Salman Amin Khan
Salman Amin Khan is an American educator and the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, a free online learning platform he started in 2006. Khan Academy has grown from tutoring his cousin to serving 155 million students globally with over 6,500 video lessons.
Salman Amin Khan's Bio
Salman "Sal" Khan is the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, a nonprofit that creates free online learning tools for students and teachers. The platform is used by over 200,000 educators and reaches millions of learners worldwide.
Born in New Orleans in 1976 to a Bangladeshi pediatrician father and an Indian mother, Khan studied at MIT (where he earned three degrees) and later at Harvard Business School. He began his career as a hedge fund analyst at a Boston-based firm, but started tutoring his cousin in math over the internet in 2004. Khan started the project in 2004 by tutoring his cousin over the internet. He recorded short math videos and posted them to YouTube. When strangers started using them, he realized he was onto something.
He turned the effort into a formal nonprofit in 2008 and later wrote a book, The One World Schoolhouse, about reimagining education outside traditional classrooms. Since then, Khan has launched several spin-off projects, including Khan Lab School, Khan World School, and Schoolhouse.world—a peer-to-peer tutoring platform created during the pandemic to connect students across time zones.
He's received honors like the Heinz Award and was named to Time's 100 most influential people list. Khan continues to explore how AI can make learning more personalized while staying true to the mission of free education for all.
Career Timeline
1976 — Born in New Orleans
Salman Amin Khan was born in New Orleans to a Bangladeshi pediatrician father and an Indian mother.
1998 — Earned Bachelor's degree from MIT
Khan graduated from MIT with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering.
1999 — Earned Master's degree from MIT
Completed a master's in computer science and electrical engineering at MIT.
2003 — Earned MBA from Harvard Business School
Khan graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA.
2004 — Began tutoring cousin on YouTube at Khan Academy (originally)
Started by creating math videos for his cousin; the content was posted to YouTube as 'Khan Academy.'
2008 — Founded Khan Academy as nonprofit
Turned the informal tutoring project into a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
2012 — Published The One World Schoolhouse
Released his book outlining his vision for education reform and the story of Khan Academy.
2014 — Named to Time 100 most influential people
Recognized by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
2015 — Founded Khan Lab School
Launched a physical laboratory school in Mountain View, California to test innovative educational practices.
2020 — Launched Schoolhouse.world
Created a peer-to-peer tutoring platform during the pandemic to connect students globally for free live tutoring.
