Aaron Skonnard

Aaron Skonnard
EducationBrigham Young University (B.S.)
OccupationsAdvisor, Author
Known forCEO of Pluralsight
Children5

Aaron Skonnard is an American businessman and author. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Pluralsight, an online technology skills and training platform he launched in 2004 with Keith Brown, Fritz Onion, and Bill Williams. Under his leadership Pluralsight grew from a technical training company to a global digital learning company. It went public in 2018 and was later acquired by Vista Equity Partners. Skonnard retired as CEO in 2024 and continues to serve on the Pluralsight One advisory Board.

Early life

Skonnard began learning to code as a child, when his father brought home an Apple II computer.[1][2] He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1996 with a degree in Computer Science.[3] After college, prior to founding Pluralsight, he worked at 3M, Intel, and Axiom Technologies.

Career

Pluralsight

Main article: Pluralsight

Skonnard co-founded Pluralsight in 2004 with Keith Brown, Fritz Onion, and Bill Williams.[4] The company is based in America with additional offices in Ireland, Australia, and India.[5]

Initially, Pluralsight focused on classroom training courses for businesses.[4] Skonnard and his partners traveled globally to hold weeklong, in-person classes.[6] In 2007, its business model shifted to focus exclusively on online video training.[7] As the company grew, they expanded into enterprise subscriptions.[8]

Beginning in 2012, the company raised over $190 million in venture funding,[9] completing a Series A in 2012–2013, and a Series B in 2014. Following the Series B, Skonnard announced the company's valuation neared $1 billion, up from less than $100 million in 2012.[10]From 2013-2017, Pluralsight was listed on the Inc. 5000 ranking of private companies.[11]

In 2017, the company held its first Pluralsight Live customer conference.[12] The conference has featured celebrities such as Michelle Obama, Malala Yousafzai, Ellen Degeneres, Tony Hawk, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Angela Duckworth, and Trevor Noah over the years.[13][14][15]

A year later, Pluralsight expanded into Europe, opening a Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.[16][17] At the time, the company had grown from its initial online offering of 10 courses to offering around 7,000.[1] That same year, Pluralsight became a publicly traded company listing on the NASDAQ. Shares opened at $15, and closed the first day of trading at $20, giving the company a market cap of over $2.5 billion.[18] By 2019, Pluralsight reported that roughly 70% of Fortune 500 companies used its products.[19][20]

In April 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Skonnard announced that Pluralsight would make its full library of online technology courses available to learners for the entire month to encourage skill development during lockdowns. The company reported that over 100,000 people signed up in the first 24 hours after the announcement.[21]

In 2021 Vista Equity Partners purchased Pluralsight for $3.8 billion and merged it with A Cloud Guru.[22][23]Three years later, Vista handed over control to a group of private lenders.[22]

Skonnard stepped down as CEO of Pluralsight in April 2024, after leading the company for approximately 20 years.[24] He continues to serve as a special advisor on the Pluralsight One Advisory Board.[24][6]

In February 2025, Pluralsight agreed to a $20 million settlement in a securities class action lawsuit related to alleged misstatements about sales force and growth.[25] The settlement agreement stated that no claims were found to be true or false, neither did any party admit wrongdoing or damages.[25] The suit was initially filed in 2019, dismissed, and then revived on appeal.[25]

Pluralsight One

In 2017, Pluralsight launched Pluralsight One, a social initiative.[26][27] Through it, the company donates 1% of its equity, product, time, and profit to nonprofit partners aligned with Pluralsight’s tech education mission.[26][27][28] Skonnard and Fritz Onion also committed to donating from their personal shares, for an amount equal to 1% of the company’s outstanding shares.[26]

Some of the nonprofit partners that have received Pluralsight One grants include AnnieCannons, CodePath, Girls Who Code, Auticon Training Institute, Empowr Co., I.C., Stars, Junior Achievement Utah, LaunchCode, LGBT Tech, NPower, Tech-Moms, Unlocked Labs, and Year Up.[29]

Pluralsight has partnerships with various organizations, including Code.org, The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), The Malala Fund, and Year Up.[30][31][32][33]

