SHAFIQ KHAN

Shafiq Khan is president and founding partner of Teach the World Foundation, a non-profit which seeks to enhance global literacy using digital technology. 

Prior to founding Teach the World, Shafiq has had an extensive career in the business world, much of it involved with launching pioneering digital transformation initiatives in the travel industry such as online booking and eTicketing.  

Until March 2016, Shafiq was a senior executive at Marriott International, the world's largest hotel company, for 16 years. In his last role, he was responsible for leading all of Marriott's distribution channels which generate $30 billion in annual sales. These included Marriott.com, one of the world's top websites based on revenue; Marriott's worldwide reservation centers; all major online travel agencies; global travel agency distribution systems (GDS); and emerging online travel intermediaries which include search engines such as Google and meta-search engines such as Kayak and TripAdvisor.

Previously, Shafiq was at US Airways and United Airlines, where he pioneered a series of groundbreaking initiatives which fundamentally transformed airline distribution, using digital technology. These include the development and launch of the airline industry's first online booking engines; electronic ticketing.

Shafiq's prior background includes assignments at United Airlines in marketing and strategic planning; management consulting with Booz Allen Hamilton International; assignments with Pakistan International Airlines in Pakistan and in France.

His academic background includes an MBA from the Harvard Business School and an economics degree from the Punjab University in Lahore, Pakistan. Shafiq is currently on the boards of SOJERN, the American Foundation for the Blind, the American Muslim Institution and the Montgomery County Muslim Council. His prior board assignments include Roomkey.com, the Airline Reporting Corporation and the Harvard Business School Club of Washington D.C.