Meet our leadership team
Sal Khan
Sal Khan is the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. He is also the founder of Khan Lab School, a nonprofit laboratory school in Mountain View, California, where Sal teaches seminars in the humanities and sciences.
Sal’s interest in education began while he was an undergraduate at MIT. He developed math software for children with ADHD and tutored fourth- and seventh-grade public school students in Boston. Sal also taught test prep courses for the MCAT and was named teacher of the year by a national test prep company. He holds three degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Sal founded Khan Academy as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Khan Academy offers free lessons in math, history, grammar, physics, biology, and many more subjects. High school students use Official SAT® Practice on Khan Academy to prepare for the SAT for free. Teachers use Khan Academy to make assignments, track student progress, identify gaps in learning, and provide tailored instruction. Today more than 61 million registered users access Khan Academy in dozens of languages in more than 190 countries.
Kristen DiCerbo
Kristen DiCerbo, Ph.D. is the chief learning officer at Khan Academy. In this role, she is responsible for driving and communicating our instructional and pedagogical strategy for Khan Academy’s learning programs, content, and product to improve student and teacher engagement and outcomes. She ensures pedagogical coherence of our overall offering and ensures a research-informed design across product, content, and programs.
Prior to coming to Khan Academy, Kristen was the vice-president of learning research and design at Pearson. Throughout her career she has focused on conducting and embedding learning science research into digital learning experiences, including work with the Cisco Networking Academy. She also served as a school psychologist in an Arizona school district.
Kristen has a B.A. in psychology and sociology from Hamilton College and an M.Ed. and Ph.D. in educational psychology from Arizona State University.
Vicki Zubovic
Vicki Zubovic is the vice president of philanthropy. She is responsible for identifying and managing donor relationships as well as overseeing the structure, processes, and systems required to support a comprehensive development program that secures Khan Academy’s philanthropic revenue, which ultimately fuels the organization’s operations and impact.
Vicki has more than 27 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. Prior to joining Khan Academy, Vicki spent 11 years at KIPP NYC, where she was chief of external affairs and managing director of development. In that role, she led the fundraising, public relations, parent engagement, and advocacy work that supported KIPP NYC public charter schools. Before joining KIPP NYC, she served as the director of development and external affairs at The Boys’ Club of New York for six years. Prior to The Boys’ Club of New York, she raised funds as the director of development and government relations at the Women's Prison Association for seven years. She serves on the boards of Eagle Academy Foundation and New Heights Youth, Inc. and is the co-secretary of her block association in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Vicki is a graduate of the University of Sydney and the William Alanson White Institute.
Marta Kosarchyn
Marta Kosarchyn is the chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at Khan Academy. In this role, her primary goal is to lead a sustainable, world-class engineering organization that delivers the Khan Academy vision at scale and gives back to the global engineering community via open source contributions and leadership development.
Marta has more than 25 years of experience in technology leadership in distributed computing, mobile services, small business, and health tech. Prior to joining Khan Academy, she served as senior vice president of product development and operations at SCI Solutions and held leadership roles at HP and Intuit. Marta taught mathematics at the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Wisconsin prior to shifting her focus to software research and development. She holds a BA from Kent State University, an MS from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in mathematics, and an MS in computer science from the University of Minnesota.
Michael Chanover
Michael Chanover is the vice president of design. Prior to joining Khan Academy, Michael served as the vice president of design and user experience at NerdWallet, where he led a team of designers, researchers, and writers across product design, research, and brand toward solutions that enabled consumers to make financial decisions with confidence.
Michael also previously served as vice president of design at Shopkick, a mobile loyalty platform; chief creative officer for Fingerprint, a gaming platform; and vice president of product for the Alsop-Louie portfolio company, Kidlandia. Michael was the global creative director of web and brand at the educational toy company, LeapFrog Enterprises, where he led brand and user experience design. Michael spent four years in the San Francisco and New York offices of Frogdesign as executive producer and general manager.
Michael was the recipient of the UNESCO Design for Rehabilitation Award and has lectured, written, and taught on the subject of design. He holds a BFA in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design and is an adjunct professor in the interaction design department at the California College of the Arts.
Caroline Hu Flexer
Caroline Hu Flexer is the vice president of Khan Academy Kids. She leads the team developing Khan Academy Kids, an educational program that is designed to inspire a lifetime of learning and discovery for children ages two to six. The app includes interactive and original content across early literacy, language, math, and social-emotional skills.
Prior to Khan Academy, Caroline was the CEO and cofounder of Duck Duck Moose, which joined Khan Academy in 2016. Duck Duck Moose is the creator of 21 award-winning educational apps for children that have been downloaded over 60 million times. Before Duck Duck Moose, Caroline worked in product management and as a design consultant at IDEO.
Caroline has an AB in architecture from Princeton, attended the masters in architecture program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and has an MBA from Stanford.
Catherine Wang
Catherine Wang is the chief marketing officer at Khan Academy. She leads the team responsible for driving awareness and usage of Khan Academy by learners, parents, teachers, and districts through campaigns, programs, and partnerships.
Prior to joining Khan Academy, Catherine was vice president of sales and marketing at Quicken, leading all aspects of retail sales, product marketing, digital marketing, analytics, and supply chain. Catherine also previously held marketing leadership roles at Intuit, worked in the strategy group at Charles Schwab, and served as a management consultant at McKinsey.
