Dr. Horning serves as Group President and Chief Innovation Officer for PLS 3rd Learning. He leads the SaaS Products Division and its flagship product, SuperEval, and guides the company’s broader work in K-12 educational leadership. The purpose is constant: to improve the futures of every child by empowering and developing the leaders who serve them. Every product, every partnership, and every conversation is built on that foundation.

Dr. Horning holds full P&L accountability for the SaaS Products Division and sets the strategic direction for SuperEval and an expanding portfolio of products. He guides the design of new products and leads the go-to-market strategy that brings them to district leaders. He also leads the company’s AI integration strategy with a clear standard: AI must return time to education leaders, freeing them to invest more of themselves in the relationships and decisions that shape their districts.

Inside the SaaS Division, Dr. Horning leads seven functional teams across the full lifecycle of district partnership, product development, and innovation. Together, they translate the realities of education leadership into products and services that go beyond compliance to support leadership goals and priorities. Drawing on authentic leadership theory, he works through a go-to leader structure built to promote communication, transparency, and the steady professional growth of every team member.

Beyond the organization, Dr. Horning shapes the external voice through communications, marketing, and thought leadership that carry the work into the broader education community. At state, national, and international conferences, he serves as a keynote speaker on K-12 leadership evaluation, AI in education, and goal alignment and attainment. He also partners directly with superintendents, school board members, and education leaders across the country, cultivating each connection as a genuine partnership, never as a transaction. In every facet of the role, the work is governed by three currencies: relationships, credibility, and trust.

Dr. Horning began his career as a middle school social studies teacher, then as a museum educator with the Buffalo History Museum, and later as associate director of the Center for Applied Technologies in Education in the Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo. With the support of the University at Buffalo, he co-founded 3rd Learning in 2007, building one of the most successful SUNY spin-off companies in the education sector. He holds a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from Wilkes University, an MS in Education and a BS in Education from the University at Buffalo. He is a recipient of the Friend of the Council Award from the New York State Council of School Superintendents (2018) and the Dr. Robert W. Heller Award from the Western New York Educational Service Council (2017). Dr. Horning has been with PLS for 19 years and is based in Buffalo, NY.

Outside of work, Dr. Horning is a self-taught pianist who has never taken a lesson and could spend hours at the piano. He and his family enjoy RVing across the country to discover new corners of America. Basketball is a year-round presence in his life—he coaches youth basketball for five months of the year and plays in a men’s 35-and-older league the rest of the year. He is also a passionate outdoors enthusiast, drawn to hiking and music festivals, and a devoted Buffalo sports fan who has held Bills season tickets for 21 years. Despite an active outdoor and athletic life, he has not yet tried golf, skiing, skydiving, or spelunking. The “yet” is deliberate.

A personal motto he returns to often: “The sun shines every day. It’s just sometimes the clouds get in the way.“