Sal Khan

Background

About Sal Khan

I’ve spent the past 20+ years on a joyful, improbable mission: helping build Khan Academy into an institution that can educate billions of people for generations to come. It is still surreal that what started as tutoring my cousins in 2004 has grown into a global effort with 180m+ registered users in 50+ languages, powered by an extraordinary team, a committed board, and generous partners and philanthropists. I still make videos, help communicate our long-term vision, support and align our teams, and work to ensure we’re creating something timeless, equitable, and transformative. Beyond Khan Academy—which I hope to dedicate my life to—I also serve as Vision Steward and a board member at TED. I don’t run the day-to-day, but I help shape TED’s long-term direction, building on its incredible history, global community, and reach to help all of us find purpose, meaning, and clarity in a world of accelerating change. I’m also proud of the work we’re doing at Schoolhouse.world, a free, peer-to-peer tutoring platform proving the power of learners helping learners, and Khan Lab School, our real-world laboratory for reimagining education built around curiosity, mastery, and agency. Ultimately, I hope to devote my life to helping as many people as possible realize their potential through education, meaningful work, and authentic community. Technology is becoming an increasingly powerful tool in that effort—but only if we put the human element first, using technology to make us more connected, more tolerant, and more deeply ourselves. I’ve written The One World Schoolhouse and Brave New Words to articulate and share pieces of that vision.