Apple, Inc. executive John Couch to visit McAllen on March 20, says Miriam Martínez
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 3:25AM By HEIDI ARTEAGA
John Couch, Vice President of Education for Apple, Inc., the giant American multinational corporation that has developed and manufactured cutting-edge personal computers, computer software, and consumer electronics, will be in McAllen on Tuesday, March 20 to bring the company’s vision of using technology to revolutionize learning in the classroom.
“John Couch is credited by Apple, Inc. as being responsible for driving their sales and marketing strategy in the education market,” said Miriam Martínez, a Democratic candidate for state representative in Hidalgo County. “With the McAllen school district taking a national lead in transforming education with high-technology – including the groundbreaking use of iPods and iPads for all of their students and teachers – John Couch will be able to bring a global perspective on the tremendous advances in education that are taking place here in the Valley.”
News of Couch’s pending visit was first publicly announced by Martínez during the launch on Friday, February 24, of her bilingual radio show, Open Seat, which airs every Friday from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. on 90.9 FM Mas Music.
Abel Álvarez of McAllen, who played the direct role in encouraging Couch to visit deep South Texas, was her featured guest on Open Seat. Álvarez, minister of the Church of Christ, 508 W. Harvey Drive in McAllen, also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for Abilene Christian University, which has a long-standing relationship with Apple.
Open Seat covers key issues impacting South Texas and will include business, community, and political leaders from the Valley on her broadcast.
More details of Couch’s schedule will soon be announced by Apple and McAllen school district officials, Martínez added.
The timing of the Couch visit to McAllen comes as the local school district puts into action their strategy to provide iPods and iPads, high-tech learning tools from Apple, for every student and teacher.
“John Couch’s upcoming appearance fits perfectly into the timetable and goals of the McAllen school district to provide our students with the best tools available to learn and succeed now and in the future,” added Martínez. “As part of his visit to our region, the leadership of other school districts throughout South Texas who want to learn more about this renaissance in education will be able to hear directly from this extraordinary American.”
If elected to the Texas Legislature, Martínez pledged “to work closely with the state leadership and the Valley state legislative delegation to secure state and federal funds, and to develop state policies, that would help South Texas school districts pay for the costs of providing iPads and other digital textbooks and high-technology resources for their students and faculty.”
According to Apple’s official biography:
Couch has over thirty years experience as a computer scientist, executive and advocate for technology in education. During his current tenure at Apple, Couch has led an Education division that has steadily grown units, revenue and market share every year since his return, eclipsing all sales milestones that have stood for nearly a decade.
Directly prior to his current position at Apple, Couch was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DoubleTwist Inc, a leading provider of genomic information and bioinformatics analysis technologies which made headlines as the first company to provide a comprehensive annotation of the human genome. The year before joining DoubleTwist, he wasExecutive in Residence for Mayfield Fund, where he provided strategic planning, management and technology advice to high technology companies.
• Couch began his professional career in 1972 as a software engineer at Hewlett-Packard, and held various software management positions at Hewlett-Packard.
• In 1978 he joined Apple as Director of New Products reporting to Steve Jobs. He was Apple’s first Vice President of Software and Vice President/General Manager for the Lisa division, Apple’s first GUI Computer.
• In 1985, he turned his focus to education at the Santa Fe Christian School where he initiated a program that turned this debt-laden private school into one of the first examples of how the creative use of technology can revolutionize learning in the classroom. Under his leadership as Chairman of the Board of Santa Fe Christian School, the school’s annual losses were annulled as the student body grew from 150 to 1,000 while the school’s modest facilities were expanded to a new 17- acre site, offering a range of world-class resources, including a fiber optic network of Macintosh computers.
• At Santa Fe Christian he created the Santa Fe Educational Foundation (which partnered with several hi-tech companies such as Resolution Technologies, Tudor Publishing, Josten’s Learning Corporation, Key
Technologies and Moody films to develop education multimedia applications), obtained more than a dozen major grants to support the development of the school’s computer laboratories, teacher training
Political Ad paid for by Miriam Martínez for State Representative • Alejandro Martínez, Treasurer
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