Salim Ismail (born May 17, 1965, in Hyderabad, India) is an Indo-Canadian serial entrepreneur, angel investor, author, speaker, and technology strategist known for pioneering the concept of exponential organizations and advancing innovation at the intersection of technology and global impact.
He is the Founding Executive Director of Singularity University and the lead author of the international bestseller Exponential Organizations, which explores how disruptive technologies enable organizations to achieve exponential growth. In March 2017, he was appointed to the board of the XPRIZE Foundation. He later became Global Ambassador for Singularity University and has played a significant role in expanding its global presence.
Over the course of his entrepreneurial career, Ismail has co-founded several technology ventures, including Confabb, PubSub Concepts, and Ångströ, the latter of which was acquired by Google in 2010. Earlier, he led Brickhouse, Yahoo!’s internal incubator, where he oversaw the development of disruptive product teams and contributed to initiatives such as Yahoo Pipes and Fire Eagle. During his tenure, he also helped establish collaborative efforts between Yahoo! and NASA.
In 2001, following the events of 9/11, Ismail founded the New York Grant Company (NYGC), serving as Chairman and CEO until 2005. The organization focused on securing federal grants to stimulate local economic recovery. He later co-founded PubSub Concepts in 2002, contributing to foundational ideas behind the real-time web. In 2006, he co-founded Confabb as a centralized platform for conference discovery, attracting early angel investment.
In 2008, Ismail attended the founding conference of Singularity University at NASA’s Ames Research Center and was subsequently appointed as its Founding Executive Director. Working alongside Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil, and in collaboration with partners including NASA, Google, Cisco, Autodesk, and Genentech, he helped build the institution’s curriculum, faculty, and early programs. Singularity University has since engaged participants from more than 85 countries, applying emerging technologies such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience to global challenges.
Building on the ideas presented in Exponential Organizations, Ismail founded ExO Works in 2016 and later co-founded OpenExO (formerly ExO Lever) in 2017, where he serves as Chairman. OpenExO merged with Genius Group in 2024, and Ismail also serves as Chairman of Genius Group. In the venture capital space, he joined Rokk3r Fuel as a General Partner in 2017, contributing to its $150 million flagship fund focused on startups applying the ExO methodology.
A sought-after global speaker, Ismail regularly addresses audiences on disruptive convergence, exponential technologies, the future of entrepreneurship, democracy, and education. He has spoken at major international forums including TED, Ciudad de las Ideas, and participated in debates at the Oxford Union as part of Saïd Business School’s Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford program.
Through his work as an entrepreneur, strategist, educator, and author, Salim Ismail continues to shape conversations around how exponential technologies can transform organizations, economies, and society at large.