Jose Ferreira is an American entrepreneur and Founder and CEO of Knewton

Knewton

Knewton is an adaptive learning company that has developed a platform to personalize educational content. The Knewton platform allows schools, publishers, and developers to provide adaptive learning for any student. Knewton recently announced a partnership with Pearson Education to power the...

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Education

Ferreira graduated from Carleton College

Carleton College

Carleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...

 in 1991 and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...

 in 1997.

Professional career

From 1991 until 1995 he worked for Kaplan Inc as Academic Coordinator and then Product Director. In December 1994, prompted by student reports of recycled questions, Ferreira led a team of 22 staff members deployed to 9 U.S. cities to take the GRE. Kaplan, Inc then presented ETS with 150 questions, representing 70-80% of the GRE. In response, ETS significantly reduced the number of times the test was offered on the computer over the following six months, in order to address the problem of small sample size.

From 1997-2000, Ferreira worked as a derivatives trader for Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...

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In 2001, he founded DizzyCity a web startup that attempted to digitize cityscapes across the world.

He then served as Strategist for the John Kerry presidential campaign, 2004

John Kerry presidential campaign, 2004

The Presidential Campaign of John Kerry, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts and the nominee of the Democratic Party challenged Republican incumbent President George W. Bush in the U.S. presidential election on November 2, 2004. Ultimately, Kerry conceded defeat in the race in a telephone call to Bush...

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From 2006-2008 Ferreira was a partner at Venture Capital firm Draper Atlantic, investing in new media and SaaS companies.

In 2008 he founded Knewton, an online education platform, which has attracted investment from Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer Venture Partners is a private venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley, New York, Massachusetts, Israel, China, and India.Bessemer Venture Partners is the longest-standing venture capital practice in the United States...

, Accel Partners

Accel Partners

Accel Partners is a global venture and growth equity firm funding companies from inception through the growth stage.The firm is based in Palo Alto, California with major offices in Bangalore, Beijing, London, and Shanghai....

, First Round Capital

First Round Capital

First Round Capital is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies. Managed by Josh Kopelman, Chris Fralic, Rob Hayes and Howard L. Morgan, the Philadelphia-based company typically provides seed-stage investment that ranges from $250,000 to $500,000...

, Reid Hoffman

Reid Hoffman

Reid G. Hoffman is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Hoffman is best known as the co-founder of LinkedIn, a social network used primarily for business connections and job searching.-Early education and career:...

, Ron Conway

Ron Conway

Ron Conway is an American angel investor, often described as one of the "super angels". Conway is recognized as a strong networker and is based in Silicon Valley.-Early career:...

 and other prominent investors.

Personal life

Ferreira is the nephew of Teresa Heinz, and is the first cousin of H. John Heinz IV (born 1966), Andre Heinz

André Heinz

André Thierstein Heinz is an American environmentalist.Heinz is the son of Teresa Heinz and the late Henry John Heinz III, the brother of H...

 (born 1970), and Christopher Heinz

Christopher Heinz

Christopher Drake Heinz is an American businessman.He is the youngest son of United States Senator Henry John Heinz III and Teresa Heinz's children, the brother of H. John Heinz IV and André Heinz, the stepson of Senator John Kerry, and stepbrother of Alexandra Kerry and Vanessa Kerry.Heinz is a...

(born 1973).