HeadRoom with Code.org's Hadi Partovi

Hadi Partovi is a tech entrepreneur, investor, and CEO of the education nonprofit Code.org. Partovi discusses AI 101 for Teachers and how the world might change due to the power of technology across the globe.

Born in Tehran, Iran, Hadi grew up during the Iran-Iraq war. His school did not offer computer science classes, so he taught himself to code at home on a Commodore 64. After immigrating to the United States, he spent his summers working as a software engineer to help pay his way through high school and college.

Upon graduating from Harvard University with a Masters degree in computer science, Hadi pursued a career in technology, starting at Microsoft, where he rose into the executive ranks. He founded two startups: Tellme Networks (acquired by Microsoft) and iLike (acquired by Newscorp). Hadi now invests and advises other technology startups.

In 2013 Hadi and his twin brother Ali launched the education nonprofit Code.org, which Hadi continues to lead full-time as CEO. Code.org has established computer science classes reaching 30% of US students, created the most broadly used curriculum platform for K-12 computer science, and launched the global Hour of Code movement that has reached hundreds of millions of students spanning every country in the world.

Hadi has served as an early advisor or investor at many tech startups, including Facebook, Dropbox, airbnb, and Uber. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Axon and MNTN.