Our Team

Mark became the owner of the Mathnasium Learning Centers in Lakeville and Savage in October 2009. He applied his lifelong love of math by earning an engineering degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in the top 20% of his class. He followed up with six years in the Army Corps of Engineers as a combat engineer, leading numerous construction projects. Mark undertook advanced Engineering training at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, where he passed and registered as a Professional Engineer. Following two years with the Industrial Water Treatment Company NALCO, Mark entered the financial services business opening his own successful Edward Jones office which was his initiation to community involvement and the small business environment. Mark is the 2012 President of the Savage Chamber of Commerce where he puts a lot of energy in the community he works in. Mark received his Certified Investment Management Analyst designation (CIMA) from the Wharton School and has held the positions of Senior Vice President, Piper Capital Management; Regional Vice President, Aetna Financial; and Senior Vice President, Wells Fargo Investments.

Steve Graduated from St. Olaf College with a degree in mathematics. He taught high school math for 11 years in Minnesota and Wisconsin schools. During that time he was introduced to his first desktop plug-in calculator, resulting in him throwing out his slide rule. Steve then worked for 25 years with Sperry, a high tech company that later changed to Lockheed Martin through company mergers, as a software engineer and later as a project manager. There he learned to count in different number bases including octal and hexadecimal. Steve loves working with kids and nurtures that love by substitute teaching, asking his 3 grandchildren mental math questions, and playing in a church youth band. He is excited to be a member of the Mathnasium staff and to apply innovative methods to help students learn math.

Karl Nygren graduated from the University of Colorado in 2009 with a mathematics major and a chemistry minor. While studying math in college Karl raced for the University of Colorado Varsity Ski Team and received the Scholar-Athlete award for the highest GPA in his graduating student-athlete class. Karl Nygren is currently substituting as a para-professional in Lakeville Public Schools and ski racing for CXC while tutoring math at the Mathnasium

Bill earned a BS in mathematics and physics from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. After a year of work as an Industrial Engineer for US Steel, he entered graduate school at the University of Minnesota in Computer Science. Bill completed an MS degree and went to work as a Software Engineer at Sperry Univac. He continued to take courses in mathematics for 2 more years while working, eventually completing 90 credits in math. Bill worked for Sperry, and its successor companies for 43 years as a Software Engineer, Software Manager, and Engineering Manager. He retired in 2006 and felt as if he was wasting his education in retirement. Seeing an ad for an instructor at Mathnasium, and loving children, Bill jumped at this opportunity to help kids.

Alec is a senior at Burnsville High School, where he is involved in science and peer tutoring extracurricular activities. He has a heavy load of college classes including AP Calculus. Alec is currently the top senior in rank in his class. His love for math goes outside the classroom using it in technical areas with integration, advanced functions, web design and scripting. He has tutored his peers in math since elementary school and he now makes himself available for every student by embracing the Mathnasium Method. He is a self taught guitarist and pianist who composes in his spare time.

Megan is a student at the University of Minnesota. Megan was an outstanding math student at Burnsville High School taking AP Calculus in high school. Megan has always had a passion for education, and she loves applying that knowledge to life. Dating back to junior high school, Megan has been involved in several peer tutoring programs and teaching outreach groups. She enjoys a variety of extracurricular activities, including fellowship of Christian Athletes, Youth in Government, and a swing dance group. Megan is also involved in volunteering programs and wrote a monthly column for the Savage “Pacer.” She gets kids excited about math – truly an expert at building confidence in students.

Mac has completed two years of college at the University of Minnesota majoring in Math-Actuarial Science. Mac has excelled in math courses throughout his education taking several A.P. math and stats courses at Apple Valley High School, along with competing on the math team all four years. At the U of M he has completed calc I-IV along with several Actuarial and Computer science courses, and is a member of the Actuary Club. Throughout High School Mac refereed and coached youth basketball and tutored 1st graders in reading. He also participated in multiple extra-curricular activities and received the prestigious AAA Award as a Senior at Apple Valley. With Mac’s previous experiences and love of kids, he is very excited to work with the Mathnasium students.

Terri grew up in the Twin Cities and went on to graduate from the University of North Dakota earning a BS in Mathematics. She has worked in positions for an accounting firm, a benefits consultant and an engineering consulting firm; bringing a broad base of real life experiences to the math tutoring world. She has recently been a private math tutoring for all grade levels and successfully home schooled her own five children in math through high school. Terri loves to light the learning light bulb in kids and share in their inspiration.