Professor Martin Bean about importance of skills, education transformation and the skills for the future (July 2019).

VIDEO [English; Translation Support]

Martin George Bean is a famous Australian education administrator and a founder of The Bean Centre. Previously, Martin Bean worked at companies including Novell, Sylvan Learning, Thomson Learning and New Horizons Computer Learning Centres before joining Microsoft, where he became general manager responsible for product management, marketing and business development in the Worldwide Education Products Group. Then Martin was Vice-Chancellor and President of RMIT University, an institution with over 80,000 students based in Melbourne, Australia, with campuses in Vietnam and formal University partnerships in Singapore and China. He previously held the positions of Vice-Chancellor of The Open University, the UK’s largest academic institution and leader in the provision of flexible learning, and General Manager of Microsoft’s Education Products Group in Seattle, Washington. He has held various executive leadership roles in companies focused on integrating technology and learning solutions.

In 2012, he launched FutureLearn, the UK’s first at-scale provider of Massive Open Online Courses, and in 2014 he was named one of the UK Prime Minister’s Business Ambassadors. Martin was the Australian Government representative on the Commonwealth of Learning Board of Governors, Chaired the Australian Technology Network of Universities in 2017 and 2018 and Chaired the Victorian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee in 2018 and 2019. In 2021, Martin was appointed by the Australian Government as one of three Business Champions to support the Australia – Vietnam Strategic Partnership and jointly led a Federal Government Review of university-industry collaboration in teaching and learning.

Martin Bean has won numerous awards in the UK and US for his contribution to education including an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of London in 2013 and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 United Kingdom New Year’s Honours list, both for services to higher education.