Executive Management

Sean C. Rush
President and Chief Executive Officer

For the last 12 years Sean served as Vice President and then General Manager of IBM’s Global Education Industry business, a multi-billion dollar global entity that worked with businesses, universities, schools, and governments around the world to prepare young people to succeed in a global economy. During Sean’s 10 year tenure as General Manager, IBM’s Global Education business doubled in revenue and he led the creation of an initiative focused on the emerging e-learning market for corporations, governments, and educational institutions. Key customers included large multi-national corporations, government workforce development programs, education institutions, and major content companies including publishers and broadcasters. Sean served as a member of IBM’s chairman’s senior leadership team for eight years during his IBM tenure.

Prior to joining IBM, Sean served as Chairman of Coopers and Lybrand’s National Education and Not-For-Profit Practice. There he oversaw an organization of 1500 professionals who provided consulting, audit and other services to over 2000 client organizations.  Billings of this practice group exceeded $100 million annually and over the 13 years Sean served with Coopers & Lybrand, the education client base grew over 100 percent.

In the years prior to Coopers and Lybrand, Sean served as Director of Development for the Ogden Corporation, Boston College, and Atlanticare Medical Center.

In addition to his business activities, Sean has been very active in the public arena. He has been a frequent speaker on education and learning before numerous professional and civic groups, and has authored, edited or co-edited nearly 20 books or articles on trends and issues related to the future of worldwide learning and education. He currently serves as a member or a member of the board of directors, of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, the Business-Higher Education Forum, and the Forum on the Future of Higher Education. He is a former board member of the National Alliance of Business, the CEO Forum, Boston Plan for Excellence in the Public Schools, and the Massachusetts Business Roundtable.

Sean holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston College, a Masters of Science in Public Communication from Boston University, an MBA from the Carroll Graduate School of Management at Boston College, and a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Jack E. Kosakowski
Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer -- JA Worldwide®
President -- Junior Achievement USA

As a high school student, Jack Kosakowski participated in JA Company Program™ and attended college on a Junior Achievement scholarship.

He joined the professional ranks of Junior Achievement in 1974, serving as Program Director in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, and was promoted to various positions on the Toledo staff until being named President in 1986.

In 1988, Jack became President of Junior Achievement of Wisconsin (Milwaukee), and served in that role until his 2003 promotion to the JA Worldwide Headquarters staff as Senior Vice President – Area Relations.

In 2004, he continued to build upon 30 years of delivering results and driving the JA mission and was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for JA Worldwide. And in May 2007, he added the responsibilities of President, Junior Achievement U.S.A. Jack leads the growth and development of Junior Achievement operations in the U.S. region, in addition to continuing to oversee the organization’s day-to-day global operations.

While president of Junior Achievement of Wisconsin, Jack was awarded the coveted Charles R. Hook Award in 1996. The award is the highest honor bestowed upon a JA Executive for driving growth and organizational development. In addition, he has served on and chaired numerous committees and task forces for the organization, including the 2001 Global Leadership Conference and the Presidents’ Roundtable from 1999-2002.

In January 2008, Jack was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy. The Council provides recommendations to the Administration around how to assist Americans of all ages in understanding and addressing financial matters.

Jack and his wife Diane reside in Colorado Springs, Colo., and have four children. 

Tim Armijo
Chief Financial Officer 

Tim Armijo joined the Worldwide staff of Junior Achievement in September of 1987 as an accountant on the Finance department. As the chief financial officer, Armijo manages the financial and sales functions of the organization. Working together with Junior Achievement’s senior management group and the Worldwide board, Armijo guides the financial operations of JA Worldwide.  He also provides guidance and direction to area offices concerning accounting, taxes and national policies.

A Colorado native, he earned his B.A. from the University of Southern Colorado in business administration – accounting.  Armijo is also a Certified Public Accountant. 

Howard Bartner
Senior Vice President -- Western U.S. Region

Howard Bartner has served as the senior vice president for the U.S. Western Region since January 2007. He is responsible for the service, support and assisting the 36 area offices in this region. Prior to this role, he served as Regional vice president for the U.S. Western and Southern regions. Bartner has served as vice president-area accreditation and alignment. He also held the positions of director-operations and director–executive transitions for the worldwide organization. Bartner joined Junior Achievement as program manager in Greater Hampton Roads (Norfolk, VA) in 1982. He held the positions of director-applied economics, director of operations and director of educational services prior to being named president of the Charleston, S.C., operation.

Bartner holds a B.A. in Business Administration, Management and Economics from Virginia Wesleyan College. He has served on the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Club of the Pikes Peak Region, and is an active volunteer for Junior Achievement of Southern Colorado Inc. He was the 2005 recipient of the Frances Hesselbein "How To Be" award for living JA’s values of respect, integrity, and excellence.

Don Creveling
Senior Vice President -- Human Resources

Don Creveling brings a wealth of human resources and senior management experiences with him to JA Worldwide. The bulk of that experience has been with the JCPenney Company, which he joined in 1971 in their New York office. Through a series of promotions and moves within the JCPenney Company, Creveling broadened his human resources and management knowledge, experience and skills and ultimately had responsibility for leading the human resources functions for all of their financial services businesses, including credit card, insurance, direct marketing and banking operations. His most recent assignment was executive vice president, director of Human Resources for JCPenney’s $1.2 billion Direct Marketing Services division in Plano, Texas. In 2001, that division was sold to Aegon USA. Since then, Creveling has been associated with Waters Consulting Group in Dallas, Texas, a human resources consulting firm.

He earned his Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Adelphi University. Through study, application and examination, Don has earned the Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) designation. His professional associations include memberships in the Society for Human Resource Management and World at Work.

