Bertil Hult

Bertil Hult is a Swedish billionaire, entrepreneur, and founder and former CEO and chairman of EF Education First. Hult was born in 1941 in Stockholm. As a child, he struggled with dyslexia and dropped out of school after junior high and moved to London, where he worked making coffee and running errands for a ship broker. He learned English at this time and became convinced that immersion, rather than classroom learning, was the best way to learn a language. He returned to Sweden and took up his studies again, enrolling at Lund University. In 1965, Hult started EF Education First from his dorm room and dropped out of Lund University after one year. Hult's childhood struggles with dyslexia, coupled with the years he’d spent in London as a teen, helped him personally see the benefits of experiential learning and cultural immersion and his business idea was to provide educational, culturally immersive travel to students.

In 2021, EF Education First was the world's largest private education organization and operated 600 schools and offices in over 100 countries, with 52,000 international staff. With a stated mission "to break down the barriers of language, culture, and geography," EF provides language education, educational international travel, cultural exchange, academic degrees, and operates the world's largest Internet-based English language school. Bertil Hult stepped down as CEO in 2002 in favor of his son, Edward Hult, and stepped down as chairman in 2008 in favor of his son, Philip Hult. The Hult family owns EF Education First in its entirety, and in 2021, Bertil remained involved with the company in a semi-retired role.

EF is affiliated with the Hult International Business School, formerly the Arthur D. Little School of Management, named after Bertil Hurt, who serves as Chairman Emeritus and sponsors the Hult Prize, a $1 million award for a global business school case competition. In 1993, Hult co-founded the Geneva-based Mentor Foundation, dedicated to fighting drug abuse. In 2003, Hult established the Bertil Hult Prize, an annual grant given to a Swedish based on their support for dyslexia education. In 2006, Bertil Hult was elected International Swede of the Year. In 2012, Hult was awarded the Lucia Trade Award by the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce and in 2014, Hult was named a Laureate by the World Entrepreneurship Forum. Bertil Hult was listed as number 680 on the Forbes Billionaires List 2021.