Ron Lockhart Bio

Ron has had a diverse and successful career, ranging from a successful musician and composer to a senior technologist. His career started as a producer for Columbia Records and Columbia Record Club which later expanded into doing jingles for both radio and television. This became so lucrative that Ron left CBS after six years and started his own company where he wrote and produced hundreds of musical monikers for companies like Burger King, Tic Tac, Sony, General Motors and Stanley Tools.

After 20 years in the advertising and music business, Ron moved to the then-nascent technology business. It came about as he was authoring a book entitled Audio in Advertising (Fredrick Unger Pub. Co.) Ron saw the potential of technology in publishing, and in 1987 became a partner in Electronic Directions, a consulting and training company in desktop publishing. “ED” quickly became the premier vendor for companies looking to transition from traditional typesetting to desktop publishing. Their clients included Random House, Simon and Schuster, Sports Illustrated, Workman Publishing and the United Nations. The company was sold in 1994.

Ron then moved on to one of his major clients, CMP Media, where he took over the Technology Operations department and helped prepare the company for its IPO. After two years he left CMP and went to Kaplan Inc. with the conviction that what happened with music and technology, and with publishing and technology, would happen again with education. Ron has worked for every division of Kaplan, including corporate, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, Kaplan Professional, and most recently, Kaplan Higher Education. His last position before retiring was Vice President Business Systems for Kaplan University, the on-line division of KHE.

Maybe the best way to summarize Ron’s life-long contributions to his customers and employers is to quote one of his most recognizable jingles for Stanley Tools.

“We want to help you do things right!”