Vilas Dhar

Biography

Vilas Dhar is President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, a philanthropy focused on artificial intelligence and data for public purpose, and was named its inaugural president in September 2020. Raised in rural Illinois, he holds a BA in biomedical engineering and a BS in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a JD from New York University School of Law and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.

Before joining the foundation he was managing partner of Dhar Law LLP, founded the Next Mile Project, and was a Gleitsman Fellow on Social Change at Harvard. In October 2023 UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed him to the High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence. He was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2022 and has co-chaired the Forum’s Global AI Action Alliance. He is a Senior Fellow of the Berggruen Institute and a member of the advisory council of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.