Lynda.com founder to speak at S.B. event

CLU Corporate Leaders Breakfast to be held Jan. 23

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Lynda Weinman, cofounder and executive chair of Carpinteria-based lynda.com, will discuss her company’s pioneering role in online educatio.

Photo: Chris Orwig

(SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Dec. 20, 2013) A founder of lynda.com will be the keynote speaker at the only Santa Barbara event in California Lutheran University’s 2013-2014 Corporate Leaders Breakfast series.

Lynda Weinman, cofounder and executive chair of Carpinteria-based lynda.com, will discuss her company’s pioneering role in online education from 8 to 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, at the Fess Parker Santa Barbara Hotel. Breakfast and networking will begin at 7:30 a.m.

One of the most successful companies in online education, lynda.com has assembled a massive library of instructional videos. In them, industry experts teach technology, design and business skills to millions of individual, corporate, academic and government subscribers.

A self-taught computer expert, Weinman wrote the first industry book on web design in 1995 after she couldn’t find one to recommend to her students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. After she and her husband, Bruce Heavin, moved to Ojai, they started offering classes in web design at a local school. Eventually, they started putting instructional videos online and selling subscriptions. The fast-growing company now employs more than 400 people and generates more than $100 million in annual revenue.

The Corporate Leaders Breakfast Series brings members of the business and civic communities together to share ideas and hear from prominent leaders in the region. The 2013-2014 series will continue with presentations by Cynthia Ruiz, deputy executive director of external relations for the Port of Los Angeles, on March 4 at the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills, and Jon Irwin, former president of Rhapsody International, on May 6 at CLU.

The Fess Parker Santa Barbara Hotel is located at 633 E. Cabrillo Boulevard. Reservations are requested by Jan. 20. To RSVP or for more information, contact Sharon Nelson at smnelso@callutheran.edu or 805-493-3150 or go to http://www.callutheran.edu/clb.

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