us to be.
co-CEO and Founder
co-CEO
Vice President Technology
Vice President Human Resources
Vice President Market Development
Vice President Marketing
Chairman, co-CEO, and Founder
Since 1993
John C. Blakley, known as Blake, leads the senior executive team and oversees all aspects of corporate operations. He is also responsible for developing business strategies, which include maintaining client, partner, and vendor relationships, in addition to making recommendations to the BOD on the strategic direction of the Company. During his career at Unicon, Blake developed the Cisco Networking Academy® Management System and was the product manager for the Unicon Academus® product suite. Prior to his career at Unicon, Blake was a Systems Engineer with Arizona State University (ASU). Additionally, Blake served on the Industrial Advisory Board of the Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering Technology at ASU East.
co-CEO
Since 2003
Kate Valenti co-leads the senior executive team and all aspects of corporate operations, alongside founder and co-CEO John Blakley. Kate is responsible for the profitable execution of market strategies as well as internal operational efficiency towards Unicon’s goal to deliver outstanding service to clients and significant impact to learners. Throughout her career at Unicon, Kate has previously held key leadership roles including Chief Operating Officer and Senior Director of Integrations and Analytics. Previously, Kate worked at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young as a management consultant with a focus on enterprise application integration.
Kate is passionate about the impact that well-designed and well-integrated technology can have on the learning experience. During her career in education, Kate has designed and developed integration strategies, programs, and technical services teams, and has delivered dozens of integrated solutions to the market. Kate has both participated in and facilitated industry panel conversations and holds the EDUCAUSE Review Author microcredential.
Vice President Technology
Since 2006
Dan is VP Technology at Unicon, with over 21 years of professional software development and design experience focusing on systems integration and Web-based educational and student success/advising applications. Dan’s leadership helps equip Unicon technical delivery teams with the skills and cultural support that make Unicon both a great place to work and a uniquely capable and satisfying partner to our customers. Prior to joining Unicon, Dan developed software for the hospitality industry, including online transaction processing integrations with Internet-scale and legacy mainframe distribution systems. Dan is an ISC2 Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP).
Vice President Human Resources
Since 2000
Patience is SPHR certified and responsible for managing Human Resources at Unicon. As Vice President of HR, she oversees policy and procedure, recruiting and hiring practices, personnel development, retention approaches, benefits administration, conflict resolution, legal compliance issues, and managerial support. In her more than 20 years at Unicon, her achievements include developing a high caliber, peak performing HR department from the ground up that supports business strategy, productivity, and profitability, fostering a company culture in which employees enjoy working in a friendly and collaborative atmosphere, while the company maintains a stellar reputation among clients for superior quality, service, and professionalism.
Vice President Market Development
Since 2020
Kenna has over 25 years experience in the education technology market, with a focus on teaching, learning, and workforce readiness. Kenna recently joined Unicon's leadership team and oversees the strategic planning and implementation of all business development and marketing strategies. Prior to joining Unicon, Kenna played a strategic leadership role at several education technology companies focused on K12, higher education, and workforce readiness.
Vice President Marketing
Since 2002
In his role at Unicon, Jim is responsible for developing, implementing, and executing corporate positioning and branding while driving an integrated communication strategy. On a daily basis, he oversees the company's marketing functions, including advertising, direct marketing, market research, public relations, and web presence. Jim joined Unicon in September 2002 with more than 20 years’ experience in both technical and marketing positions at leading edge, high-technology companies. Before joining Unicon, Jim was President of an online life-skills content development company for the K-12 marketplace. He was also founder and marketing vice president of one of the first free fantasy sports sites on the Web.
Since 1993, we have been designing, developing, and managing education technology solutions for major universities, colleges, and corporations.
The following is a partial list of our latest clients.
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