Current Report · Items 5.02, 7.01, 9.01 · 8-K
Coursera, Inc.
COURNYSEEQUITYCurrent
Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements · Regulation FD Disclosure
Item 5.02. Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers. On September 17, 2028, Coursera, Inc. (“ Coursera,” “ we,” “ us ” and “ our ”) appointed Tom Savage as Coursera’s Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, effective September 21, 2026 ( the “Effective Date”).…
Filed Sep 21, 2026Accepted Sep 21, 2026, 9:00 AM EDTCIK 1651562Accession 0001140361-26-037189
Company context
Coursera was launched in 2012 by Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller with a mission to provide universal access to world-class learning. Coursera partners with leading university and industry partners to offer a broad catalog of content and credentials, including courses, Specializations, Professional Certificates, and degrees. Coursera’s platform innovations - including AI-powered personalized guide and features, like Role Play and Course Builder, and role-based solutions like Skills Tracks - enable instructors, partners, and companies to deliver scalable, personalized, and verified learning. Institutions worldwide rely on Coursera to upskill and reskill their employees, students, and citizens in high-demand fields such as GenAI, data science, technology, and business, while learners globally turn to Coursera to master the skills they need to advance their careers. Coursera is a Delaware public benefit corporation and a B Corp. Coursera recently combined with Udemy to create one of the world’s most comprehensive skills development platforms. Together, the Coursera and Udemy platforms reach more than 300 million learners and 12,000 enterprise customers worldwide.
Current securities
Registered securities in this filing
COURSERA, INC. · 8-K · Filed 2026-09-21
As filed in this accession. Current/historical status below comes from the governed listing record; the cover itself remains exact to this filing.
Common Stock, $0.00001 par value per share
- Exchange
- NYSE
- Classification
- COMMON
- Status
- Current
Filing context
Context: c0
Dimensions: Not supplied
Accession 000114036126037189 · 1 registered-security cover member
Read the exact SEC filing ↗Disclosure sections
Items 5.02, 7.01, 9.01Select an item to read the extracted section. The as-filed document remains the primary evidence.
Item 5.02Item 5.02 - Departure/Election of Directors
Item 5.02.
Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
On September 17, 2028, Coursera, Inc.
(“ Coursera,” “ we,” “ us ” and “ our ”)
appointed Tom Savage as Coursera’s Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer
and Corporate Secretary, effective September 21, 2026 ( the “Effective Date”). Alan
Cardenas, Coursera’s Senior Vice President, General Counsel, has decided to
step down as an “officer” within the meaning of Rule 16a-1(f) under the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as of the Effective Date, but will
remain in his role as Senior Vice President, General Counsel until the end of
2026, under his existing compensation terms, to support this transition. It is
anticipated that Mr. Cardenas will thereafter continue to serve as an advisor.
Mr.
Savage, age 57, most recently served as Vice President of International
Business Machines Corporation (“ IBM ”) from January 2026 to May
2026. From 2019 to 2025, Mr. Savage served as Senior Vice President and General
Counsel of Red Hat, Inc., a provider of open source software solutions,
following its acquisition by IBM in 2019. From 2017 to 2019, Mr. Savage served
as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Red Hat. Prior to that, from
2007 to 2017, Mr. Savage served in various senior legal roles at Marvell
Technology Group, Ltd., a publicly traded global semiconductor company,
including as Senior Vice President and General Counsel. Mr. Savage served as a
partner in the corporate and securities practice of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich
& Rosati from 2006 to 2009 and as counsel at Shearman & Sterling LLP
from 2003 to 2005. Mr. Savage holds a J.D. from The University of Chicago Law
School and a B.A. in Government from Harvard College and is admitted to
practice law in California and Illinois.
Under the terms of Mr. Savage’s offer letter (the “CLO Offer Letter”), he will receive an annual base salary of $425,000, and he will be eligible to participate in our annual cash incentive program, with a target bonus opportunity equal to 60% of his base salary, subject to the achievement of performance conditions determined by our board of directors (the “Board”) or the Human Resources and Compensation Committee of the Board (the “HRC Committee”).
As contemplated by the CLO Offer Letter, the HRC Committee granted Mr. Savage a one-time new hire equity award with a value of $2,450,000 (the “New Hire Award”), in the form of restricted stock units (“RSUs”). The number of shares subject to the RSU award will be determined by dividing the New Hire Award value by the higher of (x) $10.00 and (y) the average price per share of our common stock during the calendar month in which Mr. Savage's employment commences, rounded to the nearest whole share, and will be subject to the terms and conditions of Coursera’s 2021 Stock Incentive Plan and our standard form of time-based RSU agreement. The RSUs are scheduled to vest over a three-year period, with 50% of the RSUs vesting on our quarterly vesting date occurring on the first anniversary of the Effective Date, approximately 8.33% of the RSUs vesting on each of the four quarterly vesting dates thereafter, and the remaining RSUs vesting in approximately equal installments (approximately 4.167% of the RSUs) on each of the following four quarterly vesting dates, in each case subject to Mr. Savage's continued employment through the applicable vesting date.
Mr. Savage will participate as a “Class A Executive” in the Company’s Amended and Restated Executive Severance Plan (the “Severance Plan”), which plan provides for certain severance and change in control benefits to certain executive employees. The Severance Plan is filed as Exhibit 10.13 to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K/A filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on April 30, 2026, and is incorporated herein by reference. In connection with his appointment, Coursera expects to enter into its form of indemnification agreement with Mr. Savage.
There are no arrangements or understandings between Mr. Savage and any other persons pursuant to which he was appointed as Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, and Mr. Savage has no family relationships with any director or executive officer of Coursera. In addition, Mr. Savage is not a party to any transaction with any related person required to be disclosed pursuant to Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K.
The foregoing description of the CLO Offer Letter does not purport to be complete and is subject to, and is qualified in its entirety by, the complete text of the CLO Offer Letter, which Coursera expects to file as an exhibit to its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ending September 30, 2026, which upon filing will be incorporated herein by reference.
Item 7.01Item 7.01 - Regulation FD Disclosure
Item 7.01.
Regulation FD Disclosure.
On September 21, 2026, Coursera issued a press release announcing Mr. Savage’s appointment described in Item 5.02 above. A copy of such press release is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.1 and incorporated by reference herein. The information in Item 7.01 of this Current Report on Form 8-K is furnished and shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing of Coursera under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Exchange Act.
Filed exhibits (1)
EX-99.1 (by filename) ef20082456_ex99-1.htmExhibit 99.1
Coursera Announces Legal Leadership Transition
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 21, 2026 - Coursera, Inc. (NYSE: COUR), a leading global online learning platform, today announced that Tom Savage has joined the company as Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, effective today, as part of a planned leadership transition. Savage succeeds Alan Cardenas, who has decided to transition from his role as head of the legal department in order to focus on his family after five years with the company, during which time Coursera scaled its operations as a public company. To ensure a smooth handoff, Cardenas will continue to remain in his role as General Counsel with Coursera until the end of 2026 to support Savage's onboarding.
“Alan has been an outstanding partner and leader through many important chapters in Coursera's history, overseeing the company's growth as a public company, helping close our combination with Udemy, and creating a world-class legal team to support our global ecosystem. On behalf of the entire team, I want to thank him for his years of dedication and wish him well as he steps away to focus on family,” said Greg Hart, CEO of Coursera.
Hart continued, “I’m really e…
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