Lowell Milken

Lowell Milken is chairman of the Milken Family Foundation (MFF), which he co-founded in 1982. Under his leadership, MFF has become one of the most innovative private foundations in the U.S. Considered a leading reformer of K-12 education, Milken conceived the Milken National Educator Awards in 1985, today the nation’s largest teacher recognition program in 47 states plus D.C. Recognizing that sufficient numbers of quality teachers would never result from current K-12 practices, Milken launched the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) in 1999 as a comprehensive, research-based system to attract, develop, motivate and retain the finest talent to teaching. More than 75 TAP schools are already operating in eight states, with more underway. As a businessman, Lowell Milken is chairman of London-based Heron International, co-founder of Knowledge Universe, and chairman of Knowledge Schools, Inc. Milken graduated summa cum laude from the University of California at Berkeley, and earned his law degree from UCLA with distinctions of Order of the Coif and UCLA Law Review.