In 2023, Grok Academy seemed to be kicking goals – and looked set to keep growing.
The high-profile coding program provider for high school and university students had reached more than 200,000 students at 3400 schools across the country.
Grok Academy’s founding mission was to improve the digital skills of school children. The program initially charged a subscription fee for its education services, until billionaire businessman Richard White, who made his fortune at logistics software group WiseTech Global, pledged $2.5 million in 2022 to roll out the brand’s free coding and digital education programs in 2022.
Grok Academy had also launched its Earn & Learn program in 2023, which offered students work while studying part-time at university. In its first year of running that initiative, 50 students joined the program. White wanted to see that number doubled in 2024.
A lot has changed.
Allegations of harassment
The Grok Academy chief executive, Dr James Curran, who founded Grok Academy in 2013, has resigned after several investigations substantiated allegations of harassment, including some students who were at high school at the time. Curran was an associate professor at the University of Sydney and the academic director of its Australian Computing Academy until 2021. As well as resigning as CEO, he has also resigned as a board member and is no longer employed by Grok Academy in any capacity.
At least nine women have alleged Curran sent them inappropriate messages. Six of the women were high school students at Curran’s summer school coding program, while three allege harassment while employed at Grok Academy, the coding camp and at the University of Sydney respectively, with the allegations spanning 10 years.
A third investigation, instigated in May this year by Grok Academy’s board and run by an independent external investigator, WorkDynamic, substantiated six incidents of general harassment and two incidents of sexual harassment.
Amy says she met Curran when she was a 16-year-old secondary school student 16 and received a Facebook friend request from him a year later when she had finished year 11 and had attended a Grok Academy coding camp for a second time.
Another woman says she received sexualised messages from Curran while she was a high school student at the summer coding program, while a third woman – a former Grok employee – alleges instances of inappropriate touching and messages. A fourth woman alleges Curran harassed her while she was a University of Sydney student.
Grok Academy has been in disarray in recent months, having laid off staff and lost almost half of its board after it failed to get approval to become a tax-deductible charity.
“Grok Academy is aware of complaints made against Dr James Curran,” a statement from Grok Academy said in the wake of the allegations. “We take any allegations involving our staff with the utmost seriousness.”
The company’s chief operating officer, Kylie Williams, has also left, with Martha McKeen, a former Commonwealth Bank executive who was appointed chief strategy officer in February 2024, also gone.
The company says its board – chaired by former University of Technology Sydney deputy vice-chancellor Shirley Alexander – had appointed an external investigator specialising in workplace matters.
“We are not at liberty to discuss this investigation and respect the confidentiality of the participants and the process,” the company said.
