Entrepreneur Bob Luddy & Thales Academy

Bob Luddy is a successful entrepreneur who founded CaptiveAire Systems, the nation's leading manufacturer of commercial kitchen ventilation systems, and later became an education entrepreneur, founding Thales Academy in 2007. Thales Academy is a classically-focused network of low-cost, PreK-12 private schools that has seen extraordinary growth from starting as a microschool with 30 students in a temporary spot in the back of Luddy's corporate office to now serving over 6,100 students across 13 locations in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Thales was recently named a semi-finalist for the prestigious Yass Prize for education innovation.  Entrepreneurial Life: The Path from Startup to Market Leader, by Robert Luddy *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated.