Jai Shekhawat
Founder & Former CEO of Fieldglass, Advisor to the Dean, ID
Jai Shekhawat founded and served as CEO of Fieldglass, a cloud platform for contingent labor management. Under his leadership, Fieldglass grew to become the world’s largest vendor management software company, operating in over 100 countries and 30 languages. He led the company to receive multiple awards, including the Illinois Venture Capital Association’s 2014 Private Equity Portfolio Company of the Year. Jai was named Ernst & Young’s 2012 Midwest “Entrepreneur of the Year,” and received the 2012 Peter Yessne Staffing Innovator Award.
Previously, Jai worked as a McKinsey & Company strategy consultant, was a senior executive at Syntel, and co-founded Quinnox. He currently serves on multiple boards including the Field Museum of Chicago and 1871 (Chicago’s entrepreneurial hub for digital startups) and advises numerous high-growth companies. He’s an active investor through the Firestarter Fund and is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and strategy at the Kellogg and Booth Business Schools as well as at various industry events.
Jai holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor’s degree from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, India.