Our Story

Barbara spent years as a physician and WHO technical officer, working across 25+ countries to improve health systems. But when she watched her own children lose their spark for learning inside traditional schools, she knew something had to change.

She founded an Acton Academy — a learner-driven microschool built on the belief that kids are already curious, capable, and motivated. The job of education is to get out of the way and give them the right tools.

What she saw in the classroom was clear: children didn’t need more content. They needed ownership. They needed to build things, to create, to make learning feel like theirs. When students built games to prove they understood a math concept, something clicked that no worksheet ever could.

Mike had been running hackathons and practicethons for students across Hong Kong and Southeast Asia — watching kids light up the moment they stopped consuming and started making. He and Barbara crossed paths at the intersection of education and technology, and Diagonally was born.

Scott brought the curriculum architecture and the storytelling — 12 years building Critical Thinking programs across Asia, a 20,000-person audience built from scratch. Together, they set out to build the platform that gives every learner ownership, relevance, and community.