Dr. SK Sharma joins HKS as an M-RCBG Senior Fellow after decades working at the forefront of AI, technology entrepreneurship, and the creative economy. As Chief Analytics and AI Officer at Universal Music Group, he led the development of AI capabilities across the business through its $53.4 billion IPO, the largest in the history of the music industry. His earlier career spanned investment banking at Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and UBS, strategy consulting at Mitchell Madison Group and OC&C, and the founding of several technology ventures. Dr. Sharma holds four granted U.S. patents in AI and machine learning for audience intelligence and content strategy, and he is the co-author of 18 peer-reviewed scientific research publications. Recognized on Billboard’s 40 Under 40 and named to the inaugural Constellation Research AI 150, he delivered the 2023 commencement address at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
He currently serves as a Senior Advisor at Warburg Pincus, where he helps guide generative AI investments and value creation across the firm’s $100+ billion portfolio, and as incoming Chair of the Board of Directors of the Caltech Alumni Association. A first-generation college graduate who grew up in South Los Angeles, Dr. Sharma earned his PhD in Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics from Caltech and an SM from Harvard. At HKS, his work addresses one of the defining policy questions of the AI era: how society should govern the use of creative work to train artificial intelligence, and how to build licensing and compensation frameworks that are fair to creators without stifling innovation.