Boris Bulayev

Boris is the CEO and co-founder of Educate!, which he co-founded when he was 19. Under his leadership, the organization has grown to become the biggest youth skills provider in East Africa and has received various recognition, including a highlight by Bill Gates and recognition from the World Bank’s S4YE’s Impact Portfolio, and The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies in their global scaling education learning initiative.

Under his leadership, Educate! has grown to almost 200 staff and over 300 Mentors, reaching over 46,000 students intensively and 470,000 more broadly across over 1.000 schools in Uganda and Rwanda. Educate! seen a doubling of youth income before graduation in two rigorous evaluations, has advised on integration of skills-based education into Uganda and Rwanda’s national education systems, and is currently a technical advisor on Kenya’s secondary education reform. The organization has received much acclaim for its work, including the 2015 WISE award, recognition as one of 14 global case studies on scaling education by Brookings Institution, and recognition from Bill Gates.

Boris emigrated to the U.S. from Latvia at the age of 7. He considers himself lucky to have attended a great public school in San Francisco that eventually got him into Amherst College. As a refugee himself, Boris believes in giving other young people access to the same educational opportunities he had that have allowed him to get to where he is today.

Before jumping into Educate! full-time, Boris worked at startup incubator Loeb Enterprises. Boris is a recipient of the 2011 Grinnell College Young Innovator for Social Justice Prize, and a two-time Forbes Top 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur.

Boris has been with Educate! since 2004.