Business and technologyשי רשף

Shai Reshef

Shai Reshef is an Israeli entrepreneur who founded the University of the People, a tuition-free online university, in 2009.

born 1955Founding the University of the PeopleLeading the Kidum education companyThe 2023 Yidan Prize

Born: 11 September 1955
Occupation: entrepreneur, businessperson
Education: University of Michigan, Tel Aviv University

Shai Reshef was born in 1955

Shai Reshef was born on September 11, 1955, and grew up in Ramat Gan. He earned a master's degree in Chinese studies from the University of Michigan in the United States.

From 1989 to 2005 he served as CEO and later chairman of Kidum, a for-profit education services company. He bought control of the company from its founders and sold it to Kaplan in 2005.

Between 2001 and 2004 he lived in the Netherlands and ran KIT eLearning, a Kidum subsidiary that served as the online partner of the University of Liverpool. The company was sold to Laureate Online Education in 2004.

In 2009 he founded the University of the People, a non-profit online university with no tuition. It signed a cooperation agreement with New York University in 2011 and gained recognition from the Distance Education and Training Council in February 2014.

He received the Yidan Prize for Education Development in 2023. He is married to the artist Rotem Reshef and has 4 children.