Javad Mushtaq. Founder and Executive Director.
Norwegian-Pakistani. Based between Oslo and New York. He leads ImpactLab's strategy, partnerships, and institutional voice.
Why Javad founded ImpactLab.
ImpactLab is a public-interest think-do-tank for responsible AI. It exists because the most consequential AI decisions of this decade — about safety, equity, sovereignty, and access — are being made faster than the institutions meant to govern them can adapt.
The organisation builds blueprints, convenes leaders, and runs field initiatives across the Nordics, the United States, and the Middle East. Its work sits where research, policy, and capital actually meet, not in any one of them alone.
Javad founded ImpactLab to make responsible AI a public-interest project, with operations across Oslo, Cambridge, and New York.
A practitioner at the edges.
Javad Mushtaq is a serial social entrepreneur, investor, and award-winning thought leader in responsible technology and AI. Through ImpactLab, WE& Capital, and the NYC AI Nexus at C10 Labs, he works at the intersection of frontier AI, early-stage capital, and public-interest policy across the Nordics, the United States, the Middle East, and South Asia.
His career has spanned five continents — private equity, venture capital, social enterprise, and policy. He was previously Co-Founder and CEO of MAK, Norway's leading systems-change organisation for diversity, equity, and inclusion, mobilising more than 75 chief executive commitments and reaching 2.5 million people through its #TakeAction campaign.
He is a regular AI and technology commentator on Norway's largest media platforms. His perspective bridges the Nordic model, frontier AI research, and applied capital markets.
Op-eds and essays.
Press and broadcast.
Selected recognition
- 2024Harvard — full scholarship recipient
- 2023MIT
- 2022UNAOC Fellow, United Nations Alliance of Civilizations
- 2021Next Gen Leaders, German Marshall Fund and NATO
- 2020Kapital 40 under 40
- 2020EMpower 100 Ethnic Minority Future Leaders
- 2015—Global Shaper and Youth Champion, World Economic Forum
Where to reach him
For the organisation rather than the person, see Who we are, Governance, and the team and council.
Contact ImpactLabSelected press
ImpactLab publishes a working press archive — front-page op-eds, broadcast commentary, and international features.