Recognition

Skonnard has received several awards for entrepreneurship and leadership. In 2013, he received an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.[34] In 2016, he was recognized as one of Utah Business's CEO of the Year honorees.[35] MountainWest Capital Network also named Skonnard their Entrepreneur of the Year for 2016.[36] Skonnard was also awarded Utah CEO of the Year at the inaugural Utah Startup Awards in 2016.[37]

Silicon Slopes

In November 2015, Skonnard helped launch the Start Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization hoping to improve Utah's tech industry. At launch, Skonnard was named the foundation's chairman.[38]

In December 2016, the organizations Silicon Slopes and Beehive Startups formed a new nonprofit together.[39] Skonnard explained on Twitter that this would replace the Start Foundation.[40] Skonnard served on the organization's board,[41] whose mission statement seeks to increase diversity and provide resources for startups and entrepreneurs in Utah.[42][43]

Investments

Skonnard has invested in various tech startups in the Utah area, including Bevy,[44] Divvy,[45] Numetric,[46] and Grow.[47]

Publications

Books

Skonnard is the author or co-author of three books: Essential WinInet[48], Essential XML: Beyond Markup[49], and Essential XML Quick Reference[50].

Personal life

He lives in Utah with his wife, Monica, and their five children.[51]

References

  1. ^ a b Raymond, Art. "Utah's Pluralsight soaring with online tech ed offerings".
  2. ^ "Utah tech unicorn hosts inaugural conference, welcomes Michelle Obama | KSL.com". Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  3. ^ "Aaron Skonnard Bio" (PDF). Pluralsight.
  4. ^ a b Harris, Ainsley (2015-01-27). "Pluralsight Continues Its Acquisition Spree, Dropping $36 Million On Code School". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 2025-12-31. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  5. ^ Innovates, Dallas; Seeley, David (2025-07-22). "Four Years After $3.5B Buyout, Pluralsight Is Moving Its HQ to North Texas and Expanding Tech Training Access With $2M in Grants". Dallas Innovates. Retrieved 2026-01-21.
  6. ^ a b Malan, Mekenna. "5 Business Lessons From Pluralsight Co-Founder Aaron Skonnard".
  7. ^ Buhr, Sarah (20 April 2017). "A chat with Pluralsight founder Aaron Skonnard on the global move to sharpen tech skills through online training | TechCrunch". Retrieved 2017-09-01.
  8. ^ Lopez, Maribel. "Online Education: A New Weapon In Your Digital Transformation Arsenal". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
  9. ^ Rosen, Ellen (2017-10-11). "As 'Unicorns' Emerge, Utah Makes a Case for Tech Entrepreneurs". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
  10. ^ Kim, Eugene. "This Startup Is Now Worth Almost a Billion Dollars by Just Focusing on Online Developer Training". Business Insider.
  11. ^ "Spread the Word: Pluralsight Is No. 1155 on the Inc. 5000 This Year!". Inc.com. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
  12. ^ Gee, Sue. "Pluralsight One - Training With A Mission".
  13. ^ Stauffer, McKenzie. "Ellen DeGeneres to speak at Utah tech conference".
  14. ^ Raymond, Art. "Ellen DeGeneres, Trevor Noah have a message for Utah's tech industry: Be inclusive".
  15. ^ Tanner, Courtney. "In Utah speech, young Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai urges those who want change to 'do something'".
  16. ^ "Utah and Ireland have longstanding bond beyond St. Patrick's Day".
  17. ^ "Pluralsight Creating 150 Jobs In Dublin".
  18. ^ Konrad, Alex. "Utah Ed Tech Leader Pluralsight Pops 33% In First-Day Trading, Keeping Window Open For Software IPOs". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
  19. ^ DeFrancesco, Robert. "Pluralsight Deploys Machine Learning To Tackle The $24 Billion Tech Training Industry".
  20. ^ Bonasio, Alice. "How doing good can help CIOs do better".
  21. ^ Chan, Rosalie. "The CEO of Pluralsight explains why the online tech skills education company is 'basically turning off revenue' from a key part of its business for 1 month".
