Alan Ruby has a long career in government, business, philanthropy, and education ranging from classroom teacher to Australian deputy secretary of education to chair of the OECD education committee. At the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Ruby, a Senior Fellow in the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy (Penn AHEAD), focuses on globalization’s effects on universities and education around the world. A highly regarded teacher, he leads graduate seminars on “Globalization and the University.” He earned the School’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2006. Since early 2018 he also served as the initial director of the Global Engagement office at Penn GSE advising the Dean on ways to increase the school’s international impact.

He currently serves as a Trustee of Nazarbayev University and the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools in Kazakhstan. He has served as a consultant to the Government of India, the World Bank, the HEAD Foundation in Singapore, higher education officials in Bhutan and Indonesia, and to the American Institutes of Research. In 2015 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to international education through global reform initiatives, and his work with philanthropic organizations. He reviews for the Journal of Studies in International Education (2016) and Online Learning Journal (2015- 2017).

Mr. Ruby was a senior executive of one of the world’s premier grant making groups, the Atlantic Philanthropies, and served as director of the Human Development Sector for the East Asia Region of the World Bank, where he led the World Bank’s programs in education, health, and social insurance in 12 countries including China, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Mr. Ruby served for over six years as Australia’s Deputy Secretary of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, where he was responsible for primary and secondary education, higher education, and vocational education and training. He chaired the education programs of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), spearheading the development of education metrics comparing school results across member countries including the development of a new assessment regime (PISA). He was also a member of the Scientific Advisory Group that created the framework for the flagship OECD publication Education at a Glance. Early in his career, he was a teacher and an official in the state government of New South Wales.