Kalsoom Lakhani is the Founder/CEO of Invest2Innovate, or i2i, which supports startups and the broader entrepreneurship ecosystem in growth markets. i2i has been operating in Pakistan since 2011, and has accelerated 25 startups that have gone on to raise over $2.5M and create over 4000 jobs in the country. Kalsoom has also trained young entrepreneurs, changemakers, and civil society leaders in Cambodia, Ireland, Bangladesh, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, and has spoken at numerous venues, including the World Economic Forum, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. State Department, and the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. She was previously a Washington, D.C. co-ambassador for Sandbox, a global network of innovators under 30, and was a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers. She was featured in Diplomatic Courier's Top 99 Foreign Policy Leaders under 33 in 2012, and was named an Ashoka Changemakers/ American Express Emerging Innovator for 2013. Kalsoom also founded the popular blog, CHUP, or Changing Up Pakistan in January 2008, and has written for the Washington Post, The Next Web, the Huffington Post, Foreign Policy, NextBillion and Pakistan's Dawn Newspaper. She has a B.A. from the University of Virginia in Foreign Affairs and Middle East Studies, and an M.A. from The George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs in International Affairs/Conflict Resolution.
