Teaching Strategies Appoints Tech Executive as Next Chief Executive Officer
Mike Derezin helped to expand professional learning experiences to tens of millions of LinkedIn members nationwide; now joins leading provider of early childhood solutions beloved by educators and families
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 6, 2025) – Teaching Strategies, pioneering developer of early childhood solutions used in over 240,000 early learning classrooms worldwide, today announced the appointment of former LinkedIn Learning executive Mike Derezin as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.
John Olsen, who held the post since 2019, will continue as a member of the company’s Board of Directors. Under Olsen’s leadership, Teaching Strategies invested over $100 million in transforming the early childhood education classroom from primarily print resources to a digitally enabled and data-driven ecosystem. The result has been substantial in impact, satisfaction and efficacy.
“We are excited to welcome Mike to the organization and to celebrate John’s deep commitment to putting powerful resources into the hands of professional educators,” said Joanne Weiss, former U.S. Department of Education official and Teaching Strategies board member. “John led Teaching Strategies’ transformation into a seamless, digital ecosystem that enables educators to spend less time cobbling together resources and insights and more time building trusting relationships with our youngest learners. Mike now brings a passion and set of experiences that will enable us to usher in the next era of a legacy established 47 years ago.”
The son of a public school teacher and a university professor, Derezin brings over 25 years of experience at the intersection of learning and innovation. At LinkedIn, Derezin most recently served as the global vice president for LinkedIn Learning, which is one of the world’s largest online platforms for professional learning. Beyond his corporate role, he has taught a number of popular courses on topics like leading through change and data-driven decision making. Derezin started his career as a computer teacher in Oakland, Calif., and Santiago, Chile.
“It’s an honor to join an organization with such a rich legacy and sustained commitment to improving the lives of teachers, children and families,” Derezin said. “I’m eager to collaborate with the field as we explore the potential for technology and learning communities to help educators deliver the highest quality, whole child approach across virtually any kind of program model from birth to third grade continuum.”
Teaching Strategies has developed award-winning curriculum, assessment, professional development and family engagement resources for programs serving over 4 million children each year worldwide, from private child care programs to some of the country’s largest school districts. In recent years, Teaching Strategies’ research and development strategy has been grounded in a commitment to delivering flexible and robust professional development opportunities for educators while blending play-based learning with explicit literacy and math instruction. This year, following the acquisition of a game-based direct assessment platform, Teaching Strategies launched a new assessment suite that enables educators to easily combine observational and direct assessment to capture a more holistic and actionable view of child development over time.
“Since its founding by Diane Trister Dodge in 1978, Teaching Strategies has had a singular focus on creating resources that early childhood educators love,” Olsen said. “Mike is a mission-driven leader who will continue to put educators first.”
“We are grateful to John for his contributions to the growth of Teaching Strategies and look forward to continuing our relationship with him as a member of the Board,” said Webster Chua, partner at KKR. “We are pleased to welcome Mike to the team and believe his successful track record of scaling software businesses and deep passion for education make him the right leader to take Teaching Strategies into its next chapter.”
About Teaching Strategies
Teaching Strategies is the leading provider of early childhood curriculum, assessment, professional development, and family engagement solutions. Its products, including the most widely used curriculum and assessment solutions, The Creative Curriculum and GOLD, are found in over 240,000 classrooms and more than 80 countries around the world and reach over 4 million children each year. A trusted partner and advocate for the early education community for 45 years, today Teaching Strategies connects teachers, children and families to inspired teaching and learning experiences, insightful data, stronger family partnerships, and robust professional learning through SmartTeach™, the leading early learning platform.