Dr. Rick Goldgar, Ph.D. is the IBM Associate Partner for Digital Credentials in the IBM Talent Transformation Service Line. He was responsible for the original architecture of what is now the IBM Digital Credentials product and currently leads efforts for the Learning and Employment Records (LER) marketplace. He is also instrumental in the worldwide credentials market business planning, client relationships, partnerships and supports business and financial modeling. Dr. Goldgar participates in education credential efforts with numerous organizations, including IEEE and the Ed. 3.0 efforts.

Dr. Goldgar has been with IBM ten years, previously working in IBM Watson Research, Watson Education and in the IBM Center of Competency. He has supported numerous key education initiatives at IBM in both k-12 and higher education and has worked directly with clients worldwide.

Dr. Goldgar was formerly the CIO and CTO at the Texas Education Agency, a $27B state agency responsible or over 1200 K12 districts, over 6M students and over 500,000 teachers in public and charter schools. In this role he was responsible for operations, contracts, innovation in the IT department. Dr. Goldgar built and managed award-winning organization of over 200 staff, over 80 applications, with a $45M budget for functions including project management, operations, security and data systems. Mr. Goldgar is considered the Father of Texas Student Data System (TSDS), a state-wide data warehouse and reporting system for all schools.

Dr. Goldgar has a Ph.D. from the University of Texas and is also a graduate of the LBJ School for Public Affairs Executive Leadership in Information Technology Excellence.

Dr. Goldgar has numerous IBM badges in the education industry, blockchain, design thinking and other areas. In 2010, he also received the Center for Digital Government Best of Texas Award for Excellence in Leadership

Dr. Goldgar has taught multiple courses at various higher education colleges and community colleges, led software development at a Fortune 500 aerospace company and worked at several commercial software companies, including both startups and one of the largest software companies in the world.