News TEDs new chapter begins!Posted by: Chris Anderson October 15, 2025at 12:30 pm EDTToday Im sharing a momentous announcement. After a nine-month global search, we have found a beautiful answer to the question of who will carry TED forward into the future.Why this moment mattersWhen we announced this process back in February, our guiding question was simple: Who can best take on TEDs unique blend of offerings and values not just for the next few years, but for the coming decades? Our advisers, LionTree, heard from nearly 100 thoughtful and passionate groups spanning individuals, foundations, media organizations, technology platforms, investor groups, and universities. (We even received generous offers to purchase TED outright.) The breadth, ambition, and imagination of what was offered were truly inspiring.But for me and for everyone on TEDs leadership team the answers werent just about capital or scale. They were about stewardship, values, and a shared belief in giving ideas away, trusting community, preserving independence, and amplifying human possibility.From that landscape of offers, we made a decision grounded in the guardrails we set in the original blog post announcing the search:Ambition for transformation, not just incrementalism the next steward must have a truly compelling vision for how TED can scale up its impact.Protection of all that people hold dear about TED: the powerful experience of our main conference, our free TED Talk videos, our cherished communities of volunteers, and our determined optimism that a better future can be built.An open tent, diverse voices, global reach, nonpartisanship those are nonnegotiable.Editorial and intellectual integrity must be protected against any conflicts of interest or agenda.TED must never be sold out to commercial interests, either now or down the line.We seriously considered for-profit joint ventures that could allow TEDs rapid growth and infuse TED with significant capital. But the more we thought through the possibilities and reminded ourselves of the extraordinary culture of generosity that infuses this community, the harder it was to picture a scenario where TEDs ultimate controllers might one day prioritize profits over mission.So we made a key decisionTEDs Nonprofit status must endure TED will stay a nonprofit, independent of external commercial control. We will proudly continue our transparent mission of providing knowledge, insights and inspiration freely to anyone in the world.And now you will understand why I am so excited at where we ended up.Meet TEDs new Vision Steward Sal Khan!Sal Khan and Chris Anderson at TED2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)It is my delight to introduce Sal Khan, founder and CEO of the incredible nonprofit Khan Academy. Sal will join TEDs board as TEDs new Vision Steward, while continuing his full-time role leading Khan Academy. Sal understands, in his bones, what it means to build a global educational platform rooted in the power of what technology and AI can enable in our connected world. Sals story is well known: starting with math videos and software to help his cousins, he grew Khan Academy into a trusted, free learning resource for students and a valued partner for schools and districts with over 170 million registered users in over 50 languages. He has blended pedagogical rigor, technology (including the powerful use of AI), and ingenuity in service of learners everywhere. He has attracted and retained an extraordinary team. He has partnered with the worlds most thoughtful philanthropists and recruited one of the most powerful boards in the nonprofit space. Perhaps most importantly, hes won the respect and gratitude of countless numbers of educators, parents, and students worldwide.What makes Sal especially compelling for TED is that hes shown he can craft a vision thats both breathtakingly ambitious and achievable in todays technological landscape. And hes done so inside a nonprofit culture. Add to this his lifelong dance with the power of curiosity, his hunger for crosscutting ideas, and his belief that bridging divides is not a side project, but a mission. Well, you can see why Im excited.Khan Academy and TED will continue to operate independently of each other, but Sal has already shared with me electrifying sketches of how TED could find new ways of empowering humanity by tackling lifelong learning. He also sees how TED could play a meaningful role in helping address the worlds growing division and social isolation. Were not announcing any details today. But watch this space Its about to get seriously exciting.While Sal will serve as a guiding steward for vision, the day-to-day execution will fall to a new CEO. For the past 12 years Jay Herratti has given sterling service to TED, initially as head of TEDx, and for the past five years as CEO, where he heroically turned my often wild ideas into effective operational reality. During that time he brilliantly dealt with the challenges of a pandemic and a brutally unstable media landscape. Jay has already given many more years to TED than he initially intended, and is now ready for his next chapter in which he intends to focus on board-level work. Introducing TEDs new CEOLogan McClure Davda at TED Countdown Summit 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo: Humphrey Gateri / TED)Were therefore proud to announce a new CEO for TED: Logan McClure Davda.Logan is not an outsider or newcomer she is a leader forged within our org. From co-founding our Fellows program to her current role as Head of Impact, she has earned deep respect across the organization and among our community. She knows our culture, our strengths and constraints; she has fought to extend TEDs reach, and she is a believer in Sals vision for the future.Our conviction is that this combination a visionary steward plus an exceptional, trusted internal leader gives us the best of both worlds: fresh imagination and operational firepower. This conviction has been strengthened by meaningful indications of financial support from exciting new philanthropic partners. (More to come on this.)Meanwhile, Jay and I remain deeply committed to TED. Jay is joining TEDs board and will be available as a resource to Logan. Ill be on the board too and Ill proudly continue to cheer-lead, fundraise, and carry the torch for TEDs values. Ill also play a leading role at the upcoming TED2026 in Vancouver. That is going to be one epic celebration of all that this community stands for, and a thrilling chance for me to officially pass the torch to Sal and Logan.What happens next and how you can be part of itLogan, Jay, and I will join Sal in co-hosting a community conversation by the end of this year to invite feedback, questions, and ideas.Well be transparent about the governance structure, board composition, and how decisions will be made.Well begin recruiting (with input from the community) an Ideas Council, an exciting braintrust that will work with our head of media and curation Helen Walters and her exceptional team of curators to guide TEDs pursuit of the ideas that matter.And yes when the new leadership team is ready to unveil its plans, Ill join them in an ambitious fund-raise to match the scope of our ambition for this next chapter.To TEDs community our speakers, TEDx organizers, educators, translators, Fellows, volunteers, donors, staff, and viewers around the world: this moment is for you. You have given TED its wings. Now lets give it a future worthy of that trust.Im deeply grateful to everyone who engaged in the search, submitted proposals, raised questions, and stayed with us in the tension of the unknown. I remain, as always, an ardent believer in TED and Im excited for this moment of passing the torch, and leaning into whats next.Sal and Logan Congratulations! And thank you! This is going to be beautiful. Chris AndersonWatch the special event that took place on Wednesday, October 15, to announce these exciting changes:Want to hear even more about how the new steward was selected? Listen to Chris exclusive conversation with Manoush Zomorodi on a special edition of NPRs TED Radio Hour.For press inquiries, contact press@ted.com.