Homaira Akbari

Dr. Homaira Akbari is President and CEO of AKnowledge Partners, LLC, a global strategy advisory firm providing services to leading private equity funds and large corporations in the sectors of Internet of Things, Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence, and FinTech. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Banco Santander (NYSE: SAN) Temenos AG (SWX: TEMN), and Landstar System (NASDAQ: LSTR). She has extensive governance experience and in the past has served on the Board of Directors of Veolia Environment (EN:VIE) and Gemalto N.V. (EN: GTO).

Dr. Akbari has held senior management roles in Fortune 1000 companies including Microsoft, Thales, and Liberty Media subsidiary, Trueposition. Dr. Akbari also has served as the President and CEO of SkyBitz, Inc., a leading provider of remote asset tracking and security solutions. Under her leadership, the company had record performance. She successfully sold SkyBitz to Telular Corporation (NASDAQ: WRLS).

She holds a Ph.D. with honors in particle physics from Tufts University and an MBA with distinction from Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business. She is the author of more than 50 scientific articles in international journals, has two patents in IoT and Advertising, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. She has published numerous governance and technology opinion editorials and podcasts.

Throughout her life, Dr. Akbari has been active in and a contributor to many non-profit organizations. She is currently a member of Business Board of Advisors for Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business. Dr. Akbari was the inaugural Chair of the Johns Hopkins University Physics and Astronomy Advisory Council from 2012-2018, and a member since 2009. She has established the Homaira Akbari Fellowship Endowment at Carnegie Mellon University and Akbari-Mack Postdoctoral at the Johns Hopkins University. She is a member of Board of Trustees of FIAF.org, a not-for-profit organization with the mission to promote French culture, art and language.