Khalil Yazdi
Khalil Yazdi
GTM Higher Education
Khalil Yazdi is an entrepreneurial executive and seasoned higher education Chief Information Officer with a history of success at the campus, system, and national levels. He has a proven track record of constructive engagement with the global research and education community and has a keen interest in building public-private partnerships that bring academic researchers, scholars and innovators together with for-profit companies and state/regional economic development agencies to promote economic growth and workforce development.
Khalil has a practiced understanding of the challenges for research support, building research supporting service portfolios, and designing reliable and cost-effective technology solutions. In addition to over three decades as a CIO at several higher education institutions, he was instrumental in the launch and expansion of the Internet2 NET+ Services Program, with focus on matching cloud providers to community needs. While at Internet2, he was instrumental in forging community-based contracts with major cloud providers and played a lead role in obtaining data egress waivers, standard reporting of provider security capabilities, the regulatory obligations of research institutions and negotiated preferential pricing.
In addition to his work as an independent strategic advisor to colleges and universities and technology companies serving the research and education space, Khalil founded the Open Research Cloud Alliance (ORCA) and serves as it inaugural chairperson. He is co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer for Crossroads Innovation Group.
Khalil Yazdi holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Houston.
