Khan Academy Founder To Speak at Harvard Business School Class Day

Salman Khan, founder of the free online education platform Khan Academy, will be this year’s Harvard Business School Class Day speaker, the school revealed Monday afternoon.

Khan, who graduated from the Business School in 2003, began tutoring his 12-year-old cousin in mathematics over the telephone in 2004. He has since produced and released nearly 5,000 videos online, focusing largely on subjects of mathematics and science. His videos now reach an audience of more than 10 million users worldwide, according to The New York Times.

The announcement comes only a week and a half after the Business School formally announced the launch of its own online learning platform, HBX, which will provide business-focused courses to students and professionals.

Khan’s platform aims to provide “a free world-class education for anyone anywhere” by making its resources universally available. HBX, on the other hand, will only selectively admit students from Massachusetts-area colleges into its first offering, entitled “Credential of Readiness,” which is slated to begin this summer. According to the Boston Globe, HBX will charge students a fee of $1,500 to enroll in the course.

The announcement was made after a series of clues were released by the Business School over Twitter throughout the day on Monday, including a tip that the speaker was the poorest person ever featured on the cover of Forbes magazine. In January, the magazine called Khan “The Most Influential Person in Education Technology.”

—Staff writer Alexander H. Patel can be reached at alex.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on twitter @alexhpatel.