Mihail S. Lari was born in Karachi, Pakistan and has achieved prominence as an Internet entrepreneur, philanthropist and active board member fighting for human rights and helping fellow entrepreneurs since his arrival in the United States to attend Harvard University.

Since 2001, Mr. Lari has served on the national Board of Directors of GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the leading organization dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. In 2002, Mr. Lari served as the San Francisco co-chair for GLAAD’s $1M Digital Initiative capital campaign to overhaul GLAAD’s technological and communications infrastructure.

Mr. Lari recently finished a two-year term on the Board of Directors of Project Inform, the preeminent nonprofit organization that has been at the frontlines in the fight against HIV/ AIDS since 1985 when reliable information about the disease and its treatment were nearly impossible to obtain. As the demographics of those afflicted with this disease have changed, Project Inform has continued to play a vital role.

Mr. Lari has previously served on numerous boards, co-founding the Carolinas chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs, one of the largest not-for-profit global networks of entrepreneurs and professionals in the world; the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, the largest entrepreneurial support organization in the country; the Harvard Club of Research Triangle and the Harvard Alumni Association.

Mr. Lari is currently Chairman & CEO of Shaycom Corporation, a Silicon Valley startup developing consumer Internet services such as Blogit, the pioneering online writers marketplace. Previously, Mr. Lari co-founded Electrifier, Inc., serving as CEO from 1995 to 2000 and as Chairman through 2001. Electrifier, selected as an UPSIDE Hot 100 Company, collaborated with Apple Computer to launch publishing software in the United States, Japan and China, and delivered self-service rich media on the Web.

Mr. Lari and the companies he has founded have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Raleigh News & Observer, Vancouver Sun, Silicon Valley Business Ink, Triangle Business Journal, Red Herring, Industry Standard and Upside, and on CNN and Salon.com. In 2000, Digitalsouth named Mr. Lari one of the most influential entrepreneurs in the South.

Mr. Lari received an undergraduate degree from Harvard College, where his dissertation on mixed-income housing in Boston received honors. Mr. Lari received a Masters in Architecture from Rice University and focused on new housing prototypes for low-income families. In addition, Mr. Lari is co-author of The Dual City: Karachi During the Raj, published by Oxford University Press in 1998.