Karim Lakhani

Karim Lakhani joined Flagship Pioneering as an academic partner in 2021. In this part-time role, Karim works with Flagship Founder and CEO Noubar Afeyan and Flagship leadership to help formulate, design and implement digital and machine learning strategies within Flagship and its companies. He also provides strategic advice on recruiting and hiring digital/AI/ML talent and creating novel partnerships and collaborations.

Karim is the Dorothy and Michael Hintze Fellow at the Harvard Business School. He specializes in technology management, innovation, digital transformation and artificial intelligence. His innovation-related research is centered around his role as the founder and co-director of the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard. He is the co-founder and co-chair of the Harvard Business Analytics Program, a university-wide online educational initiative that transforms mid-career executives into data savvy leaders

Karim has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers in leading management, economics and natural science journals, executive-oriented articles in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review, and Harvard Business School case studies. He is the co-editor of two books from MIT Press on open and distributed innovation models including Revolutionizing Innovation: Users, Communities and Open Innovation (2016) and Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software (2005). He is also the co-author of the award-winning book Competing in the Age of AI (2020) published by the Harvard Business Review Press.

Karim has taught extensively in Harvard Business School’s MBA, executive, doctoral and online programs, including a course on “Commercializing Science” with Noubar Afeyan. He has co-developed new courses on Digital Innovation & Transformation, Digital Strategy and Innovation, Laboratory to Market, Technology Entrepreneurship and Competing in the Age of AI. More than 100,000 participants have enrolled in his online courses.

Karim was awarded his Ph.D. in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also holds an M.S. degree in Technology and Policy from MIT, and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Management from McMaster University in Canada. He previously worked at General Electric Health Care and The Boston Consulting Group.