Anu Shah

Anu Shah is a global technology leader, venture partner, angel investor, and founder of The Talk Lane, a leadership and innovation platform featuring conversations with CEOs, founders, policymakers, and thinkers shaping the future of business, society, and AI. Her work spans Amazon Ads, Meta, private equity, venture capital, and international development across the United States, United Kingdom, Southeast Asia, India, Africa, and the Middle East.
Anu has served as a Principal Product Manager – Tech at Amazon Ads, leading AI-driven advertising automation, creative intelligence infrastructure, and global campaign optimization systems. Before Amazon, she worked at Meta on machine-learning–powered audience expansion and brand advertising products across multiple markets. She is also a Venture Partner at OpenBook Ventures, investing in AI, SaaS, fintech, biotech, and climate-tech companies.
As an active angel investor, Anu has backed several high-growth, deep-technology startups, including Antora Energy (clean energy & thermal storage), 1910 Genetics (AI-driven drug discovery), and Clinch.io (enterprise SaaS and personalization technology). Through these investments, she supports founders building transformative solutions across climate resilience, computational biology, and enterprise automation.
Alongside her work in technology and venture investing, Anu has built a significant global portfolio in philanthropy and social impact. She has advised the United Nations (Assistant Secretary-General’s Office) on women’s entrepreneurship, digital inclusion, and economic mobility programmes across Africa and Asia, including UNHCR refugee rehabilitation initiatives and multi-million-dollar COVID relief efforts. Her livelihood development models have enabled income-generating opportunities for more than 37,000 women across emerging markets.
Anu’s impact work extends across several grassroots and international organizations. She partnered with Inkomoko Entrepreneur Development in Rwanda to support refugee communities from Congo and Burundi through entrepreneurship and financial literacy programmes. With Basmeh & Zeitooneh in Lebanon and Turkey, she contributed to education, food security, and community development for Syrian refugee families. In Dubai, she founded the Feed-a-Labour initiative during her time at Kearney, providing hot Iftaar meals to migrant workers—an initiative that continues even today. Through Karma Junction in India, she leads a disability mobility programme that has donated 50+ wheelchairs and tricycles, with a target of 500 by 2027.
One of Anu’s recent career milestones includes her work with the Office of the Special Envoy for Critical and Emerging Technology at the United Nations. In this role, she collaborated with global leaders—including Amazon, Microsoft, and OpenAI—on the UN’s flagship AI initiative presented at UNGA78, showcasing AI’s transformative impact across healthcare, education, climate, agriculture, and clean energy.
Anu also serves on the International Advisory Board of the University of Leeds (UK), shaping innovation, entrepreneurship, and global leadership strategy. She advises LXME (a women-centric financial platform backed by Anand Rathi Financial Services), mentors startups through Barclays’ RISE FinTech Accelerator, and has served on the Board of the American India Foundation’s New York Chapter, contributing to multi-million-dollar fundraising efforts for child education and maternal health.
Her work has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, CNBC, Business Insider, The Hindu, The Times of India, and other global publications. A TEDx speaker on leadership and societal impact, Anu continues to amplify global perspectives on AI, leadership, and purpose-driven entrepreneurship through The Talk Lane, building a cross-continental community of innovators and changemakers.