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Former Yale president named CEO of online education company [New Haven Register, Conn. :: ](New Haven Register (CT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) March 25--NEW HAVEN -- Former Yale University President Richard C. Levin will become CEO of Coursera, the online education company that is partnered with Yale. Levin will take on the new role in mid-April, the company announced Monday. Since stepping down from his Yale post last year, Levin, 66, has served as an advisor to Coursera co-founders Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. He's also served on President Barack Obama's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, is a trustee of the Hewlett Foundation and a director of American Express. Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said Levin and his wife, Jane, will continue to maintain their house in New Haven. Jane Levin, who had led Yale's directed studies program for more than a decade, will teach at Yale for at least one semester next year. Coursera is based in California. Conroy said Levin plans to come back to New Haven for major events, as he has in the past year. Those appearances included the opening of the new Yale School of Management building on Whitney Avenue and the inauguration of Peter Salovey as Yale president. "Coursera could not have made a better choice for its CEO than Rick Levin," Salovey said Monday. "He is one of the world's leading educators and he has been a champion for online education for over a decade." Salovey said Levin was a major supporter of Open Yale Courses, the university's online education effort, in 2007. Prior to that, Levin had worked with Stanford and Oxford universities to develop online education. "Technology now gives us the means to extend the reach of high quality education around the world and to provide millions of people with access to learning and opportunities for advancement," Levin said, in a statement released by Coursera. During his 20-year tenure as Yale's leader, Levin presided over a period of tremendous growth. The university's endowment expanded dramatically, its local reach extended to a new campus in West Haven and it launched an international partnership in Singapore. Coursera launched in 2012. It offers more than 600 free courses from 108 educational institutions in 19 countries. Call Jim Shelton at 203-789-5664. Have questions, feedback or ideas about our news coverage? Connect directly with the editors of the New Haven Register at AskTheRegister.com. ___ (c)2014 the New Haven Register (New Haven, Conn.) Visit the New Haven Register (New Haven, Conn.) at www.nhregister.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |