CompassLearning, a leading education technology solutions company, announced that it will be relocating its corporate headquarters from San Diego to Austin. The company will move into a 43,000-square-foot space on Colorado Street in downtown Austin next to the Austin Children's Museum. Company officials say the move is intended to centralize leadership activities, streamline business operations, and more effectively service customers.

“Ultimately, this relocation will increase efficiencies in our business operations and maximize value for our shareholders, owners, employees and customers,” said Rajeev Puri, President of CompassLearning.

CompassLearning sells software that tracks the strengths and weaknesses of the 11 million students who use it. The company will employ approximately 60 workers in Austin and will hire University of Texas students to test some of its software. Company officials say the Austin location will provide access to outstanding curriculum and software technology resources.

“Austin has one of the most talented and educated workforces in the country so it makes sense that a company that combines education and technology would choose to relocate to the Austin region,” said Dave Porter, Senior Vice President of Economic Development for the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. “These are two regional strengths that are helping propel Opportunity Austin, the Chamber’s five-year initiative to create 72,000 new jobs in the region by 2008.”

The Greater Austin Chamber and the City of Austin first made contact with officials from CompassLearning during a Chamber visit to New York City in December 2004. Opportunity Austin volunteer Pike Powers; Gary Farmer, Chair of the Greater Austin Economic Development Corporation; Chamber President Mike Rollins and Jubal Smith with the City of Austin met with the parent company of CompassLearning, WRC Media, Inc., which is a publishing and media company that creates supplementary educational materials to schools and libraries. Two months later, the Chamber hosted a delegation of senior executives from WRC and presented them with information on why CompassLearning should relocate to Austin. From February 2005 through July 2006 there were a number of follow up calls and emails to insure Austin was and remained the frontrunner for this project.