Kareem SalehFounder

United States - Los Angeles, California

I'm a financial technology executive with a record of scaling AI-powered software, lending and payments businesses. I have over a decade of experience working to implement inclusive and fair artificial intelligence solutions in lending.

I served as Executive Vice President at Zest.ai, where I led go-to-market strategy for the company’s AI-powered b2b SaaS underwriting platform and negotiated software licensing, partnership, financing and other commercial deals with Fortune 500 firms, credit bureaus and financial infrastructure providers. I was also a senior member of the team managing Zest’s $100m installment loan business, which achieved default and customer acquisition rates that were half the industry average.

Prior to Zest.ai, I served as an executive at SoftCard, a mobile payments startup founded by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon that was acquired by Google. While at SoftCard, I negotiated commercial partnerships and software deals with retailers, financial institutions and technology companies like Coca-Cola, American Express and Samsung.

Previously I served in senior roles in the Obama Administration, first as Chief of Staff to the State Department’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, where I managed the 50-person team that negotiated the Paris Climate Agreement. I then worked as Senior Advisor to the CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) where I oversaw transaction teams that invested $3.5B in project finance deals across the globe and helped direct the U.S. Government’s $18B portfolio of emerging market investments.

At the height of the 2008 financial crisis, I served as an economic policy staffer on the Obama-Biden Presidential Campaign. I also served on the Presidential Transition Team, where I helped shape the incoming administration’s economic crisis response plans for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

I am a Forbes contributor and a frequent speaker on the application of artificial intelligence to financial services, including consumer loan underwriting, loan servicing, model risk management and fair lending analysis. I'm a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and an honors graduate of the University of Chicago, and am fluent in French and Arabic.