Jay Cross

Jay Cross has helped countless people work and live smarter. Jay was the Johnny Appleseed of informal learning. He wrote the book on it. He was the first person to use the term eLearning on the web. He challenged conventional wisdom about how adults learn since designing the first business degree program offered by the University of Phoenix. A champion of informal learning and systems thinking, Jay's calling was to help people improve their satisfaction in life and performance on the job (they're not unrelated). His philosophies on the power of informal learning and net-work fundamentally changed the world of learning in organizations. Jay co-authored the landmark book "Implementing eLearning," founded Internet Time Group, served as CEO of eLearning Forum for its first five years, and wrote a column on effectiveness for CLO magazine. He wrote "Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways that Inspire Innovation and Performance" (Pfeiffer, October 2006) and the "Working Smarter Fieldbook" (2011). An internationally acclaimed speaker and designer of corporate learning and performance systems, Jay was a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School. Jay lived with his wife Uta and a miniature longhaired dachshund in the hills of Berkeley, California. Jay was born in Hope, Arkansas, (same room as Bill Clinton) and grew up in Virginia, France, Texas, Rhode Island, and Germany.