Relationships matter
Meet Tom
Thomas Gillin is a strategic and mission-driven education executive with more than 20 years of experience leading large-scale assessment and accountability initiatives across state education agencies and national organizations. As Managing Partner of Acquire K12, a certified Veteran-Owned Small Business Enterprise (VSBE) based in Maryland, Tom oversees all aspects of organizational strategy, partnerships, and project implementation.
Tom’s leadership draws from a distinguished career that spans the state, district, and national levels. At FocalPoint Inc., he served as Vice President of Business Development, leading national growth in digital learning and assessment solutions. Previously, as Vice President of State Business Development at Cognia, he managed multi-state partnerships with state education agencies across Maryland, Pennsylvania, and beyond driving more than $79 million in statewide assessment contracts and leading numerous high-stakes RFP initiatives.
Meet Joseph
Joseph St. George came to education through science. With a PhD in Biology, he spent years asking hard questions and building rigorous systems — habits that turned out to be exactly what large-scale assessment programs needed. He found his footing at the intersection of strategy, operations, and mission-driven work, and has never strayed far from it.
Over 15 years, Joseph has worked across the full ecosystem of K–12 assessment and education services. He led program transformation at ACT, managed enterprise portfolios at ETS, and oversaw Smarter Balanced implementations at Measured Progress for states from coast to coast. Along the way he built a reputation for helping organizations cut through complexity and move with clarity.
Today Joseph advises education vendors and agencies through TideTurn Strategy LLC, with a focus on strategic planning, program management, and market entry. He brings to Acquire K12 a practitioner's instinct and a consultant's range — and a genuine belief that the right strategy, well executed, changes outcomes for students.
Meet Jake
Jake Goldsmith graduated from business school in 1997 and promptly joined the Peace Corps. His passion for true sustainable development combined with a business acumen led him to the education industry. There he found meaningful work in large scale assessment, school improvement, accreditation, and EdTech. He has worked with most state departments of education across the US dozens of education service providers, and hundreds of schools.
Jake began his career in the education industry working with Alternate Assessment. Along the way, he transitioned to managing general education large scale programs for states including Maryland, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and many others. He understands the demanding nature and expectations for perfection that come with a program of this caliber.
