Greg Hart became the new President and Chief Executive Officer of Coursera, the world’s largest online learning platform, in February 2025. He took over for Jeff Maggioncalda, who retired after seven years of making big changes. Hart is a seasoned technology leader with more than 25 years of experience. He has a proven track record of driving innovation and growing businesses at big companies like Amazon and Compass. His appointment is a turning point for Coursera as it tries to adapt to a rapidly changing educational landscape shaped by AI, reskilling workers, and the global need for easy-to-access learning.
A Tech Expert with a Plan for Schools
Greg Hart, 55, has a lot of experience at Coursera. He worked at Amazon for 23 years, where he was a key player in launching and growing groundbreaking products. Hart was the technical advisor to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. He was in charge of creating Alexa and the Echo organization, which went from an idea to a groundbreaking AI-based consumer product that is now used on over 100 million devices around the world. He also led the worldwide growth of Prime Video, adding live sports streaming and improving the platform’s technical capabilities.
Hart worked at Compass, the biggest residential real estate brokerage in the U.S., as Chief Product Officer and then Chief Operating Officer. He was in charge of making the company more efficient and helping it go public. He became a member of the Bose Corporation Board of Directors in December 2024, which showed that he is a leader in industries that use technology. Hart has a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College and 71 U.S. patents. His technical and strategic skills make him the perfect person to lead Coursera into its next phase of growth.
A Change Based on a Mission
Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, two Stanford professors, started Coursera in 2012. Today, it is one of the biggest online learning platforms in the world, with over 175 million registered learners and partnerships with more than 350 universities and industry leaders. With Maggioncalda in charge, the company reached important goals, such as a tenfold increase in revenue, a successful IPO in 2021, and making money, all while using generative AI technologies and dealing with the problems caused by the pandemic.
Hart’s appointment, which will take effect on February 3, 2025, came after a careful succession planning process led by Coursera’s Board of Directors and Co-Founder Andrew Ng. Ng praised Hart’s ability to “create consumer demand, drive growth, and improve operational performance at scale.” Ng said he was sure that Hart was the right person to lead Coursera’s mission to change lives through learning.
Hart, in his first public comments as CEO, stressed how important Coursera’s mission is to society: “The chance to join Coursera was unbelievably appealing because of the mission and the good it would do for society.” The goal is to make education available to everyone, everywhere in the world, so that anyone can change their life through learning. You can’t write a better mission than that. Hart thinks that Coursera will be able to meet the needs of the next billion learners who come online over the next five years. This is because 2.5 billion people still don’t have access to the internet.
Strategic Goals and Problems
Hart takes over a company that is in good financial shape, with $748 million in cash, no debt, and positive free cash flow, according to reports from the first quarter of 2025. In just the first quarter, the platform gained more than seven million new learners thanks to successful marketing and product campaigns, a larger course catalog, and AI-powered learning experiences. But in the last few quarters, some parts have grown more slowly. For example, the net retention rate for the enterprise segment fell from 94% to 91%, and degree program revenues fell even though more people signed up.
Hart has set some important goals to deal with these problems, such as coming up with new products, adding more content, and making better plans for getting products to market. He wants to improve the learning experience by using AI tools like Coursera Coach and audio dubbing. These tools have already helped the company make $179.3 million in revenue in Q1 2025, a 6.1% increase from the previous year. Hart also wants to put money into original content, especially in areas that are in high demand, like healthcare, and to make Coursera’s business and government offerings even better.
One big change Hart has made is to change how Coursera reports to make the Degrees segment part of the Consumer segment, which is in line with how the company manages itself. Some analysts have questioned this move, but Coursera’s leaders say it makes things more open and is part of a strategic shift toward industry-led content, which has shown to have more revenue potential than traditional university degrees.
The Part AI and University Partnerships Play
Hart sees Coursera as an important link between learners and the skills they need in a job market that is changing quickly. The platform has added more than 500 generative AI courses, which shows how serious it is about getting students ready for new technologies. Hart stresses the long-term benefits of university partnerships, pointing out that Coursera’s most popular courses are still taught by top professors from schools like Vanderbilt, Michigan, Yale, and Dartmouth.
Hart told Inside Higher Ed, “My background is in building and growing businesses that are based on technology.” “What makes this work so important is that the stakes are higher.” We’re not just helping people shop or watch movies; we’re also helping them change their lives by giving them access to learning. He sees Coursera’s job as making a networked ecosystem where students can move from microcredentials to academic credits and full degrees, all while meeting the needs of businesses that want to improve their employees’ skills.
What to Look Forward To
Hart is still hopeful about Coursera’s future, even though there are questions about the cost and value of education and the state of the economy. He thinks that the company’s strong finances and global reach put it in a good position to take advantage of the “nearly limitless” demand for learning. However, analysts say that Coursera will have trouble growing because its revenue forecast for 2025 is only $725 million and there are worries about keeping customers in the consumer segment.
Hart’s time at Amazon has shaped his leadership style, which stresses working together and being clear about your goals. He told Newsweek, “I think the best way to get a clear strategic direction is not for the CEO to tell everyone what to do, but for the CEO to help the leadership team come up with it together.” This method, along with his emphasis on innovation and operational discipline, suggests that Coursera’s next chapter will be full of energy.
As Greg Hart takes over, Coursera must work hard to stay at the top of the online education field. Coursera is ready to take on the challenges of a world that is changing quickly, one learner at a time. Its mission is to make learning available to everyone, and its leader has a track record of scaling transformative technologies.
