David McCool is the co-founder, President and CEO of Muzzy Lane, a Massachusetts edtech company that builds 'no coding required' tools for creating online role-play simulations that teach and auto-assess skills. An MIT-trained electrical engineer who once bought a TRS-80 with paper-route money, he spent the 1990s building carrier-grade networking gear before turning his attention to whether software could make learning as engaging as a great video game. Since 2002 he has steered Muzzy Lane from WWII strategy game 'Making History' through publisher partnerships with McGraw-Hill to its current focus on SkillBuild microcredentials and generative-AI authoring tools, with tens of millions of assessments delivered.
Mark Atkinson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mursion, an AI-powered immersive learning platform that blends live human performers with artificial intelligence to create realistic practice simulations for professional development. An Emmy Award-winning television producer turned serial edtech entrepreneur, Atkinson has spent over two decades building technology ventures at the intersection of human capital development and innovation. Before Mursion, he co-founded Teachscape, a pioneering video-based teacher observation platform that became central to the Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Teaching project. Under his leadership, Mursion has grown to serve more than a third of Fortune 100 companies, delivering 18 million-plus minutes of simulation-based training across healthcare, education, corporate, and hospitality sectors.