Tooraj Helmi

Tooraj Helmi is a seasoned technology executive with over 18 years of work experience. Tooraj started as a Research Assistant at the University of Southern California in 2003 and became a Software Engineer at Comarco Wireless Technologies in 2005. In 2009, they worked as a Senior Developer/Consultant at PIMCO. At Avanade, they became a Group Manager, where they built technical and "C" level relationships with Avanade's customers and positioned their business and IT challenges into technical solutions.

In 2016, Tooraj co-founded RUMI, an insurance analytics startup, where they set the overall vision and strategy for the technology platform and led the development of products and services. In 2017, they became the Director of Digital Platform at Neudesic. There, they led the delivery of enterprise projects both on-premises and on-cloud to build secure, resilient, high-performing, and cost-optimized digital solutions.

From 2019, Tooraj worked at Builder.ai, where they established the product and engineering teams and grew it to 20 members located in the US, UK, and India. Tooraj served as the Senior Director, Advanced Systems and Head of Product & Engineering, where they designed their platform from the ground up using state-of-the-art techniques, including deep learning, advanced compilers, and platform-agnostic tools to auto-generate software apps. Tooraj also set overall objectives and metrics used to evaluate the performance of the employees within the engineering department.

Currently, they are the Chief Executive Officer at Apsy Inc.

Tooraj Helmi has an impressive education history, beginning with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tehran in 1996-2001. Tooraj then earned Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Southern California in 2001-2005. Tooraj went on to pursue an MBA in Business Administration and Management, General from USC in 2008-2012, followed by a PhD in Economics from Suffolk University in 2012-2017. Currently, they are pursuing another PhD in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, with a graduation date projected for 2022.

In addition to their formal education, Tooraj Helmi has obtained several industry certifications. Tooraj obtained the IBM Blockchain Foundation Developer certification from IBM in September 2018, and the Blue Ocean Strategy certification from Blue Ocean Strategy in October 2018. Tooraj also completed the Strategic Thinking course from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Executive Education in August 2021. Furthermore, they have obtained several certifications from Microsoft in topics like cloud solutions architecture, big data and data science. Tooraj is also currently pursuing a Business Class certification which they are set to complete in December 2022.