Pete Curcio
Senior Vice President -- Eastern U.S. Region

Pete Curcio's career with Junior Achievement began 28 years ago, where he started as a program manager in Youngstown, Ohio. He then moved to Mansfield, Ohio as executive director before returning to the Warren/Youngstown area as director of operations and then executive director. In 1984 Curcio became president of the Delaware Valley operation (Philadelphia).

Curcio has chaired Regional and National Conferences, and recently completed a two year term as Chair of the President’s Roundtable. He has served on numerous National Committees, Focus Groups and Task Forces. In 1992, as a member of the International Executive Service Corp., Curcio spent one month in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia establishing JA operations in the city.

He recently joined the JA Worldwide Headquarters' team as senior vice president of the Eastern U.S. Operations.

Curcio is a graduate of Youngstown State University and holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. Pete lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with his wife Tina, their two boys, Michael and Christopher, and their dog Berri.

Thomas Dewar
Senior Vice President -- Development

Tom Dewar became senior vice president of Development at JA’s Headquarters after 20 years of service with field offices in Detroit, Louisville, Milwaukee, and Midland, MI. Dewar is responsible for securing the financial resources required to support the development, refinement, and evaluation of JA’s programs as well as support services provided to all field office locations.

During his 10 years as president of the Detroit office, annual student involvement and financial support tripled, making Detroit the sixth largest operation in the nation. Dewar earned Junior Achievement’s most prestigious staff honor in 2001: The Charles Hook Award, as well as a collaboration award for securing nearly $2 million to support statewide program growth in Michigan.  He earned his B.S. in business administration and accounting at Northwood University in Midland, MI.

Cynthia Hofmann
Senior Vice President -- Marketing

As senior vice president of marketing, Cynthia Hofmann is responsible for expanding awareness for Junior Achievement around the world and for building loyalty among educators, volunteers, donors, and students.

Hofmann joined JA Worldwide from Blockbuster Inc. where she served as vice president marketing and customer relationship management. Hofmann had responsibility for driving the growth of the film and games sales and rental businesses as well as customer loyalty programs. She also led Blockbuster’s customer relationship efforts and initiatives to become more customer centric. Prior to her tenure at Blockbuster, Hofmann held positions at US WEST/Qwest and American Express, where she led acquisition and retention efforts for the wireless business and multiple Card product groups.

Caroline Jenner
Senior Vice President -- Europe

Caroline Jenner began her career as an entrepreneur—running her own private language school in Bratislava, Slovakia in the early 1990’s. She took an interest in business education since many of her younger students were prospective entrants to economics programs. In an effort to provide them with appropriate materials, she began to work with economics curricula developed by Junior Achievement.

Jenner set up JA in Slovakia and later became the regional director for JA operations in Central and Eastern Europe. 

In 1997, she left the former Czechoslovakia for Italy and a job in the private sector with Bata Shoes International. Her work involved business development strategies.

After three years, she returned to the not-for-profit sector, as director for Junior Achievement-Young Enterprise Europe, the Regional Operating Centre for JA Worldwide® in Europe.

Jenner has a Bachelor of Arts, First Class Honours, in French Language and Literature and also graduated from the Canadian Royal Conservatory of Music. She is Canadian and in addition to English speaks French, Italian, and Slovak.  She is based in Brussels, Belgium.

Linda Rimer                         
Senior Vice President -- Asia/Pacific and Americas Region

Linda Rimer, SVP of Asia/Pacific and Americas Regions since July of 2005. Linda has served in a variety of positions since joining Junior Achievement in 1989. As president and CEO of Junior Achievement of South Texas (San Antonio) from 1991 to 2000 the organization increased in revenues and students ten-fold. In 1994, Rimer received the Karl Flemke Pioneer Achievement Award and in 2000 she was awarded the prestigious Charles R. Hook Award in recognition of her achievements. Most recently, Rimer has served as president of Junior Achievement of the Bay Area (San Francisco) where she has increased revenues and decreased operating expenses by over $1 million without decrease in productivity. She holds a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies, an MBA with a marketing focus, a BA in Education and a BRE in Theology. Prior careers were missions work in Mexico with the Tarahumara Indians and marketing with AT&T.

Sorya Salti
Senior Vice President -- Middle East/N. Africa

Biography coming soon.

Steve Schmidt
Senior Vice President -- Midwestern U.S. Region

Steve Schmidt served 18 years in the field with JA of Wisconsin prior to coming to JA Worldwide in 2004 as the regional vice president of the Western U.S.  

Promoted to senior vice president of the Midwestern U.S. region in July of 2006, Schmidt is responsible for providing service to 37 field markets with a focus on training and district operations.

Buzzy Thibodeaux
Senior Vice President -- Southern U.S. Region

Buzzy Thibodeaux currently serves as the head of the Southern U.S. region, working to provide the leadership, guidance and service that ensures local JA Area success.

Thibodeaux  joined Junior Achievement’s Headquarters in August of 1997 as vice president of field marketing.  He was promoted to senior vice president, marketing & communications in 2000, making him responsible for the entire national marketing process.  Buzzy transitioned to become SVP Public Affairs in July of 2003 to lead JA’s national efforts in the nation’s capital. 

Previously, he was president of Junior Achievement of Greater Baton Rouge and Acadiana, which earned the Peak Performance Award four times and the National Junior Achievement Summit Award for consecutive years.  Before this, Thibodeaux held several positions within Junior Achievement of Greater New Orleans.

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he earned his BS in business administration at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.  He currently volunteers as an advisor to the LSU Academic Center for Student Athletes.