Catherine has a BS in chemical engineering, an MS in industrial engineering and engineering management, and an MBA from Stanford.
Julia Cowles
Julia Cowles is vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Khan Academy. She is responsible for overseeing legal, compliance and governance matters, particularly those relating to child and student data privacy, and for implementing the structure and processes to support a comprehensive compliance program meeting the needs of school districts as well as individual learners. She advises and supports our Board, senior leadership team and teammates across all functions, including information security, school and strategic partnerships, philanthropy, and people operations.
Prior to joining Khan Academy, Julia was the chief legal officer at LOYAL3, a financial technology company, managing their legal, regulatory and governance affairs. Previously, she was a corporate partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where her practice focused on corporate finance, complex and strategic business transactions and corporate governance matters.
Julia received her undergraduate degree at Hamilton College, and her law degree at Fordham University. She served as a law clerk to Hon. Richard J. Cardamone, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She is admitted to the bar in California and New York, and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US).
She serves on the board of trustees of Hamilton College, and on the board of directors of World Savvy, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting education in global competency.
Ann Doerr
Board Chair, Khan Academy
Ann Doerr serves as a Trustee of Rice University and is the Chair of Khan Academy. She is also an Advisory Trustee for Environmental Defense Fund. Ann started her career as an engineer. She held various engineering and management positions at Intel, Silicon Compilers, and Tandem Computers. Ann holds both a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Rice University.
Larry Cohen
CEO, Gates Ventures
Larry serves as the CEO of Gates Ventures, a private office established by Bill Gates in September 2008. Prior to Gates Ventures, Larry served as Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Marketing. Larry joined Microsoft in 1995 to work on its early online efforts. Prior to Microsoft he held product management positions at Apple/Claris and before that at Collabra Software which was acquired by Netscape.
Sean O'Sullivan
Founder and Managing Partner of SOSV: The Accelerator VC
Sean O’Sullivan is the Founder and Managing Partner of SOSV: The Accelerator VC. He is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and got his start as the founder of MapInfo, bringing street mapping technology to personal computers. MapInfo would go on to become a $200 million public company. His first internet company, NetCentric, pioneered many concepts in internet computing, and he has been recognized as the co-creator of the term “cloud computing.” Sean has continued as a visionary entrepreneur and investor, fostering a wide range of businesses and humanitarian endeavors.
Ted Mitchell
Former Under Secretary of the US Department of Education
Ted Mitchell most recently served as the Under Secretary in the US Department of Education following his nomination by President Obama and his confirmation by the US Senate in 2014. In that role, Ted oversaw higher education and adult education policy as well as federal student aid. During Ted’s time as Under Secretary, the Department promoted extensive experimentation and innovation to provide access to affordable, high quality certificates and degrees to all learners, especially those typically underserved by the current system. Under Ted’s leadership, the Department also launched the College Scorecard, a consumer-facing tool to help students and families make good college choices. Ted also led the Department’s efforts to stop unscrupulous institutions from fleecing students and taxpayers. Prior to joining the Department, Ted served as CEO of the NewSchools Venture Fund, a venture philanthropy that invested more than $200 million over ten years in start ups committed to providing high quality K-12 education to all students. Ted’s long career in education includes the presidency of the California State Board of Education, the presidency of Occidental College, and administrative leadership and faculty positions at UCLA, Stanford, and Dartmouth.
James Manyika
Senior Partner at McKinsey and Chair of the McKinsey Global Institute
James Manyika is a Senior Partner at McKinsey and Chair of the McKinsey Global Institute. He also serves on McKinsey’s Board of Directors. For over 20 years he has worked with many of the world’s leading technology companies, founders and chief executives. He also researches and writes about technology’s impact on the economy and society. James regularly collaborates with private sector leaders, leading economists and policy makers around the world on initiatives and commissions related to inclusive growth, opportunities from technology and its societal impact.
James was appointed by President Obama as Vice Chair of the Global Development Council at the White House. He is on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Markle Foundation, and advisory boards of the Oxford Internet Institute, MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy and Harvard’s Hutchins center and WEB DuBois Institute. James is a member of the standing committee for the Stanford-based 100 Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, a fellow at DeepMind on AI, Ethics and Society, a non-resident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
James was in the Robotics Research Group at Oxford, a fellow of Balliol College, a visiting scientist at NASA JPL, a faculty exchange fellow at MIT. A Rhodes Scholar, James received his DPhil. MSc. MA. from Oxford in Robotics, Mathematics and Computer Science, BSc in electrical engineering from University of Zimbabwe.
Curtis Feeny
Curtis Feeny has invested in enterprise software for 18 years with a focus on data analytics. His boards have included Ayla Networks, Kaggle, Wise.io, Autogrid, Sensys, and numerous other successful startups. Curtis has served on 31 boards, both public and private. He also invested with Stanford professors in Plangrid, Accuray (IPO), and other highly successful startups out of Stanford University. Since 2000, he has been on the board of Trammell Crow Company (TCC: NYSE), which was purchased by CB Richard Ellis (CBG: NYSE) in 2006. In 2001, Curtis was appointed by President George W. Bush to be a Trustee of the Presidio Trust. Curtis has also served on the board of Staples (SPLS: NYSE). Previously, Curtis was the first Executive Vice President of the newly formed Stanford Management Company, helping oversee the University’s endowment from 1992 to 2000, when assets under management grew from $1.5 billion to $9 billion. Curtis has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BS in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University.