  22. ^ a b Hillier, Sam. "Vista Equity Partners Transfers Pluralsight Ownership to Private Lenders: BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Blue Owl Capital Among New Owners".
  23. ^ "Pluralsight shares rise 7% after Vista Equity sweetens buyout offer".
  24. ^ a b Sollitt, Shannon. "A leading Silicon Slopes company's co-founder and CEO is stepping down".
  25. ^ a b c Leonard, Collin. "Pluralsight settles class action suit for $20M after dismissal and appeal".
  26. ^ a b c "Founders committed personal equity equal to 1% of company; Ownership transferred post exit".
  27. ^ a b Gee, Sue. "Pluralsight One - Training With A Mission".
  28. ^ Seeley, David. "Four Years After $3.5B Buyout, Pluralsight Is Moving Its HQ to North Texas and Expanding Tech Training Access With $2M in Grants".
  29. ^ Tullis, Mark. "Pluralsight One Announces $2 Million in New Grants to Strategic Nonprofit Partners".
  30. ^ Raymond, Art. "World's youngest Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai tells Utahns how to 'eradicate terror'".
  31. ^ "Year Up & Pluralsight Partnership Case Study".
  32. ^ Healey, Berenice. "Norwegian Refugee Council: The importance of internet and tech training for displaced people".
  33. ^ Healey, Berenice. "Taleemabad: The app spreading education across Pakistan".
  34. ^ "Ernst & Young announces Entrepreneur Of The Year 2013 Award recipients in the Utah Region" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-09-23. Retrieved 2017-09-23.
  35. ^ "Aaron Skonnard: CEO of the Year - Utah Business". utahbusiness.com. Archived from the original on 2017-09-23. Retrieved 2017-09-23.
  36. ^ "Pluralsight CEO named 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year by MountainWest Capital Network". Silicon Slopes. 2016-01-20. Retrieved 2017-09-23.
  37. ^ "The Official List of Winners at the Utah Startup Awards". Beehive Startups. 2016-07-05. Retrieved 2017-09-23.
  38. ^ "Utah Tech Leaders Launch Start Foundation, Pluralsight CEO Aaron Skonnard Named Chairman". Beehive Startups. 2016-07-12. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  39. ^ "Silicon Slopes and Beehive Startups Join Forces to Better Serve Utah's Startup and Tech Community". Silicon Slopes. 2016-12-06. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  40. ^ Skonnard, Aaron (7 Dec 2016). "This is huge for Utah. @siliconslopes + @BeehiveStartups join forces to replace @StartOrg. Utah is unified!". @skonnard. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  41. ^ Scribner, Herb (2016-12-07). "Silicon Slopes and Beehive Startups want to make sure you know about Utah's buzzing tech culture". DeseretNews.com. Archived from the original on December 8, 2016. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  42. ^ Konrad, Alex. "How Utah's 'Silicon Slopes' Became Cloud Computing's New Capital". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  43. ^ "About Silicon Slopes – Silicon Slopes". Silicon Slopes. 2016-08-02. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  44. ^ "Startup Grind founders raise $6.4M for community event platform Bevy". TechCrunch. 19 June 2018. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  45. ^ "Utah's Divvy raises $200M to eliminate expense reports". TechCrunch. 30 April 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  46. ^ FinSMEs (2017-10-04). "Numetric Raises Nearly $13M in Funding". FinSMEs. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  47. ^ "Grow Inc. Raises $1.5M to Launch Simple Business Intelligence Dashboards for Entrepreneurs". GlobeNewswire News Room (Press release). 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  48. ^ Skonnard, Aaron (1999). Essential WinInet: Developing Applications Using the Windows Internet API with RAS, ISAPI, ASP, and COM. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 9780201379365.
  49. ^ Box, Don; Skonnard, Aaron; Lam, John F. (2000). Essential XML: Beyond Markup. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 9780201709148.
  50. ^ Skonnard, Aaron; Gudgin, Martin (2002). Essential XML Quick Reference. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 9780201740950.
  51. ^ O'Brien, Sara. "15 Questions with Aaron Skonnard". CNN Tech.
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