Dr Michel Khoury, CEO of Eastwood Schools, on his journey from Wall Street to building a global schools empire
“Learning doesn’t have to take nine hours a day. What we’ve found is learning can be focused four hours a day and achieve the same exact academic results that any other bricks and mortar IB school can achieve.”
Dr. Michel A. Khoury's path to education leadership started at the investment bank Bear Stearns of all places, a notorious victim of the 2008 financial crash. After studying business at Emory and forging a career in M&A, he decided to do a master's degree in international education development at Columbia, and then found himself building schools in LA for a family he'd met through a friend at university. Revived with new purpose, he returned to his native Lebanon to take over Eastwood Schools – the school his father founded at 19 – but insisted on starting at the bottom: answering phones, running admissions and managing the food. After 18 months, he was at the helm. Today, Eastwood has grown into a global schools group, spanning Switzerland (where Michel is based), Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Iraq, Mexico, Brazil and beyond.
Chatting to Henry Faber, Michel reveals how Eastwood became a global IB leader, why he believes teachers are the single most important ingredient to any school's success and his prediction that the international school sector will consolidate to just a handful of major players – a lack of diversity he worries about. He describes online education as the "crown jewel" of his organisation, serving the needs of everyone from Olympic athletes to families living in the most remote corners of the world. He also reveals the cost-cutting philosophy he learnt at Bear Stearns that he now applies to running schools, his controversial take on bullying and the challenges on building community when your students are scattered across the globe.