Bio

Dr. Salman Azhar founded or funded over 125 startups. He has scaled organizations by forming teams and solving enigmatic problems. Dr. Azhar has 35 years of experience in industry and academia, during which he has crafted and led talented teams in developing and launching innovative technical solutions in cybersecurity, data analytics, artificial intelligence (including natural language processing & machine learning), medical systems, and financial systems. 

Dr. Azhar is a Faculty member and Executive in Residence at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He has previously served Duke as the Managing Director and Founding Member of Duke Capital Partners and as faculty in the Computer Science Department. Dr. Azhar is a Charter Life Member of OPEN Global and a venture partner at SAP.io, the University of Minnesota, and other organizations. He is an advisor to several companies, including Regiment Securities, ExpatBuddy, and Hurdle Health. His former business partners and clients include Honda, Toyota, Lamborghini, Audi, Sony, SAP, HP, ADP, jda/i2, Western Digital, Oracle, Agilent, Outcome, and several startups. 

He is currently developing Big Data solutions, innovative technology initiatives, and grooming leaders. Dr. Azhar earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Duke as a James B. Duke Fellow and a BS in Math and Physics from Wake Forest Univesity as a Carswell Scholar.