Scott Cook
Scott Cook co-founded Intuit Inc. in 1983 and now serves as the chairman of the Executive Committee. Before founding Intuit, Cook managed consulting assignments in banking and technology for Bain & Company, a corporate strategy consulting firm. He previously worked for Procter & Gamble, the household products giant, in various marketing positions, including brand manager; he currently serves on the Procter & Gamble Board. In addition, Cook is a member of the board of directors of the Harvard Business School Dean's Advisory Board, the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin, the Intuit Scholarship Foundation, and the Valhalla Charitable Foundation. He is a former board member of eBay and PayPal.
John Doerr
John Doerr joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1980 and has since backed some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, including Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt of Google; Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, and Scott Cook and Bill Campbell of Intuit. John’s passion is helping entrepreneurs create the “Next Big Thing” in mobile and social networks, greentech innovation, education and economic development. Ventures sponsored by John have created more than 300,000 new jobs. John serves on the boards of Amyris, Google, and Zynga, as well as several private technology ventures. He also led KPCB’s investment in Twitter.
Outside of KPCB, John supports entrepreneurs focused on the environment, public education and alleviating global poverty. These include NewSchools.org, TechNet.org, the Climate Reality Project and ONE.org. John earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Rice University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He also holds several patents for computer memory devices. John is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of U.S. President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
Bill Gates
Bill Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 1975, Bill Gates founded Microsoft with Paul Allen, and led the company to become the worldwide leader in business and personal software and services.
In 2008, Bill transitioned to focus full-time on his foundation’s work to expand opportunity to the world’s most disadvantaged people. Along with co-chair Melinda Gates, he leads the foundation’s development of strategies and sets the overall direction of the organization. In 2010, Bill, Melinda, and Warren Buffett founded the Giving Pledge, an effort to encourage the wealthiest families and individuals to publicly commit more than half of their wealth to philanthropic causes and charitable organizations during their lifetime or in their will.
Jorge Paulo Lemann
Jorge Paulo Lemann is Chairman of the Lemann Foundation, and Co-Founder and director of 3G Capital, a global investment firm focused on long-term value, with a particular emphasis on maximizing the potential of brands and businesses. He is the controlling shareholder and member of the board of Anheuser-Busch InBev, and is a board member of The Kraft Heinz Company. He was formerly founding shareholder and principal executive of Banco de Investimentos Garantia in Brazil until it was sold to Credit Suisse First Boston, and has served on the board of directors of The Gillette Company and Swiss Reinsurance. He has also served on the advisory boards of DaimlerChrysler and Credit Suisse Group, and chaired the Latin American Advisory Board of the New York Stock Exchange.
Jorge received his BA from Harvard University, and formerly served on the advisory board of Harvard Business School.
Susan McCaw
Susan McCaw is president of SRM Capital Investments, a private investment firm. From 2005–2007, Mrs. McCaw served as the US Ambassador to the Republic of Austria. She is a former member of Stanford University’s Board of Trustees and served as Co-Chair of Stanford’s $1 billion Campaign for Undergraduate Education.
Susan serves on several boards including Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (NYSE: LGF.B), Teach For America, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. She is also an Overseer at the Hoover Institution where she is vice chair of the executive committee. In addition, she is a founding board member and board chair of the Malala Fund for Girls’ Education. Susan also serves on the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Global Advisory Board and Harvard Business School’s Board of Dean’s Advisors, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Council of American Ambassadors.
Craig McCaw
Craig McCaw is Chairman and CEO of Eagle River Inc., a private investment firm focused on strategic investments in the communications industry. Mr. McCaw is an experienced telecommunications entrepreneur, who has started and built many successful companies over the past 30 years in the cable, cellular telephone, wireless broadband, and satellite industries. Mr. McCaw served as Chairman and CEO of McCaw Cellular Communications, which he built into the nation's leading provider of cellular services, until the company was sold to AT&T Corporation in 1994. Following the sale of McCaw Cellular, Mr. McCaw restructured Nextel Communications and co-founded Nextel Partners and other communication companies in the US and abroad. In 2003, Mr. McCaw co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Clearwire Corporation, a wireless broadband company. Mr. McCaw is President of the Craig & Susan McCaw Foundation which supports educational, environmental, and international economic development projects. Throughout his career, Mr. McCaw has served on a number of corporate and philanthropic boards including Conservation International, National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, the Academy of Achievement, Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, and Friends of The Nelson Mandela Foundation. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of The Nature Conservancy.
Signe Ostby
Signe Ostby started her career with Procter & Gamble as a brand assistant and introduced in-store sampling methods to the company. After leaving P&G, she worked briefly at Clorox before finding her niche in the high-tech marketplace. Ostby launched her start-up, Software Publishing Corporation, making productivity software for personal computers and bringing the concept of trial-size promotion to software products. Ostby subsequently started a marketing strategy consulting practice, working for many of the leading personal computer hardware and software companies. In addition, she developed a seminar series to teach consumer packaged goods concepts to high-tech companies selling products through retail stores.
