Jonathan Grayer

Jonathan Grayer is the Chairman and CEO of Kaplan, Inc., a global education company that began as a test prep provider in 1938 and was purchased by The Washington Post Company in 1984. Grayer is credited with expanding the company to its current size since 1994 when he was first appointed CEO.

Education and Career

Grayer graduated with an A.B. from Harvard College in 1986. Over the course of his college career, he served as a summer intern in the corporate development department at The Washington Post Company. Upon completing his M.B.A. at Harvard Business School in 1990, he joined the marketing department of Newsweek, another Washington Post company, where he was eventually named the director of marketing. Grayer joined Kaplan in 1991 as regional operations director, and held several titles before becoming president and CEO in July 1994. He was named Chairman and CEO of the education company in February 2002.(The Washingtonian, June 2005)

Growth of Kaplan

When Grayer first became CEO of Kaplan in 1994, the company was an $80 million test preparation business. Through a series of strategic acquisitions that brought Kaplan into the higher education and professional training markets, he was able to diversify Kaplan into a company that provides lifelong learning and had more than $2 billion in revenue in 2007.

In 2004, BusinessWeek named Grayer one of the best managers of the year for his leadership in establishing Kaplan as The Washington Post Company’s "financial crown jewel." The company’s growth under his leadership has been reported on by other national and international media including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

Other Roles

Grayer now serves on the boards of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Partnership for New York City. In September 2005, he was named by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to the Commission on the Future of Higher Education.