Shai Reshef is president of University of the People (UoPeople)-the world's first tuition-free, non-profit online academic institution dedicated to the democratization of higher education.
Grounded in the belief that knowledge is a key ingredient of world peace, UoPeople provides access to collegiate-level studies to qualified individuals regardless of geographic, financial or societal constraints.
An educational entrepreneur, Mr. Reshef has 20 years of experience in the international education market. From 1989 to 2005, he served as chairman of the Kidum Group, a for-profit educational services company. Between 2001 and 2004, he also chaired KIT eLearning, the online learning partner of the University of Liverpool and the first online university outside of the United States.
Mr. Reshef has been widely recognized for his work with UoPeople. In 2009, he was named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business, selected by OneWorld as one of its 'People of 2009' and awarded an Ashoka fellowship. He also joined UN-GAID as a high-level adviser. In August 2010, on behalf of UoPeople, Mr. Reshef was granted membership in the Clinton Global Initiative. The following month, recognized for "taking the world to school," he was selected by The Huffington Post readership as the Ultimate Game Changer in Education. In February 2012, he was nominated as one of Wired Magazine's "50 People Changing the World."
An expert on the intersection of education and technology, Mr. Reshef has spoken internationally at numerous conferences including the DLD: Digital, Life, Design; World Economic Forum; EG Conference, Google's Higher Education Summit; EMV Human Values meeting; The Economist's Annual Human Potential Summit and the Schools for Tomorrow Event for the New York Times. He has also lectured at Yale University, Harvard University, Stanford University and Oxford University, among others.
Mr. Reshef holds an M.A. in Chinese politics from the University of Michigan.