David Parento

David Parento is the General Manager of the Scaled Impact Laboratory at the Burning Glass Institute, serving as the inaugural executiveto lead enterprise scaling initiatives, market expansion, and structural alignment for workforce intelligence solutions—with a particular strategicfocus on how artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming the future of work, jobs, and enterprise skills.

A recognized 0-to-1 operator and innovator in the EdTech andJobTech sectors, David has a proven track record of architecting market-defining enterprises from inception to scale. He co-founded StraighterLine alongside Burck Smith, scaling the category-defining EdTechenterprise from inception to a successful exit valued at over $100 million.

During his tenure at StraighterLine, he also architected and delivered a multi-year strategic partnership with Western GovernorsUniversity—playing a major role in the creation of WGU Academy by designing and refining the underlying pathway before operating it on a multi-year and turnkeybasis for its formal branded launch, contributing a valuable pipeline elementto WGU's growth toward 200k+ annual students.

His extensive leadership background includes having served as a board member for CompTIA, where he initiated and architected avendor-neutral AI workforce certification suite that will be launching in themarket shortly. He also brings deep business-building and advisory expertise, currently advising technology investments at True Wind and guiding investment theses for the H.I.G. Advantage Fund, alongside historical experience as an M&A and private equity attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell and aninvestment professional at Chrysalis Ventures.

David holds a Master’s Degree in Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor’s Degree in History from Yale University.

‍