Richard Levin

Richard Levin became the Chief Executive Officer of Coursera, the leading platform for the provision of open, online courses offered by more than 100 universities around the world, in April 2014.

Prior to his role at Coursera, Mr. Levin served as Yale’s President for two decades. He received his B.A. from Stanford University in 1968 and studied politics and philosophy at Oxford University, where he earned a B.Litt. degree. After earning his Ph.D. in economics from Yale in 1974, he joined the Yale faculty. Before becoming president, he was Frederick William Beinecke Professor of Economics, chaired the economics department, and served as dean of Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

During Mr. Levin’s 20-year tenure as President, Yale invested over $5 billion in the renovation and construction of its facilities, advanced economic development and home ownership in New Haven, purchased and began to develop a 136-acre campus in nearby West Haven, strengthened Yale’s programs in science, engineering, and medicine, established a goal of reducing campus greenhouse gas emissions by 43 percent, and undertook a major set of initiatives to internationalize the University – extending need-based financial aid to international students in Yale College, making international experiences the norm for all undergraduates, and planning and opening Yale-NUS College in Singapore as a model of liberal arts education for Asia.

Mr. Levin served on President Obama’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology. He is a trustee of the Hewlett Foundation and a director of American Express and Flurry. He served on a bipartisan commission to recommend improvements in the nation’s intelligence capabilities and he co-chaired a major review of the nation’s patent system for the National Academy of Sciences that led to the America Invents Act of 2011. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.