Ostby and her husband Scott Cook established the Center for Brand and Product Management at the Wisconsin School of Business and continue to serve on the Center's advisory board. Ostby has also served on the Dean's Advisory Board at the Wisconsin School of Business and is a director of the Environmental Defense Fund, the Intuit Scholarship Foundation and the Valhalla Charitable Foundation. In addition to her philanthropic work, Ostby is focused on sustainable ranching and breeding, training and showing elite horses.
Laura Overdeck
Laura Overdeck is the Founder and President of Bedtime Math Foundation, a nonprofit that helps kids love math so they will excel at it. She is the creator of its zany nightly online math problems, three Bedtime Math books (Macmillan), and Crazy 8s, an unprecedented recreational after-school math club. A Princeton astrophysics alumna and Wharton M.B.A., Laura chairs the Overdeck Family Foundation with the goal of helping all students reach their full academic potential. She is a Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for Liberty Science Center, and also serves on the boards of Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, Governor’s School of New Jersey, the President’s Advisory Council at Princeton University, and Science Friday.
John Overdeck
John Overdeck is the co-founder and co-chairman of Two Sigma Investments, LP, a New York City-based investment management fund that develops systematic trading systems for its clients. Previously, he was a Managing Director at D.E. Shaw & Co. and a Vice President at Amazon.com. John received his Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics with distinction and a Master’s in Statistics from Stanford University. John is President of Overdeck Family Foundation, Vice Chair of the National Museum of Mathematics, as well as a director of the Robin Hood Foundation and the Institute for Advanced Study.
Carlos Rodriguez Pastor
Carlos Rodriguez Pastor has been the Chief Executive Officer of Intercorp Financial Services Inc. since 2010. He also serves as a Managing Partner and Chairman of the Board at Nexus Group, as Chairman of Banco Internacional del Perú S.A.A.- Interbank, and as Director of InRetail Perú Corp. He also serves as a Director of Financiera Uno S.A. and Intercorp Peru Ltd., as a Director of Interseguro Compania de Seguros S.A, IFH, Interseguro, Interbank, Supermercados Peruanos and Intertitulos. He is a Member of the Investment Committee at NG Capital Partners I, L.P. and RP Management, LLC.
Carlos received a Bachelor degree in Social Sciences from the University of California at Berkeley and a Masters in Business Administration from Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, Dartmouth College.
Laurene Powell Jobs
Laurene Powell Jobs is founder and president of Emerson Collective, an organization that supports social entrepreneurs who are committed to the ideal that everyone ought to have the chance to live to their full potential.
She also serves as president of the board of directors of College Track, a program she founded in 1997 to prepare disadvantaged high school students for success in college. In addition to her work with Emerson Collective and College Track, Laurene serves on the boards of directors of NewSchools Venture Fund, Teach for All, OZY Media, Conservation International and Stanford University. She also is a member of the Chairman’s advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations. She holds a BA and a BSE from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Eric Schmidt
Eric Schmidt is the executive chairman of Alphabet Inc. He is responsible for the external matters of all of the holding company's businesses, including Google Inc., advising their CEOs and leadership on business and policy issues.
Prior to the establishment of Alphabet, Eric was the chairman of Google Inc. for four years. From 2001-2011, Eric served as Google’s chief executive officer, overseeing the company’s technical and business strategy alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Under his leadership, Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation, growing from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology.
Prior to joining Google, Eric was the chairman and CEO of Novell and chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc. Previously, he served on the research staff at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Bell Laboratories and Zilog. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Eric is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a fellow in 2007. He also chairs the board of the New America Foundation, and since 2008 has been a trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Since 2012, Eric has been on the board of the Broad Institute and the Mayo Clinic. In 2013, Eric and Jared Cohen co-authored The New York Times bestselling book, The New Digital Age: Transforming Nations, Businesses, and Our Lives. In September 2014, Eric published his second New York Times best seller, How Google Works, which he and Jonathan Rosenberg co-authored with Alan Eagle.
David Siegel
Prior to co-founding Two Sigma Investments, David was Chief Technology Officer and Managing Director at Tudor Investment Corporation. After earning his doctorate, David joined D. E. Shaw & Co. and rose to become the company's first chief information officer. While at D. E. Shaw & Co., he founded and served as president of FarSight Financial Services, the world's first integrated personal financial services website, which was acquired by Merrill Lynch. A graduate of Princeton University, David received a PhD in computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied at its Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. David has had a lifelong interest in building intelligent computational systems and continues to actively pursue this mission at Two Sigma today.
He currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Hamilton Insurance Group, the Scratch Foundation, NYC FIRST and NAF. In addition, David is a trustee of Carnegie Hall, an Executive Advisory Committee Member of the NSF/MIT Center for Brains, Minds & Machines and an advisory board member of Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.
David is also a member of the Cornell Tech Board of Overseers and a member of the Corporation Visiting Committee for the MIT Media Laboratory.
Daniel C. Benton
CEO, Benton Capital Management
Dan Benton is one of the top technology investors of his generation. After co-founding Andor Capital Management in 2001, Benton served as CEO until closing the firm after a successful 15-year run. He now manages Benton Capital Management, a private family office.
In 1980, Benton graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Mathematics from Colgate University. He went on to Harvard University for his MBA and, in 2010, was awarded an honorary LHD from Colgate.
