Clark Aldrich

Clark Aldrich is an American author and practitioner in the field of educational simulations and serious games for education and professional skills.

In 1999, Clark Aldrich began publishing research that criticized traditional education methods for failing to teach leadership, innovation, and strategic skills effectively. He advocated for interactive learning experiences inspired by computer games genres, arguing that they offer innovative models for content presentation. He believed that new genres of computer games would need to be developed for educational and entertainment purposes. His independent research and simulation designs resulted in numerous articles, speeches, and five books five books.

Childhood and education
Aldrich grew up in Concord, Massachusetts, and graduated from Fenn School and Lawrence Academy. He spent eight summers at the Chewonki Foundation, including four as a counselor under the mentorship of Director Tim Ellis. He received his Bachelor's degree in Cognitive Science from Brown University in 1989.

Career
Aldrich first worked at Xerox as the speechwriter for Executive Vice President Wayland Hicks. Aldrich became the Governor’s appointee to the Joint Committee on Educational Technology and served in this role from 1996 to 2000 while at Xerox. He then moved to Gartner, where he launched their e-learning coverage and began his formal writing and analysis of education. Later, he left Gartner to begin hands-on work in designing and building simulations himself, where he also increased his external writing about the industry through books, columns, and articles.

Aldrich went on to found the company SimuLearn, which produces training simulations that help corporations teach leadership, responsibility, and other skills within a corporate setting. The first product that was released by the company was titled Virtual Leader, and it required the user to conduct a series of business meetings while still juggling the interpersonal relationships of the employees and customers during business hours. His simulations have earned numerous industry awards, including "Best Product of the Year" in 2004 by the American Society of Training And Development/Training Media Review. He is also the lead designer for several educational simulations.

Aldrich's work is part of the conversation about the impact of simulations and serious games on the direction of 21st-century learning.