Joel Klein and Jack Markell with Michele Norris

Joel Klein

Joel Klein is Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the United States with over 1.1 million students in over 1,420 schools. Prior to his appointment to Chancellor in 2002 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Klein served as Assistant Attorney General of the United States in charge of the Antitrust Division. Klein may be best remembered for prosecuting the United States Department of Justice anti-trust case against Microsoft. Before heading up the Antitrust Division, Klein was the deputy to Anne Bingaman, (the wife of Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico) in that office, and worked in the White House Counsel's office. He was in private practice for many years, specializing in appellate cases. Klein received his B.A. from Columbia and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He served as a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell.