Justin van Fleet

Chief Executive Officer, Global Business Coalition for Education

About Justin

Justin van Fleet is​ the President of the global children’s charity Theirworld and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Business Coalition for Education.

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He previously served as the Director of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity and Chief of Staff to the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown where the landmark “Learning Generation” report put forward a pathway to finance and deliver the ambitions of Sustainable Development Goal 4 – inclusive and equitable quality education for all. He has been a passionate advocate for financing education, playing an instrumental role in the establishment of the Education Cannot Wait Fund for education in emergencies and the new International Finance Facility for Education.

van Fleet was a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education in Washington, D.C. where his research focused on corporate social investments and philanthropy for global education.  He has previously held various non-profit and academic posts, including as Deputy Chair for Education at the Clinton Global Initiative, an Instructor at the University of Maryland and Associate Director of the Council on Foreign Relations Center for Universal Education. He has consulted for various international and national organizations and foundations.

van Fleet served on the Board of Trustees of Creative Minds International Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. from 2011-2015.

He graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in international education policy and holds a Masters degree from Harvard University in the same field.  A native of Western Maryland in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, he completed his Bachelor of Arts at Frostburg State University in international politics and Spanish. He has lived in Bolivia and Argentina.