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James M. Everidge President and CEO / Founder Stephen C. Owens Vice President - Consulting / Founder

James M. Everidge
President and CEO / Founder

Mr. Everidge brings two decades of experience in the learning business to rapidLD. Most recently, he founded Rapid Learning Deployment, LLC (rapidLD), a company focused on implementation consulting for Learning Management Systems. Mr. Everidge established a $2.4 million annual run rate after only six months of operation.

Prior to founding Rapid Learning Deployment, Mr. Everidge was President of O/E Atlanta, Inc., a training integration company. O/E Atlanta was part of the O/E family of companies with over $300M in annual revenues. Over a five year period, Mr. Everidge developed a broad scale training services company including business partnerships with thirty-plus multimedia training companies for product sales and distribution, advisory relationships with eLearning and learning infrastructure companies, and long-standing relationships with Fortune 250 companies like The Coca-Cola Company and Rockwell International.

Mr. Everidge also served as Director of Sales and Marketing at Comsell Training, Inc. and General Manager for Comskill Learning Centers, Inc. At Comsell Training, Mr. Everidge built a national sales organization selling published multimedia training products. At Comskill Learning Centers, Mr. Everidge was responsible for developing franchisee sales organizations in a commercial multimedia training center operation.

Mr. Everidge received his Master of Business Administration/Management degree from the University of South Alabama and his Bachelor of Science/Chemistry & Biology degree from Auburn University.  He is married to Debbie and has a daughter, Katelyn, and a son, James.  He lives in Marietta, GA.

Stephen C. Owens
Vice President - Consulting / Founder

Mr. Owens brings nine years of experience deploying eLearning solutions to large client organizations and fourteen years of experience in Information Systems professional services, project management, and business development to rapidLD. His extensive experiences in software life cycle leadership include requirements analysis, business process consulting, technical installation, data conversion, application consulting, user support, change management, marketing and training.  This experience provides our clients with an enterprise software deployment perspective for their eLearning initiatives.

Mr. Owens is responsible for the strategic direction of the firm's service offerings and the day-to-day operations of our consulting teams.

Prior to founding rapidLD, Mr. Owens was the Director of Professional Services for O/E Atlanta, Inc. specializing in the deployment of Learning Management Systems. Prior to O/E Atlanta, he was a Management Engineer for Emory Healthcare deploying enterprise software applications in a clinical setting.

Mr. Owens received his Bachelor of Industrial and Systems Engineering degree from The Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Sales Specialist and a Cisco Certified Sales Expert.  He lives in Roswell, GA with his wife, Alecia, and two children, Calvin and Gigi.