The Tech Academy

ncluding: coding, data science, cyber security, design and more. The Tech Academy was co-founded by Jack Stanley and Erik Gross. With years of executive and managerial experience, Jack has overseen The Tech Academy since its inception. His background in teaching and curriculum development contributed greatly to the creation of The Tech Academy’s boot camps. As the Co-Founder and chairman of the school’s Board of Directors, he supervises the day-to-day activities and long-term planning for The Tech Academy. He is one of The Tech Academy’s primary curriculum developers, and writes all of the school’s policies. Erik has been working in technology since the 1980s. As a nuclear reactor operator and teacher in the Navy, he mastered a multitude of technologies. His years of experience as a senior-level software developer were key to the development of The Tech Academy’s boot camps. As the other Co-Founder of The Tech Academy, Erik assists in curriculum oversight and public relations. It was in the Navy that Erik discovered his passion for teaching. After his service, Erik continued to advance his technological skills - coding throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Then in 2012, Erik Gross started his own software development company called Prosper I.T. He quickly found that he could use assistance with some of the more basic tasks and so looked for junior-level software developers to assist him in his efforts. He took it upon himself to begin training his own entry-level software developers to assist with basic tasks on various development projects. One day in 2013, Erik’s son came home and said, “Dad, I want to do a developer boot camp.” It was then that Erik decided to formalize the training, and so he founded Prosper I.T. In the beginning, the school had four students and was located in Beaverton, Oregon. Erik quickly found that there was much more to running a school than simply training students. Operating a school included: curriculum, legal, marketing, sales, HR, and a myriad of other activities that Erik had little or no experience in. Even with only four students, it was a struggle to balance training them with all the other duties involved in the day-to-day actions of a company – not to mention the existing software contracts on Erik’s plate at the time. For years prior to the establishment of The Tech Academy, Jack and Erik were friends. They’d had success in projects prior to the school and prided themselves on complementing each others’ skills. Erik decided to get serious about taking the school to the next level, so at the end of 2013 he approached Jack. At the time, Jack was running a company and had no need of new employment. But because of Jack’s years of experience in legal, HR, marketing, sales, personnel, management, quality control, public relations, teaching and curriculum development, Erik was certain that he was the best choice for a partner. Jack’s managerial and executive experience made up for any lack of administrative skill on Erik’s part. Seeing an alignment with the purposes of the school and his own, Jack decided to come aboard. Together, they created the curriculum that makes up all of The Tech Academy’s offerings. Dr. Brent Wilson, professor and Chairman of George Fox University’s Computer Science department, is one of The Tech Academy’s curriculum advisers. In addition to Dr. Wilson, several individuals with degrees in Computer Science have contributed to and reviewed the programs. One of the first things that Jack did was change the name of the school from Prosper I.T. Academy to The Tech Academy because, based on survey, The Tech Academy was a better name. Jack immediately got to work on all the basic establishment actions required of any school or successful company, from licensing to ensuring a scalable curriculum was developed. The rest is history. The Tech Academy now stands as one of the most successful code schools in the world, with hundreds of graduates now working in technical positions across the world. Students can study at the Portland, Oregon campus or online from anywhere in the world. As the winner of several Best Coding Boot Camp awards, The Tech Academy is ready to make you an entry-level developer.