Vikas Shah MBE

Vikas is a serial-entrepreneur & philanthropist.  Vikas started his first technology business aged just 14, and is currently CEO of Swiscot Group (a diversified international trading business). He is a venture-investor in fast-growing technology businesses internationally and sits as a Non-Executive Director and advisor to numerous organisations. Vikas was awarded an MBE for Services to Business and the Economy in Her Majesty the Queen’s 2018 New Year’s Honours List.

He is Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan (The Lisbon MBA), Honorary Professor of Business at The Alliance Business School, University of Manchester and an Honorary Industry Fellow at the University of Salford Business School.

Vikas is deeply committed to civic and public life. He is a member of the UK’s Industrial Development Advisory Board at BEIS alongside being a Director of the Solicitors Regulation Authority. He is also Former President and a Board Member of TiE UK (a chapter of the world’s largest entrepreneurs’ network). As a committed philanthropist, Vikas sits as Chair of In Place of War (international peace building and entrepreneurship NGO with 100 grassroots community organisations with a collective reach of over 60m people in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America). He is a trustee at Mustard Tree (helping tens of thousands impacted by poverty and marginalisation across Greater Manchester). Vikas is also an advocate for a number of causes, speaking publicly on issues ranging from mental health and inequality.

Vikas is also a published author. His book Thought Economics released in 2021 includes his interviews with the people shaping our century. Including conversations with Nobel prize winners, business leaders, politicians, artists and Olympians, he has been in the privileged position of questioning the minds that matter on the big issues that concern us all.