10 Facts About Martin Bean

Martin George Bean was born on 26 October 1964 and is an Australian education administrator.

Martin Bean served as the Vice-Chancellor of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, from 2015 to 2021.

Martin Bean was Vice-Chancellor of Open University from 2009 to 2015.

Martin Bean worked at companies including Novell, Sylvan Learning, Thomson Learning and New Horizons Computer Learning Centres before joining Microsoft, where he became general manager responsible for product management, marketing and business development in the Worldwide Education Products Group.

Martin Bean stated his aim was to use technology in order to provide an education to anyone at low or no cost.

In December 2012, Martin Bean launched FutureLearn, an online initiative supporting a Massive Open Online Course platform, led by The Open University in partnership with 11 other UK universities.

In 2013, Martin Bean oversaw the release of OU Anywhere, an app which allows students to access OU undergraduate course materials using smartphones and tablets.

Martin Bean oversaw the launch of the Teacher Education through the school-based support in India project, a program in collaboration with the Indian government to bring distance learning teacher education resources to educators in India.

Martin Bean was appointed CBE in the 2015 New Year Honours.

Martin Bean is on the Board of Trustees of the British Council, the Board of the Commonwealth of Learning and the British Museum's Digital Advisory Group.