Benton began his career as a securities analyst at Goldman Sachs in the mid-1980s. In 1993, Benton joined Dawson Samberg Capital Management as a technology analyst and portfolio manager. He later served as President of Pequot Capital Management (the successor firm to Dawson Samberg), where he managed the firm’s public market technology funds and team.
Benton has served on the board of Colgate since 2001 and is the largest benefactor in the university’s 200-year history. He also serves on the boards of The Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and Horace Mann School.
Carlos Slim
Carlos Slim Helú is a Civil Engineer who studied in the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) and was –at that time- a Professor of Algebra and Linear Programming. He has been an investor since 1952, and at 25, he founded Inbursa and Grupo Carso, companies currently involved in different activities such as: industry, construction, telecommunications, finance, energy, mining, infrastructure, real estate, and other areas, in more than 40 countries.
In 1986, he established the Fundación Carlos Slim to impact the most vulnerable populations; the foundation has directly benefited millions of people. With a marked sense of social responsibility, efficiency, and proven results, the foundation has programs in various fields, such as education, employment, health, nutrition, social justice, culture, human development, support during natural disasters, protection and conservation of the environment, and economic development. These programs help improve the quality of life for populations of all ages, fostering the development of human capital and generating opportunities for people, their communities, and their countries. He has received numerous awards for his business and philanthropic work. He loves history especially civilization changes and human origin, astrophysics, nature, culture, sports, and first of all, his family and friends. He is the father of six children.
Ratan Tata
Ratan Tata is an Indian businessman, investor, philanthropist and chairman emeritus of Tata Sons. He was the chairman of the Tata group, a Mumbai-based global business conglomerate from 1991 until 2012, after having begun his career in the Tata group in 1962. He continues to head the Tata group’s charitable trusts. He is a director on the board of Alcoa Inc. and serves on the jury panel of Pritzker Prize. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of University of Southern California, Cornell University, Harvard Business School Board of Dean's Advisors and X Prize.
Russlynn Ali
Russlynn believes that education is the cornerstone to self-reliance. It’s why she served as assistant secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education from 2009 to 2012, acting as Secretary Arne Duncan’s lead advisor on equity and civil rights, and leading over 600 attorneys as they revitalized civil rights enforcement in education. It’s why, prior to her work in the Obama Administration, Russlynn served as vice president of the Education Trust in Washington, D.C. and founded and ran Education Trust-West, in Oakland.
It’s why, today, Russlynn has served as Emerson Collectives’ thought leader and ambassador on educational quality. As Managing Director at Emerson, she has shaped investments in and partnerships with other organizations to advance educational equity in the U.S. And, it’s why Russlynn founded and serves as a board member and CEO of XQ Institute, a collaboration dedicated to rethinking school in America. XQ Institute’s mission is to develop new learning opportunities for young people that open up the possibilities of the wider world. It’s first initiative, XQ: The Super School Project, is an open call to America’s students, teachers, administrators, civic leaders, businesses, entrepreneurs, artists and designers to meet the challenge of preparing our students for the future by designing the next American high school.
David Coleman
David grew up in a family of educators and followed them into the field. He went to public school in New York City before enrolling at Yale University. At Yale, he taught reading to high school students from low-income families and started Branch, an innovative community service program for inner-city students in New Haven, Conn. Based on the success of Branch, David received a Rhodes Scholarship, which he used to study English literature at the University of Oxford and classical educational philosophy at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. He returned to the U.S. to work at McKinsey & Company for five years, where he led much of the firm’s pro bono work in education.
With a team of educators, David founded the Grow Network, an organization committed to making assessment results truly useful for teachers, parents and students. The Grow Network delivered breakthrough-quality reports for parents and teachers as well as individualized learning guides for students. McGraw-Hill acquired the Grow Network in 2005.
In 2007, David left McGraw-Hill and co-founded Student Achievement Partners, a nonprofit that assembles educators and researchers to design actions based on evidence to improve student outcomes. Student Achievement Partners played a leading role in developing the Common Core State Standards in math and literacy. David left Student Achievement Partners in the fall of 2012 to become president of the College Board.
David was named to the 2013 Time 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. He has been recognized as one of Time magazine’s “11 Education Activists for 2011” and was one of the NewSchools Venture Fund Change Agents of the Year for 2012. He is the proud father of two.
Linda Darling-Hammond
Linda Darling-Hammond is President of the Learning Policy Institute, as well as Professor of Education Emeritus and Faculty Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education at Stanford University. She is a former president of the American Educational Research Association and member of the National Academy of Education as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her research and policy work focus on issues of educational equity, teaching quality, and school reform. She has advised school leaders and policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels. In 2008, she served as director of President Obama's education policy transition team. Among her 400+ publications, her book, The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity will Determine our Future, received the coveted Grawemeyer Award in 2012.
Darling-Hammond received her B.A. (magna cum laude) from Yale University in 1973, and her Ed.D. in Urban Education (with highest distinction) from Temple University in 1978. She holds honorary degrees from 14 universities in the United States and abroad and has received numerous awards for her contributions to research, policy, and practice.
