Salman Khan
Born 1976 · Age 49
American educator and entrepreneur; founder and CEO of Khan Academy, founder of Khan Lab School and Schoolhouse.world; creator of thousands of instructional videos and adaptive learning tools to provide a free world-class education.
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Life & Career Timeline
Born in Metairie, Louisiana
Salman Amin Khan born into a Bengali Muslim family in Metairie (New Orleans metro).
Father's death (Fakhrul Amin Khan)
Sal's father, Fakhrul Amin Khan, a physician, died in 1990; a formative family event.
Family financial hardship noted (mother's 1993 income)
Khan has said his mother made $16,000 in 1993; he prepared taxes to get financial aid — formative on his view of access to education.
Valedictorian, Grace King High School
Graduated as valedictorian; while in high school he took upper-level math at the University of New Orleans and was a cartoonist for the school paper.
Started working at Oracle (California)
Worked in technology in California after MIT; joint profiles report ~two years at Oracle before returning to business school.
Graduated MIT with multiple degrees
Graduated from MIT with degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering/computer science and a concurrent master's (electrical engineering/CS). Served as president of the Senior Gift Committee.
Left Oracle (approx.)
Completed ~two-year period working in California (Oracle) and prepared to attend Harvard Business School.
Summer intern at PARC
Spent a summertime internship at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), connecting with Silicon Valley tech culture.
Earned MBA from Harvard Business School
Graduated from Harvard Business School (MBA) and subsequently entered finance as a hedge-fund analyst.
Joined hedge fund (Connective/Wohl Capital)
Became a hedge fund analyst (Boston, then Palo Alto); worked as an analyst from 2003 until late 2009.
Married Umaima Marvi
Sal Khan married physician Umaima Marvi (marriage year cited as 2004).
Started tutoring cousin Nadia (first tutoring)
Began tutoring his cousin Nadia via phone and Yahoo! Doodle notepad; the genesis of Khan Academy.
Built practice software to track student progress
Started writing software to generate practice problems and track student progress as demand grew among relatives and family friends.
Started scaling to non-family users via YouTube
After posting videos on YouTube (starting 2006), users beyond his family began watching and requesting lessons, proving scalability.
Created 'Khan Academy' YouTube account
Opened a YouTube account (November 16, 2006) to host hand-drawn video tutorials; early step to scale lessons beyond family.
Quit hedge fund to run Khan Academy full-time
Left his analyst role in late 2009 to focus full-time on developing Khan Academy as a nonprofit educational organization.
Received early sponsorship from Ann Doerr (approx.)
Ann Doerr (wife of VC John Doerr) became an early supporter/sponsor, enabling growth in Khan Academy's formative nonprofit stage.
Videos and site popularity grow (tens of thousands/month)
By 2009 Khan's videos and practice exercises were attracting thousands–tens of thousands of users per month, prompting a career shift.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation becomes major supporter
The Gates Foundation became one of Khan Academy's biggest supporters, contributing funding and validation.
Television appearances and media profile (e.g., Colbert)
Made national TV appearances (including The Colbert Report) and increasing media coverage, boosting public profile.
TED talk: 'Let's use video to reinvent education'
Delivered a high-profile TED talk describing Khan Academy's approach to education and the power of short instructional videos.
Named to Time 100; featured on Forbes cover
Recognized in Time's '100 Most Influential People' (2012) and featured on the cover of Forbes with the tagline 'The $1 Trillion Opportunity.'
Added 'Coach' feature to Khan Academy
Khan Academy introduced the Coach feature (2012) to connect teachers and coaches with students and provide monitoring tools.
Published 'The One World Schoolhouse'
Released his book, The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined, outlining the vision behind Khan Academy and schooling.
Received American Academy of Achievement Gold Medal
Awarded the Gold Medal by the American Academy of Achievement in recognition of his impact on education.
Announced as MIT commencement speaker (commencement 2012)
Selected as MIT's commencement speaker (announcement in late 2011; event/commencement in 2012).
Featured praise from Bill Gates
Bill Gates publicly praised Khan Academy and noted using it with his own children, bringing further credibility and visibility.
Coach/teacher-adoption milestone: 200,000+ educators
By mid-2010s Khan Academy reported hundreds of thousands of educators worldwide using its platform (reported ~200,000 educators around 2014).
Forbes cover: 'The $1 Trillion Opportunity'
Featured on the cover of Forbes (2012) that framed the education market opportunity and his role in reform.
SRI/academic studies of Khan Academy usage
Collaborated with schools and researchers (SRI International) to study classroom use and associations with outcomes; published reports on usage and practice.
Recognized as inspiration for MOOCs (Andrew Ng)
Stanford AI researcher Andrew Ng cited Khan as an inspiration in the origins of Coursera and modern MOOCs.
Khan Academy usage milestone (circa 2014)
Reported metrics circa 2014: ~10+ million students/month, 350M lessons in two years, >5,000 videos, ~1.5B exercises completed — major growth milestone.
Founded Khan Lab School
Opened Khan Lab School in Mountain View, CA, to pilot personalized mastery-based, flipped-classroom methods (school founded 2014).
Received Heinz Award (Human Condition)
Awarded the 19th Annual Heinz Award in the Human Condition category for contributions to education.
Joint Venture 'State of the Valley' recognition
Honored by Joint Venture at the 2014 State of the Valley conference for civic entrepreneurship and regional impact.
Partnership with College Board for free SAT practice
Khan Academy announced a partnership with the College Board to create free, in-depth practice resources and personalized SAT prep (announced June 2015).
Awarded Padma Shri (India)
Received the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award, for contributions to literature and education (2016).
Schoolhouse certifications (partnerships with universities)
Developed Schoolhouse certifications in partnership with the University of Chicago; MIT, Caltech and Case Western Reserve later signed on to recognize certifications.
Launched Schoolhouse.world (small-group tutoring)
During the COVID-19 pandemic early 2020, launched Schoolhouse.world, a free non-profit platform for peer tutoring and small-group instruction via Zoom.
Received honorary Doctor of Laws from Harvard
Harvard University awarded Sal Khan an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at Harvard's 2021 celebrations (May 27, 2021).
Produced ~7,000+ instructional videos (cumulative)
By 2023/2024 Sal Khan had personally produced thousands of short instructional videos (commonly cited ~6,500–7,000 videos total).
Khan Academy reaches 155M registered users (reported)
Khan Academy reported more than 155 million registered users in 2023, with students spending billions of hours on the platform.
Launched Khanmigo (AI teaching assistant)
In March 2023 Khan Academy launched Khanmigo, an AI-powered teaching assistant built on large language models (built upon OpenAI tech).
YouTube channel milestone: 8.74M subscribers, >2B views
As of January 2025 the Khan Academy YouTube channel has 8.74 million subscribers and videos viewed more than two billion times.
Key Achievement Ages
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