The Aspen Institute

This annual benefit gala will honor Salman Khan, Founder and Executive Director of Khan Academy, and Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Chairman of The Paulson Institute and former US Secretary of Treasury.  This evening will begin with conversations with Salman Khan and Henry Paulson in the Greenwald Pavilion at the Aspen Meadows.  The reception and dinner will follow in the Doerr-Hosier Center where they will receive their awards.

About the Honorees:

Salman Khan is the founder of the Khan Academy (khanacademy.org), a nonprofit with the mission of providing free, high-quality education for “anyone, anywhere” in the world.  Khan graduated from MIT in 1998 with three degrees: two bachelor of science degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering/computer science; and a master of science degree in electrical engineering.  He worked in technology in Silicon Valley until the first bubble burst, after which he attended Harvard Business School.  After earning a master’s degree in business administration in 2003, Khan became an analyst at a Boston based hedge fund.  In 2004 as a side project, Khan began tutoring his young cousin in math, communicating by phone and using an interactive notepad.  When others expressed interest, he began posting videos of his hand-scribbled tutorials on YouTube.  Demand took off, and in 2009 he quit his day job to commit himself fully to the not-for-profit Khan Academy.  In October 2010, Khan was listed in Fortune’s annual “40 Under 40,” which recognizes business’s hottest rising stars, as well as Fast Company’s list of the “100 Most Creative People in Business.” He was recently profiled by “60 Minutes” and recognized by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.  He was born in Metairie, Louisiana, to immigrant parents from India and Bangladesh. He currently lives in Mountain View, California with his wife and two children. The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined is his first book, released in October 2012.

Henry M. Paulson, Jr. is the Chairman of The Paulson Institute at the University of Chicago, which he founded in 2011 to address global issues, including efforts to strengthen the important relationship between the United States and China.  Previously, Paulson served under President George W. Bush as the 74th Secretary of the Treasury from July 2006 to January 2009. As Treasury Secretary, he was the President’s leading policy advisor on a broad range of domestic and international economic issues. In February 2010, he published his first book, On the Brink, detailing his experience leading the Department of the Treasury during the global financial crisis.   Before going to the Treasury Department, Paulson had a thirty-two year career at Goldman Sachs, serving as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since the firm’s initial public offering in 1999. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, he was a member of the White House Domestic Council, serving as Staff Assistant to the President from 1972 to 1973, and as Staff Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon from 1970 to 1972.  Paulson graduated from Dartmouth College in 1968 and received an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1970. He is involved in a range of conservation and environmental initiatives having served as Chairman of The Peregrine Fund, Inc., Chairman of the Board of Directors for The Nature Conservancy and was Co-Chairman of its Asia/Pacific Council. He and his wife, Wendy, have two grown children and four grandchildren.

This annual benefit gala will honor Salman Khan, Founder and Executive Director of Khan Academy, and Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Chairman of The Paulson Institute and former US Secretary of Treasury. This evening will begin with conversations with Salman Khan and Henry Paulson in the Greenwald Pavilion at the Aspen Meadows. The reception and dinner will follow in the Doerr-Hosier Center where they will receive their awards.