Shai Reshef

Shai Reshef born September 11, 1955 is an educational entrepreneur, founder and president of University of the People, a non-profit academic institution offering accredited, low-cost higher education degrees online.

Reshef earned an MA in Chinese Politics from the University of Michigan. From 1989 to 2005, Reshef served as Chief Executive Officer and then Chairman of the Kidum Group, a for-profit educational services and test preparation company. Reshef joined Kidum in 1989 when it was a single product company with revenues of $100,000. Under his leadership, Kidum grew to become a company with annual revenues in excess of $25 million, with over 1,000 employees and 50,000 students a year. In 2005, he sold the company to Kaplan, Inc., one of the world’s largest education companies and a subsidiary of the Washington Post.

Between 2001 and 2004, while continuing as the chairman of Kidum, Reshef lived in the Netherlands where he chaired KIT eLearning, a subsidiary of Kidum. KIT is the eLearning partner of the University of Liverpool and the first online university outside of the United States. KIT provides MBA and M.Sc. degrees in IT. In 2004, the company was acquired by Laureate Online Education.

Reshef is married and has four children. He lives in Pasadena, California.

In January 2009, Reshef founded University of the People, a non-profit, American, accredited online academic institution that seeks to increase the availability of higher education by offering affordable online university-level studies. As of January 2016, the University has admitted over 2500 students from 170 countries.

• In 2009, named one of Fast Company magazine’s “100 Most Creative People in Business."
• In 2009, selected by OneWorld as one of its “People of 2009”.
• In 2010, awarded a fellowship by Ashoka.
• In 2010, became a high-level adviser to the United Nations Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (GAID).
• In 2010, rang the closing bell at the Nasdaq in New York City.
• In 2010, granted membership to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) on behalf of his work with UoPeople in Haiti.
• In 2010, selected as the Huffington Post "Ultimate Game Changer in Education."
• In 2011, granted membership to Partners for a New Beginning (PNB).
• In 2012, named one of the "50 People Changing the World" by Wired Magazine's Smart List 2012.
• In 2012, names as a "Top Global Thinker" by Foreign Policy Magazine's Top 100 Global Thinkers 2012.
• In 2014, was invited to present a TED Talk on University of the People
• In 2015, named number 8 on Salt Magazine's "100 Most Compassionate Business Leaders List"

• People of 2009: Shai Reshef. OneWorld.Net.
• [1]
• Representative From University of the People to Ring The NASDAQ Stock Market Closing Bell. August 17, 2010
• Clinton Global Initiative Advances University of the People Pledge to Democratize Higher Education in Haiti. Yahoo News, September 10, 2010.
• Who Is The Ultimate Game Changer In Education?. Huffington Post. Sept 15, 2010.
• [2]
• The Smart List 2012: 50 people who will change the world. Wired Magazine. Jan 24, 2012.
• The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers. Foreign Policy Magazine. December, 2012.
• "An ultra-low-cost college degree". www.ted.com. Retrieved 2016-01-20. 
• "Salt | #8 Shai Reshef". Salt. Retrieved 2016-01-20.