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Salman Khan

WIRED Business Conference Disruptive By Design In Partnership With MDC Partners
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 03: Salman Khan, Founder, Khan Academy attends the WIRED Business Conference Disruptive by Design in Partnership with MDC Partners at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on May 3, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Larry Busacca/WireImage for WIRED)Larry Busacca 2011 WireImage
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Khan’s web-based tutorials have led many to rethink the way kids learn. Inspired by the nonprofit’s meteoric growth, traditional universities like Harvard and MIT have begun experimenting with offering free online courses of their own. The four-year-old nonprofit Khan Academy, which offers courses spanning trigonometry to art history and has attracted donations from the likes of John Doerr and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, now draws over 5 million visitors a month; its YouTube channel has over 180 million views, and counting. And Khan’s first book, in which he lays out his vision for online universal education, hits shelves this month. School rules: Khan has four degrees – three from MIT and an MBA from Harvard. –M.L.