Vivek Sharma

He is the CEO & Co-Founder of InStride, a public benefit corporation, enabling leading employers to provide career-boosting online degrees and certificates to their employees, through top-tier global universities. Since its inception in 2019, InStride has helped 57,000+ learners and prevented $630M in student loan debt.

Vivek co-founded InStride after six years at The Walt Disney Company, where he was the Senior Vice President, Digital Guest Experience & eCommerce, serving 150M guests annually across theme parks, resorts, cruises, guided travel adventures, restaurants and retail businesses globally. Prior to Disney, he spent four years with Yahoo in Sunnyvale as General Manager for Yahoo Mail & Messenger, and Vice President of Yahoo Search products. Earlier in his career, Vivek was an Associate Partner with the technology practice of McKinsey & Company in their Chicago and Singapore offices for eight years.

Vivek serves as board director for multiple companies, including JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU), where he is the chairman of the Technology committee and a member of the Audit committee, and Kaiser Permanente, where he is a member of the Audit & Compliance Committee and the Community Health Committee. He is the author of two books, “C-SPARK: CEO-led Workforce Education for the AGE of AND” and “WIREFRAMED: Simplifying Digital Innovation for Business Leaders.” Vivek is also an adjunct professor of data science at University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, and an active early-stage investor in multiple technology-based startups.

Vivek graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi and holds an MBA from INSEAD, France.