ViKiwi

ViKiwi is a management consulting firm that works with both private and public sector clients to exploit technology to improve the effectiveness of human work.

Gee Kin Chou is the President and co-founder of ViKiwi. Gee Kin brings a blend of business executive skills, an engineer’s sense of practicality and a solid grasp of the challenges facing urban school districts and the complexity of their environment, especially within the context of No Child Left Behind. Since starting ViKiwi in 2003, Gee Kin has brought project management, strategic planning, accountability and technology expertise to more than a dozen large school districts across the US, working with district staff at every level on reform projects sponsored by the Stupski Foundation intended to transform compliance driven bureaucracies into high performing, data-driven organizations that can raise the performance of every student.  He is the Executive Officer of Technology for Oakland USD and served as Interim Chief Technology Officer of Pasadena USD in 2009.  Through a mix of successes and disappointments, he understands the factors that are critical to the success of reform initiatives.

Eric Hestenes is co-founder of ViKiwi.  A technology generalist, Eric has recently done extensive work with internet and open source software develoment as well as content management systems. Some of the beneficiaries of this work include Chapter Three (Gallo, BBDO, NVIDIA, Stanford Highwire Press, the United Nations), the White House and US Department of Treasury,  and others. Eric has deep experience with software engineering management and IT management. He is the architect of Peer to Patent, Schoolmeasures, and other websites. Eric has also worked on K12 education reform projects including work with the following school orgnizations: The College Ready Promise, Pasadena USD, the Stupski Foundation, Gilroy USD, West Contra Costa, and more. Prior to ViKiwi, he was Vice President of Technology at Charles Schwab & Co.   Recent interests include Drupal, Ruby on Rails, Agile methods including automated testing and continuous integration, scrum, user-centered interface design, information architecture, project and program management and technology in education.