Peter Hutton
Edtech expert and Founder and CEO at theProjectLab
In 1992 Peter Hutton became CEO of Beaver Country Day School, at the time a struggling under-enrolled under-financed school, and through creating a laser focused organizational culture built it into a school with the strongest brand of Boston area independent schools, and into one of the most innovative schools in the country. Hutton believes that strong leadership (Leadership is having a point of view) creates a high functioning organizational design that creates a culture passionate about vision, nimble about strategy and always meeting the needs of the customer. In Hutton’s organization 100% of employees must support the culture and mindset. His approach to turning Beaver around and making it a dynamic environment applies to any sector and any organization at any stage of development. At Beaver Hutton endeavored to reimagine education in the context of the future of work. Hutton is a strong advocate of embracing new technologies and designing physical spaces to both support and shape creative problem solving. To that end, Hutton has launched many initiatives with the goal of expanding the nature of school: founding partner of NuVu Studio, the rollout of a 1x1 laptop program, introducing Design Thinking, implementing The Coded Curriculum and, most recently opening the “Library of the Future” - a $20M Research and Design Center. Hutton believes in partnering with leading organizations and has collaborated with IDEO, Steelcase and Harvard Graduate School of Education on major initiatives. He also maintains that a shared organizational mindset is essential. He developed and integrated a 3-part mindset at Beaver: Think Both/And, Make Excellent Mistakes, Launch/Test/Refine. In addition, students are taught to develop essential skills that will make them “future proof” through collaboration, iteration, tech & media literacy, visual communication and empathy. Hutton has spoken at a wide range of venues and organizations including SXSW, Catalant, ATLIS, Boston Society of Architects, The National Association of Independent Schools and New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Since leaving Beaver in 2020 he has been a consultant for Brainly and is now a board member and consultant for Sora Schools - both General Catalyst Partners backed companies. He is very excited to be Founder and CEO of TheProjectLab - a platform that will immerse high school students in real life project based problem solving and help them build portfolios that will differentiate them in the college admissions process. Launching in June 2023! He has run 5 marathons and biked 14 Pan Mass Challenges (so far) and, alas, is a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan.