Intercorp Chairman Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor’s conglomerate, which had $16 billion in assets as of March, operates with a single ambitious goal: to create a strong economic backbone to sustain Peru’s burgeoning middle class. The organization has pursued this aim on several fronts: banking, retail, and real estate development, to name a few. In 2010, Rodriguez-Pastor tackled Peru’s ailing education system, investing in a small group of private schools founded by educational leader Jorge Yzusqui Chessman. Rodriguez-Pastor hired Chessman and design firm IDEO and gave them an ambitious mandate: to build a network of a hundred schools throughout Peru and beyond. The result? Innova Schools, a low-cost (tuition is $130 per month) for-profit education system of 29 schools and counting, with 19,000 students. Innova, which opens an average of six schools a year, uses a so-called blended learning model that allows students to learn on their own and via teacher-assisted group work. The results so far have been impressive: In 2014, 71% of Innova second-graders tested proficient in math (compared with 26% nationally), and 85% met thresholds in literacy (compared with 44%).
