Shuja Keen

MITAI / MITAS, Founder & Chair / Founder & President

Shuja Keen is an AI entrepreneur, investor and public company director with more than two decades of experience building and financing technology-enabled businesses. He is the Founder and Chair of the MIT AI Conference, now in its tenth year, and President of MIT Alumni Startups (MITAS), a global community for MIT alumni founders. Shuja is a Founding Partner of NYA Labs, which builds and operates AI-native businesses, and Founder and Chairman of Operator Labs, which automates administrative and revenue-cycle workflows for healthcare providers. He was part of the founding teams of The Resource Group and ibex (NASDAQ: IBEX). He serves on the ibex Board of Directors and its AI Committee, with prior service on the Nomination and Governance, Compensation, and Transaction Committees. At The Resource Group, he helped build and grow technology-enabled services businesses, working across portfolio operations, fundraising, acquisitions and public offerings on NASDAQ and the London Stock Exchange. Shuja is also a Founding Partner of Mentors Fund and Co-Chair of its Investment Committee. The fund has backed more than 100 capital-efficient startups transforming traditional industries. He is a Founding Partner of Seven Eight Six, an early-stage venture firm that directs 100% of its profits to STEM scholarships for women and minorities. A longtime MIT volunteer, Shuja serves on the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee on Student Life, the Alumni Association’s strategic planning committee, and the board of the MIT Club of Northern California. He previously served on the MIT Alumni Association Board of Directors, as President of the MIT Club of Northern California, and as Alumni Class President. Shuja also serves on the board of SundarSTEM, a need-blind boarding school for exceptionally gifted students. A four year old school and Its students have won international Olympiad medals in Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, including four bronze medals at the 2025 International Olympiad in Informatics. From its first graduating class, one student admitted to MIT’s Class of 2030. He advises the Fatima Institute for Global AI Research, which supports emerging AI researchers from developing countries. The institute reports that 36% of its fellows have gained admission to master’s or PhD programs, with destinations including Georgia Tech, Harvard, the University of Chicago, McGill and Princeton. Shuja earned an S.B. from the MIT. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, who is also an MIT alumna, and their three children. Outside work, he is an active beekeeper, looking after approximately 500,000 bees.