Our Staff

David Coarsey
CEO and Founder of Guided e-Learning

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, David studied 19th century American literature in University and then went on to teach English in Japan.  Whilst there, David passed the top level Japanese language exam, did an internship with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and met the global testing giant Teradyne.  In 1996 David returned to Boston, Massachusetts where he began his career in marketing and IT testing. His skills were developed at Teradyne during his role as the account manager for IBM and Sun Microsystems. He then joined Empirix, a Teradyne software and telecommunications spin-off company, as a product manager.  He quickly became the International Marketing Manager and in 2000 he was sent to London as the European Director of Empirix’s telecoms testing division.

David came up with the idea of Guided e-Learning after moving to London and having few opportunities to work on his Japanese.  He had a great relationship with his Japanese school in Boston, but at the time had no way to maintain that relationship. The simple cornerstone concepts were the delivery of online learning that:

  • has managed authentic content that you can trust
  • is written by experts in online learning
  • is accessible at anytime
  • enhances the school’s curriculum
  • maintains long-term/long-distant relationships with the school
  • creates competitive advantage for schools

Jon Vile
Director of Product Development and Support

Growing up in Israel, Germany and Somerset as the son of an engineer and an English teacher, it comes as no surprise that Jon holds the dual specialism of language teaching and technology.

Jon was introduced to computers at an early age, his first computer was the BBC Micro, and has been developing his programming skills ever since. An early entrant to the Internet, he built his first website in 1995. After reading Linguistics at the Roehampton Institute London, Jon worked with A.R.R.O.W. Ltd, developing computer software for speech and language therapy. Following the completion of this project, he studied for his CELTA, teaching in Greece and Spain before returning to the UK in 2004. His appointment to the role of Academic Manager at a central London school enabled him to gain his DELTA and take the school through their British Council accreditation.

He has managed the software development and implementation of e-learning in schools for Guided e-Learning since the company was formed.

Jon is responsible for Guided e-Learning’s site technology, implementation and support.

Mladen Zivanovic
Customer Support at Guided e-Learning

Mladen has over 5 years of experience in the e-commerce field.


He worked for one of the largest wholesale electronics supplier in Serbia as well as a for a number of small firms, ranging from health food stores, sports goods sellers to children’s toys and equipment suppliers.


During those years he learned about the inner workings and installation of eStores, designing for ads and banners, book and DVD/Blu-ray covers, as well as providing crucial administrative support for clients and collaborating closely with an in-house programming team for the quick realisation of tasks.
He has experience in web administration, creative writing, including blogging, as well as of audio/video production.

Jelena Ocokoljic 
Lead Designer at Guided e-Learning

Jelena is an artist, and her carrier is an excellent example of how the new digital age is changing, or better put, evolving existing professions, driven by the needs of the new modern era we live in.

After finishing the Faculty of art and design in Belgrade, Jelena started her career designing furniture and by creating beautiful and useful living areas. She worked as a furniture and interior designer for 5 years.

At one point, five years ago, she started working with graphics and web design.

Since moving to GEL, Jelena quickly climbed to a position of lead designer, responsible for the overall visual appearance, UI design and more. Every little design you’ll see from us had certainly passed through Jelena’s hands.

“Less is more” is Jelena’s motto.  She believes in elegant minimalism and her passion is figuring out how to make things better, more intuitive and fun for our users.

To put it in one sentence: Making GEL apps fun and easy to use is Jelena’s number 1 priority.