John “Pathfinder” Lester

John “Pathfinder” Lester worked at Linden Lab from 2005 to 2010, where he was commonly known by his Second Life avatar name “Pathfinder Linden”. At Linden Lab he focused on cultivating the education market and helping it grow into the vibrant community it is today. He also founded Linden Lab’s initial East Coast presence in Boston in 2007, which has grown to an office of 40 employees.
 
While at Linden Lab, John acted as a general strategist and product expert to help customers using Second Life for teaching, academic and healthcare research, medical education, simulation, and scientific visualization. His last role at Linden Lab was “Lead Evangelist in Market Development,” broadly exploring and cultivating innovation at the intersection of emerging markets in Second Life such as education, healthcare, enterprise, government, and entertainment.
 
He previously was the Information Systems Director for the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he pioneered the use of the web in 1993 to create online communities supporting patients dealing with neurological disorders. As a Research Associate in Neurology at Harvard Medical School, he also created online collaborative education environments for professors and students to advance the case-based teaching method in medical education.
 
John is currently exploring opportunities to help organizations understand and cultivate innovation at the intersection of virtual worlds, online communities, neuroscience, education, and creative expression.
 
Read Artistic Expression in Second Life: What can we learn from creative pioneers of new mediums? and Former Linden Lab exec Lester looks to future in virtual world crossroads. Visit his LinkedIn page, his Flickr photos, and read his Twitter feed.