Charles Thornburgh

Charles has spent his career founding edtech companies — five of them across K-12 and higher education — driven by the belief that technology and data can dramatically expand access to learning experiences that change lives. Most notably, he founded Civitas Learning, where he pioneered the use of data and predictive analytics in higher education, helping hundreds of universities support millions of learners in persisting and graduating — many of them adults navigating college alongside work, family, and everything else life demands.
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That challenge never left him. After two years world schooling his sons across dozens of countries, he came home convinced that AI changes what's possible for learners who've often fallen through the cracks. Protagonist is the result — an AI-native guidance platform that helps colleges and universities deliver personalized support at scale, from consideration through career launch. That means a tireless guide that meets students where they are, understands their whole situation, and shows up at every step of a journey that rarely follows a straight line.
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Charles has a BA in Political Science from Stanford, where a passion for education first took hold teaching high school kids on nights and weekends. His family splits their time between Austin and the SF Bay Area, though his sons would still rather be in Japan.