Rosetta Stone

Company: Rosetta Stone, Ltd., Arlington, VA
Entry Submitted By: GolinHarris
Company Description: Rosetta Stone Ltd. offers a highly personalized, interactive platform that is acclaimed for its speed and power to unlock the natural language learning ability in everyone. Available in more than 30 languages, the Rosetta Stone language learning solution is used by schools, organizations and millions of individuals in over 150 countries.
Nomination Category: Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Executive of the Year - Other

Nomination Title: Tom Adams, CEO

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2008 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Since stepping in as CEO of Fairfield Language Technologies in 2003, Tom Adams
has taken a family business with a single office based in Harrisonburg,
Virginia to a private equity funded global leader. Tom’s motivation comes from
a deep desire to change language learning so that everyone is able to succeed,
and independently learn on their own terms, in a way that is easy, convenient
and perhaps most importantly, fun. He has used his international business
background to create partnerships that have allowed the company to grow on a
global scale. In 2006, the company was sold to investment firms ABS Capital
Partners and Norwest Equity Partners, and was renamed Rosetta Stone after the
company’s signature product.

Tom has grown the company into the world’s leading language-learning solution
provider. He protects and expands the company’s vision by harnessing his own
passion for culture and languages to make Rosetta Stone a global brand.

Through a genuine desire to help people learn languages, Tom inserts himself
into all areas of the company. He has delayed releasing new products until they
met his high standards of pedagogical integrity, consumer usability and brand
quality. This attention to detail brings a heightened awareness across the
company that flawless quality is crucial. Tom’s high standards extend beyond
the core product and valuable brand of Rosetta Stone, and into customer service
and administration. As a result Rosetta Stone has continually rolled out
professional and cutting-edge management practices.

In 2008 Tom proactively reorganized the sales force to accurately represent
Rosetta Stone’s largest market opportunities. He developed a scalable business
model, patented several new software technologies, studied competitors, pursued
strategic partnerships, and moved the headquarters from a sleepy central
Virginia town to Washington, D.C. as part of an aggressive growth plan.

Today, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. and offices around the world
including London, Tokyo and Seoul, Tom’s mission is “to deliver the best
technology-based solutions for learning languages.” 

Tom sees limitless potential for Rosetta Stone. He has impressively expanded
the company since joining in 2003 and, in fact, just this past year the company
grew their revenue 130 percent ? from $91 million to $209 million. The
company’s rapid business growth has resulted in an increase in employees from
approximately 380 to 1,100 from December 2005 to June 2008.

Next on Tom’s agenda is taking the company public. In September 2008, Rosetta
Stone filed to raise up to $115 million in an initial public offering. Tom
wants Rosetta Stone to continue as the industry thought leader, building equity
and awareness at the product differentiation level. He wants to drive
innovation, not to develop technology for technology’s sake, and believes the
groundwork he has laid from 2003-2008 will successfully take the company to the
next level.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

 “Rosetta Stone Named To Inc. 500,” Harrisonburg Daily News –
http://www.dnronline.com/news_details.php?AID=6117&CHID=11

“Rosetta Stone translates success into possible IPO,” Washington Business
Journal –
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2007/03/19/story1.html

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

Tom Adams joined Rosetta Stone in 2003 and has grown the company into one of
the world’s leading language-learning solution providers. A native of Sweden,
he grew up in France and England.  Tom holds a bachelor of arts degree in
history from Bristol University, England, and a master’s in business
administration from INSEAD. Prior to joining Rosetta Stone, Tom was a commodity
merchant, managing partnerships across the world. He speaks Swedish, English
and French fluently, has a working knowledge of Spanish and is currently in the
process of learning Russian and the basics of Chinese.