Like Father, Like Son... Two Higher Ed Titans | ASU+GSV Summit 2026

Jonathan Levin (President, Stanford University) and Rick Levin (President Emeritus, Yale University) join Julia Stiglitz (CEO & Co-Founder, Uplimit) at the ASU+GSV Summit 2026 in Like Father, Like Son... Two Higher Ed Titans to explore leadership, innovation, and the future of higher education.

Rick and Jonathan Levin have steered higher education through pivotal transformations. Now, as the sector navigates fresh challenges and opportunities, the father-son pair will join us on StageX at the ASU+GSV Summit!

Through his twenty-year tenure as Yale’s 22nd President, Rick Levin has demonstrated how universities can be a global force for good—modernizing campuses, advancing New Haven’s economic development, bolstering STEM and sustainability programs, and launching major globalization initiatives. He also navigated the first waves of digital transformation, deftly guiding Yale’s entry into online learning through Open Yale Courses and collaborations with Stanford and Oxford. He went on to serve as Coursera’s CEO from 2014 to 2017, establishing the company as the leading MOOC provider by scaling its offerings, refining its pedagogy, and spurring its growth to help millions of users worldwide.

Jonathan Levin was named president of Stanford University in 2024 after serving many years as a professor, department chair, and Dean of the Graduate School of Business. A leading economist and winner of the John Bates Clark Medal, he is known for his scholarship in industrial organization and market design, in addition to his contributions to the first vaccine Advance Market Commitment for pneumococcal disease and the FCC’s broadcast spectrum incentive auction. President Levin is a fierce advocate for university research as an engine of prosperity and innovation, as well as Stanford’s commitment to “protect free inquiry and model civil discourse.”

Both father and son are Stanford alumni, and each has served on presidential Councils of Advisors on Science and Technology: Rick for President Obama and Jonathan for President Biden.