Michael Horn

Michael B. Horn is the co-founder and executive director of the education practice of Innosight Institute, a non-profit think tank devoted to applying the theories of disruptive innovation to solve problems in the social sector. In this capacity, Horn leads a team that educates policymakers and the public on how to encourage innovation in education based on its ongoing research, which explores how to transform America’s education system from its current factory-based model into a student-centric one in which every student can realize her human potential. Horn has testified at many state legislative sessions and is a frequent keynote speaker at education conferences and planning sessions around the country. In 2008, Horn co-authored the book Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (McGraw-Hill) with Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen, the father of disruptive innovation theory, and Curtis W. Johnson, president of the Citistates Group. BusinessWeek named the book one of the 10 Best Innovation & Design Books of 2008 and Newsweek named it as the 14th book on its list of “Fifty Books for Our Times.” Horn has also written articles for numerous publications and outlets including Forbes, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, the Economist, the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for American Progress, and Education Week. Tech&Learning magazine named Horn to its list of the 100 most important people in the creation and advancement of the use of technology in education. Horn holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BA in history from Yale University. In addition, he serves on a variety of boards, including as an executive editor of Education Next, a journal of opinion and research about education policy, and as a board member of Fidelis, a technology company that provides an end-to-end education solution for the military-to-civilian career transition. Horn is also an advisory board member for the Shared Learning Collaborative, a joint initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation, on the Education Innovation Advisory Board at Arizona State University, and on the advisory committee for The Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Teachers College, Columbia University.