Ron Packard is a visionary educator, entrepreneur, and the author of Education Transformation. He founded ACCEL Schools to expand access and operational excellence across education systems.
Ron previously founded and was CEO of K12 Inc., where he grew the company from an idea to nearly $1B in revenue, making it one of the largest education companies in the world. Under his leadership, revenue compounded at nearly 80%. Prior to K12, he was CEO of Knowledge Schools and Knowledge Learning Corporation, and Vice President at Knowledge Universe, one of the largest early childhood education providers in the U.S.
He has also played a pivotal role in investments across the education sector, including LearnNow, Children’s School USA, LeapFrog, TEC, and Children’s Discovery Center. Earlier in his career, Ron worked in mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs and served clients at McKinsey & Company.
Ron’s leadership has been recognized with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (IT Services, Greater Washington), the Education Industry Association’s James P. Boyle Leadership Award, and a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He has served on numerous corporate boards including the U.S. Department of Defense’s Education Advisory Committee and the Digital Learning Council, and is currently on the board of GoStudent, eDynamic Learning, and Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology.
Ron holds a B.A. and B.S. with honors from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the University of Chicago with honors.