Salman Khan

Salman Khan founded the nonprofit Khan Academy with the mission of providing free, high-quality education for “anyone, anywhere” in the world. Born in Metairie, Louisiana, to immigrant parents from India and Bangladesh, Khan graduated from MIT in 1998 with three degrees: one bachelor of science in mathematics; another in electrical engineering and computer science; and a master's in electrical engineering. After MIT, Khan worked in Silicon Valley at the height of the tech boom. When the bubble burst in 2000, he enrolled in Harvard Business School. After earning a master's in business administration, he became an analyst at a Boston-based hedge fund. The following year, as a side project, he began tutoring a young cousin in math, communicating by phone and using an interactive notepad. When others expressed interest in this method of instruction, he began posting videos of his hand-scribbled tutorials on YouTube. Demand took off, and in 2009 he quit his day job to commit himself fully to the not-for-profit Khan Academy. In October 2010, Khan was listed in Fortune’s annual “40 Under 40,” which recognizes business’s hottest rising stars, as well as Fast Company’s list of the “100 Most Creative People in Business.” He was recently profiled by 60 Minutes and recognized by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. His first book, The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined, was published this month.