(November 20, 2013) – Colin Rule, founder and COO of Modria.com Inc., the world’s leading online dispute resolution company, has been awarded the 2013 Mary Parker Follett Award for innovation in the field of dispute resolution. Rule has been a pioneer of online dispute resolution (ODR), integrating technology into dispute resolution resulting in fast and fair outcomes for businesses, government agencies, and individuals. Rule is only the eighth recipient of the award since 2001.

Rule has worked in dispute resolution for more than twenty years as a mediator and is well known internationally as a leader in ODR. He co-founded Modria in 2011 as a platform for businesses and government agencies to diagnose and resolve disputes. Prior to Modria, Rule served eight years as the first director of ODR for eBay and PayPal. In 2002 he authored, “Online Dispute Resolution for Business,” a book about how ODR can be used to resolve conflicts that arise both online and offline in business and commerce.

“Colin’s innovative approach to ADR and strong understanding of emerging dispute resolution technology are cornerstones of our company’s success to date,” said Chittu Nagarajan, founder and managing director of Modria India, Pvt. Ltd. “His vision has allowed Modria to become a leader in ODR solutions.”

Rule currently serves as a Co-chair of the Advisory Board of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and also as a Non-Resident Scholar at the Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at Stanford Law School. He also serves on the board of the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“This award recognizes the enormous contribution Colin has made to dispute resolution through the pioneering of ODR,” said Ethan Katsh, director of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution and professor emeritus of legal studies at the University of Massachusetts. “I have collaborated with Colin since online dispute resolution first emerged, and I am very optimistic about Modria’s continued leadership in advancing the field.”

The Mary Parker Follett Award is presented to an individual who has shown a passion and a willingness to take risks in tackling a contemporary opportunity or problem in dispute resolution with innovative and experimental techniques. The award is presented by the Association of Conflict Resolution, the world’s largest association of mediators, arbitrators, educators and other resolution practitioners. The award is named for Mary Parker Follett, who was an early advocate of resolving conflict by encouraging parties to engage in negotiation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her talks were published posthumously in the influential book “Dynamic Administration.”

“Colin’s work at Modria is the most recent step in a long and distinguished career in ADR. His numerous contributions to the field, especially at the intersection of technology and dispute resolution, made him an obvious contender for this year’s Mary Parker Follett award,” commented Marya Kolman, immediate past president of the Association of Conflict Resolution.

About Modria:

Founded in 2011, Modria’s team of resolutions experts and technologists have built the dispute resolution platform for the Internet, providing businesses and government agencies with a proven, scalable, cloud-based solution that turns disputes of any volume and type into fast and fair resolutions, reducing legal risk, operating costs, while growing customer loyalty. Modria’s experts created the technology used by eBay and PayPal that has resolved hundreds of millions of cases. The company is privately held and based in San Jose, CA. Find more information athttp://www.modria.com or email info@modria.com.