Sir John Daniel spent 17 years as a university president in Canada (Laurentian University) and the UK (Open University) before joining UNESCO as Assistant Director-General for Education in 2001 and becoming President of the Commonwealth of Learning from 2004 to 2012. He is now Education Master with the Beijing DeTao Masters Academy in China. He has been closely involved in the development of open and distance learning for 35 years and served as President of the International Council for Distance Education.

Knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1994 for services to higher education, he has received 31 honorary doctorates from universities in 17 countries. Best known among his 300 publications is his book Mega-Universities and Knowledge Media: Technology Strategies for Higher Education. His new book, Mega-Schools, Technology and Teachers: Achieving Education for All addresses the twin challenges of achieving universal secondary education and training ten million teachers.