Arne Duncan
As managing partner at Emerson Collective, former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan returns to Chicago on a mission to improve the lives of young adults in his hometown. Through partnerships with local business leaders, community organizers, and nonprofit groups, Duncan aims to create job and life opportunities for disconnected youth between the ages of 17 and 24.
Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Duncan served as chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools. From 2001 to 2008, Duncan won praise for uniting the city’s stakeholders behind an education agenda that included opening 100 new schools; expanding after-school, summer learning, early childhood, and college access programs; dramatically boosting the caliber of teachers; and building public-private partnerships around a variety of education initiatives. Duncan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1987, majoring in sociology. At Harvard he served as co-captain of the basketball team and was named a first team Academic All-American.
Anne Finucane
Anne M. Finucane is vice chairman at Bank of America and a member of the company’s executive management team. She is responsible for the strategic positioning of Bank of America and leads the company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts. In addition, she oversees public policy, customer research and analytics, global marketing and communications. Finucane chairs the global ESG Committee at Bank of America, which directs all of the company’s ESG efforts. She stewards Bank of America’s $125 billion environmental business initiative, including its $10 billion Catalytic Finance Initiative to mobilize market capital to deliver new investment into high impact clean energy projects. She oversees the company’s $1.2 billion Community Development Financial Institution portfolio and helps manage Bank of America's 10-year, $1.5 trillion community development lending and investing goal – the largest of its kind ever established by a U.S. financial institution. She also chairs the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, including its 10-year, $2 billion charitable giving goal. Active in the community, Finucane serves on both corporate and nonprofit boards of directors including Carnegie Hall, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the American Ireland Fund, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, CVS Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Partners Healthcare, and Special Olympics. She serves on the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy board and also is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Finucane has won numerous professional and public service accolades. Most recently, she was named to AdWeek’s 2016 Power List: Top 100 Leaders in Marketing, Media & Tech. In 2013 she received the New York Women in Communications Matrix Award, which recognizes outstanding lifetime achievement in the communications industry, and the inaugural International Women’s Media Foundation Leadership Award. She was named 2013 Advertising Woman of the Year by Advertising Women of New York, and American Banker magazine annually names her one of the “25 Most Powerful Women in Banking.”
Thomas Friedman
Thomas L. Friedman, an internationally known author and journalist, has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work at The New York Times. He joined the paper in 1981 and became the paper’s foreign affairs Op-Ed columnist in 1995. His foreign affairs column reports on US domestic politics and foreign policy, Middle East conflicts, international economics, environment, biodiversity and energy. Friedman is the author of six best-selling books: Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11; The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century; Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need A Green Revolution-And How It Can Renew America; and That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World We Invented and How We Can Come Back, co-written with Michael Mandelbaum. Born in Minneapolis, Mr. Friedman received a B.A. degree in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University in 1975. In 1978 he received a master’s in modern Middle East studies from Oxford.
Mark Hoplamazian
Mark Hoplamazian is President and Chief Executive Officer of Hyatt Hotels Corporation. Prior to being appointed to his present position in 2006, Hoplamazian served as President of The Pritzker Organization, L.L.C. ("TPO"), the principal financial and investment advisor to certain Pritzker family business interests. During his 17 year tenure with TPO he served as advisor to various Pritzker family-owned companies, including Hyatt Hotels Corporation and its predecessors. He previously worked in international mergers and acquisitions at The First Boston Corporation in New York. Hoplamazian was appointed to the VF Corporation Board of Directors in February 2015, and serves on the Advisory Board of Facing History and Ourselves, the Council on the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of World Business Chicago, the Board of Directors of New Schools for Chicago and of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and the Board of Trustees of the Aspen Institute and of the Latin School of Chicago. Mr. Hoplamazian is a member of the World Travel & Tourism Council and the Commercial Club of Chicago and is a member of the Discovery Class of the Henry Crown Fellowship.
Michael Horn
Michael Horn speaks and writes about the future of education and works with a portfolio of education organizations to improve the life of each and every student. He is the co-founder of and a distinguished fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, a non-profit think tank; he serves as a principal consultant for Entangled Solutions, which offers innovation services to higher education institutions; and he is the director of the Education + Technology fund, a joint philanthropic project of Two Sigma and Robin Hood with the mission of unlocking the potential of technology to advance achievement for low-income students.
Horn is the author and coauthor of multiple books, white papers, and articles on education, including the award-winning book Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns and the Amazon-bestseller Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools. An expert on disruptive innovation, online learning, blended learning, competency-based learning, and how to transform the education system into a student-centered one, he serves on the board and advisory boards of a range of education organizations.
Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson is the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies institute based in Washington, DC. He has been the chairman and CEO of CNN and the editor of TIME magazine. He is the author of The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014), Steve Jobs (2011), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992), and coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986).
Isaacson is chair emeritus of Teach for America, which recruits recent college graduates to teach in underserved communities. From 2005-2007 he was the vice-chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which oversaw the rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. He was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which runs Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other international broadcasts of the United States, a position he held from 2009 to 2012. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves on the board of United Airlines, Tulane University, the Overseers of Harvard University, the New Orleans Tricentennial Commission, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Society of American Historians, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. He is a graduate of Harvard College and of Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Amy Jarich
Amy Jarich is the Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director of Undergraduate Admission at UC Berkeley. She has served in admissions leadership for well over a decade, moving to Berkeley from the University of Virginia in 2012. She started her admission work at Radford University, a Virginia public school near her hometown in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As the first in her family to attend college, Amy is inspired by the access provided by public universities. Admissions is Amy’s second career. She started her professional life in public service, working in Washington DC for government and non-profits. Amy holds a graduate degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and an undergraduate degree in French and International Affairs from Sweet Briar College. She is an elected member of the Board of Directors of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). Amy currently serves as an advisor to the Overseas Schools Project, sponsored by the US State Department, and sits on the Schawbel College Resource Center Advisory Board at the Boston Latin School.
David Kelley
David Kelley is the founder and chairman of IDEO. He also founded Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, known as the d.school. As Stanford’s Donald W. Whittier Professor in Mechanical Engineering, Kelley is the Academic Director of both the degree-granting undergraduate and graduate programs in design within the School of Engineering, and has been a professor in the program for more than 35 years. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and earned his master’s degree from Stanford University in Engineering/Product Design. Kelley’s work has been acknowledged with numerous design awards, and in addition to being inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, he holds honorary PhD’s from both the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth and Art Center College in Pasadena. Widely known for teaching human-centered design methodology and design thinking to students and business executives, Kelley and his brother Tom co-authored the New York Times best-selling book, Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All.
Wendy Kopp
Wendy Kopp is CEO and Co-founder of Teach For All, a global network of independent organizations that are cultivating their nations’ promising future leaders to ensure their most marginalized children have the chance to fulfill their true potential. Wendy founded Teach For America in 1989 to marshal the energy of her generation against educational inequity in the United States. Today, more than 10,000 Teach For America corps members—outstanding recent college graduates and professionals of all academic disciplines—are in the midst of two-year teaching commitments in 50 urban and rural regions, and Teach For America has proven to be an unparalleled source of long-term leadership for expanding opportunity for children. After leading Teach For America’s growth and development for 24 years, in 2013, Wendy transitioned out of the role of CEO. Today, she remains an active member of Teach For America's board.
Wendy led the development of Teach For All to be responsive to the initiative of inspiring social entrepreneurs around the world who were determined to adapt this approach in their own countries. Now in its eighth year, the Teach For All network is comprised of partner organizations in more than 35 countries around the world, including its founding partners Teach For America and the U.K.’s Teach First.
Wendy has been recognized as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards for public service. She is the author of A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn’t in Providing an Excellent Education for All (2011) and One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I Learned Along the Way (2000). She holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, where she participated in the undergraduate program of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Wendy resides in New York City with her husband Richard Barth and their four children.
Matt Larson
Matt Larson is president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), a 70,000-member international mathematics education organization. Previously, Larson was the K–12 curriculum specialist for mathematics in Lincoln (Nebraska) Public Schools for more than 20 years.
Larson began his career in education as a high school mathematics teacher. He has authored or co-authored several books, including a series on professional learning communities and Common Core Mathematics. He is co-author of Balancing the Equation: A Guide to School Mathematics for Educators and Parents, and he was on the writing team of Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All (2014). Larson has taught mathematics at the elementary through college level and has held an appointment as an honorary visiting associate professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Matt Larson received his Ph.D., in curriculum and instruction, from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
William McCallum
William G. McCallum is a University Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the University of Arizona. Born in Sydney, Australia in 1956, he received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Harvard University in 1984, under the supervision of Barry Mazur. After spending two years at the University of California, Berkeley, and one at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, he joined the faculty at the University of Arizona in 1987. In 1989 he joined the Harvard calculus consortium, and is the lead author of the consortium's multivariable calculus and college algebra texts. In 1993–94 he spent a year at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, and in 1995–96 he spent a year at the Institute for Advanced Study on a Centennial Fellowship from the American Mathematical Society. In 2005 he received the Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars from the National Science Foundation. In 2006 he founded the Institute for Mathematics and Education at the University of Arizona, and is currently its director. In 2009–2010 he was one of the lead writers for the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics. His professional interests include arithmetical algebraic geometry and mathematics education. He has received grants and written articles, essays, and books in both areas.
Henry McCance
Henry McCance joined Greylock in 1969 and focuses on the software sector, while overseeing Greylock's strategic direction. During the 40 years of his tenure, Greylock raised a series of 12 partnerships, with current committed capital in excess of $2 billion, and helped build approximately 300 developing companies. Mr. McCance received the National Venture Capital's Lifetime Achievement Award in May 2004 and was voted one of the country's 10 best VCs by Forbes in 2000. In 2004, he co-founded the Cure Alzheimer's Fund, an entrepreneurial non-profit. In 2008, Cure Alzheimer's Fund's core research project was named a Top 10 Medical Breakthrough by Time magazine and CNN. Mr. McCance is a graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Business School.
James Nondorf
James G. Nondorf is the Vice President for Enrollment and Student Advancement and Dean of College Admissions at the University of Chicago. Nondorf came to the University from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he held the position of Vice President for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid. Prior to serving at Rensselaer, Nondorf was the Director of Student Outreach and Associate Director of Admissions at Yale University. He is credited with streamlining the admissions process, developing specialized recruitment programs, and achieving significant increases in both applicant pool and yield rates while drawing from an increasingly diverse demographic group. He also served as a fellow at Yale's Berkley College, where he was responsible for advising undergraduate students, as well as assisting in planning residential events and functions. He began his career with the Cambridge Technology Group (CTG), where he held progressively responsible positions eventually leading to his role as president. Prior to his tenure at Yale, he was involved in the start-up of the Terrace Community School, a charter school in Tampa, Florida, where he served as founding teacher, musical director, and coach. Nondorf received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from Yale University and his Master of Liberal Arts Degree in Ethics from Valparaiso University.
Deborah Quazzo
Deborah is the Managing Partner of GSV AcceleraTE, a venture capital fund investing in exceptional entrepreneurs and their companies in the $75B education and talent technology sector. In addition, she is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of the ASU+GSV Summit and Founder and Senior Advisor of GSV Advisors. Now in its 10th year, the ASU+GSV Summit celebrates innovations and innovators across the global “preK to Gray” learning and talent landscape and attracts over 4,000 attendees.
Deborah currently serves on the boards of Ascend Learning (a portfolio company of Blackstone and CCCP), Degreed, The Educational Testing Service (ETS), Lightneer, Remind, and Web.com (NASDAQ: WWWW). She is a board observer at CreativeLive and RaiseMe, and an advisory board member of Area9 Lyceum. She is a member of the boards of The Common Ground Foundation, Harvey Mudd College, National Louis University, Oriental Education Institute (OEI), Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School, The Khan Academy Thought Leadership Council, The Board of Dean’s Advisory Council at Princeton University, and The Strada Institute for the Future of Work Advisory Committee. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition. She previously served on the board of a number of education organizations including The Chicago Board of Education (CPS) and KIPP: Chicago.
Deborah received the 2014 Arnold M. Berlin ’46 Distinguished Service to Princeton Award from the Princeton University Club of Chicago, the 2014 Visionary of the Year Award from CFY PowerMyLearning, the 2016 LEAP Innovator in Education "Champion" Award from LEAP Innovations, the 2016 Inaugural Impact Award from Golden Apple Foundation, and the 2017 Visionary Award from the Association of American Publishers (AAP). Deborah graduated cum laude with a BA in history from Princeton University in 1982 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1987.
Todd Rose
Todd Rose is the President of the Center for Individual Opportunity. He is also the Director of the Mind, Brain, and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he teaches a course on Personalized Learning and leads the Laboratory for the Science of the Individual. Todd is the author of The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness.
Stu Schmill
Stuart Schmill is dean of admissions and student financial services for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his long tenure at MIT, Schmill has served the Institute in a variety of positions, including Director of Crew; Director of Parent, Student, and Young Alumni Programs in the MIT Alumni Association; Director of MIT’s Educational Council; and Senior Associate Director of Admissions. Schmill joined the admissions office in 2002, was appointed Dean in 2008, and added Student Financial Services to his portfolio in 2016. An innovative and compassionate leader, Schmill has been honored with numerous leadership and coaching awards, and has served as a speaker at admissions conferences around the world, as well as guest faculty member at the Harvard Summer Institute for College Admissions. Beyond the MIT campus, Schmill has served as trustee, founder, or advisor to a variety of organizations, including the College Board, University of Cambridge International Examinations, Wayland-Weston Rowing Association, To The Water, Inc., and the Mandela Town Hall Health Spot. Schmill earned the Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 1986.
Sandy Speicher
Sandy Speicher is a Partner at the global design and innovation firm IDEO. She is the Managing Director of IDEO’s Education practice, which looks to people’s unmet needs, desires, and aspirations to inspire new solutions for a wide variety of challenges—from the ways that people are learning to the ways that systems are operating. She and her teams have helped to create a scalable, affordable school model in Peru, strategies to improve schools for the poor in India, digital learning platforms that meet the needs of today’s students, and a new vision for the food system in San Francisco’s schools. Recently, she collaborated with Carnegie Corporation to launch 100k in 10, which President Clinton has referred to as a new model for social change. Sandy serves as a strategic adviser to the K-12 Lab Network at the Stanford d.school.. She is on advisory boards of 100k in 10, and Pioneer Academies in South Africa. Prior to joining IDEO, Sandy taught visual communications at Washington University in St. Louis, and spent six years teaching design thinking to fifth-graders at a public school in San Francisco. Sandy holds an MA in Education from Stanford University and a BFA in Visual Communications from Washington University.
Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Zakaria hosts Fareed Zakaria GPS, is editor-at-large and a columnist for TIME magazine, and a columnist for The Washington Post, and an international bestselling author. Zakaria was editor of Newsweek International from 2000 to 2010 and a columnist for Newsweek. Prior to his tenure at Newsweek, Zakaria was managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a leading journal of international politics and economics from 1992 to 2010. He has served as an analyst for ABC News, a roundtable member of the ABC News political affairs program This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and as the host of Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS. He has won numerous awards and been named to various lists, including Foreign Policy magazine's list of "Top 100 Global Thinkers" and Newsweek magazine's "Power 50" list of the most influential political figures of 2010. In 1999, Esquire magazine named Zakaria as "One of the 21 Most Important People of the 21st Century." He serves on the boards of Yale University, the Council of Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and Shakespeare and Company, a theater group in the Berkshires. He has received honorary degrees from Brown, the University of Miami, and Oberlin College, among other educational institutions. Zakaria earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University and a doctorate in political science from Harvard University.