Austin, TX — Leading education technology solutions provider Lightspeed Systems (“Lightspeed” or “the Company”) announced today that it has appointed Brook McShane Bock to the newly created position Chief Product Officer (“CPO”). The addition deepens Lightspeed’s leadership team and enables the Company’s continued growth and innovative approaches to advancing student safety and engagement.

Ms. Bock joins Lightspeed with decades of experience advancing technology to solve customer problems and improve results. Notably, she led the product vision, portfolio strategy, and global expansion for top tier K-12 serving companies such as College Board and Blackboard. Most recently Ms. Bock served as CPO for Vanco Payments, a financial services company based in Minnesota, where she drove the product portfolio for community markets, including education; enhanced organic growth by launching and migrating clients to next generation donations software with integrated omni-channel payments and live streaming; and created inorganic growth by integrating food, childcare, and mobile software acquisitions. She has also worked with Corporate Executive Board, AT&T, and CyberCash in a variety of product management and business consulting roles.

“As the market-leading safety and efficacy platform for U.S. schools, we are growing rapidly to serve even more students and to build upon our Lightspeed platform,” said Brian Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of Lightspeed Systems. “To provide the level of excellence our customers deserve, we are committed to a visionary and customer-centric product platform. We’re excited to have Brook join the team and lead our continuously evolving product portfolio. We look forward to deepening our relationships with customers and innovating on technology that keeps students safe and enhances learning.”

In her new role at Lightspeed, Ms. Bock will be responsible for Lightspeed’s product strategy and platform growth to ensure educators and school staff have the tools they need to advance student safety and educational effectiveness. Her work will directly maximize the value of Lightspeed products for Lightspeed’s current customer base of more than 28,000 schools in the U.S. and abroad – as well as new ones to come.

Lightspeed is rapidly growing as it continues its mission and drives increased adoption of its platform. The Company also recently received a strategic growth investment from Genstar Capital, joining existing investor Madison Dearborn Partners, to extend Lightspeed’s market leadership position and continue the successful execution of its strategy. In January, Lightspeed acquired CatchOn, the most advanced educational analytics solution, to expand its product offerings.

“Lightspeed is a trusted partner for technology in student safety and education,” said Ms. Bock. “There has never been a more important time to provide educators and students with proven and innovative technology to keep children safe and optimize learning outcomes. I am thrilled to help lead this very exciting next chapter of growth and lend my expertise to accelerate the mission within this education sector.”

Ms. Bock graduated with a degree in economics from St. Olaf College in Minnesota and received an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.