John Baker

Who is John Baker?

John Baker founded the eLearning or Learning Management Systems company Desire2Learn in 1999 after identifying his own unfulfilled need for learning online while studying Systems design engineering at the University of Waterloo.

Baker and Desire2Learn are perhaps best known for the legal battle they were engaged in after their major competitor Blackboard Inc. obtained a contentious software patent and immediately filed suit against Desire2Learn. Desire2Learn finally won the approximately 3 year battle with a victory in the US Court of Appeals in July 2009.

Baker has won numerous awards including Top 40 Under 40 in Waterloo Region in 2009, has been inducted into the Entrepreneur Hall of Fame in Waterloo Region as Intreprid Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009, and received the University of Waterloo Engineering Young Alumni Achievement Medal in 2010.