John D. Couch

John D. Couch, Apple's first vice president of education, has always been a proponent of personalized learning. Couch was recruited by Steve Jobs in 1978, becoming Apple's fifty-fourth employee. He left in 1984 to help a struggling K–12 school in San Diego that is now a National Blue Ribbon School. At Jobs's request, Couch returned to Apple in 2002, tasked with bringing education into the digital age. He was Apple's representative for President Obama's National Education Technology Plan and ConnectEd initiative and has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Philadelphia for "Innovation in Education."