Rishi Jaitly
About Rishi Jaitly
I'm in perpetual awe of the power of people and places, and have devoted my career to unlocking our shared potential. I have entrepreneurial and executive experience around the world and across a wide range of sectors. I’ve built and led teams in the U.S., across the Indian subcontinent, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. I advise a wide range of causes and companies around the world, including OpenAI. And I’m proud to serve at Virginia Tech, where I founded and lead the Institute for Leadership in Technology, which offers rising stars in the technology landscape the nation's first executive degree in the humanities. Our motto, Ut Prosim (“That I May Serve”), inspires me daily. Earlier in my career, I co-founded and was CEO of Times Bridge, America's most prominent venture capital firm with a mission of helping the world's best ideas expand internationally, and into India in particular. Our portfolio included Airbnb, Coursera, Uber. As an advocate of the humanities, I presently serve as a Trustee of the National Humanities Center, Virginia Humanities, Village Capital, PRX and USTA MAF. At my alma mater, Princeton University, where I served as a Trustee nearly two decades ago, I have Chaired the Alumni Association's Communications and Technology Committee and founded Princeton's annual "Orange and Black Day." I previously served on the Board of Princeton AlumniCorps. Earlier career: built/led Twitter's operations in India and entry into markets across Asia Pacific/Middle East; led investments for Knight Foundation in Detroit; co-founded @BMeCommunity, a leadership social network of/for black men/boys in Detroit/nationwide; founded @MichiganCorps, an online service platform; founded Kiva Detroit/Flint, America's first online micro-lending initiative; shaped beginning of Google.org and Google/YouTube's entry into India/South Asia; led communications for Google CEO Eric Schmidt; advocated for low-income college access at federal/state level at College Summit; secured win in 2008's Higher Ed Act, calling on US to report college enrollment rate by HS for 1st time in history. Past Civic: Trustee, Princeton University (2004-08); Commissioner, New Jersey Commission on Higher Education (2003-04); Founder, youtube.com/IndiaVoices, @mytenpass, @BollywoodInTheD and more. Awards: Class of 1901 Medal & Spirit of Princeton Award; Crain's Detroit 40 under 40; Featured in NY Times, WSJ, CNN, MSNBC, Forbes. Speeches: Princeton, Harvard, Michigan, UChicago, MIT, Notre Dame, Duke, Northwestern, UVA, IIT, Global Entrepreneurship Congress, TiE, UN, CES Asia, VT, UT.