Shai Harel

Dr. Shai Harel is the Academic Director of the Tel Aviv online MBA program at Tel Aviv University. He holds a Ph.D. from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and completed his Post-Doc at London Business School and a second post-doc at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

His research draws from Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Entrepreneurial Finance where he aims to understand what drives startups' performance. Specifically, he focuses on the contribution of investors to the companies they invest in; the relations between the startup’s founding team and performance; and the impact of policy on entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Until 2020, Dr. Harel was a lecturer and the Head of the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department at the Hebrew University’s Business School. Dr. Harel is the Academic Director of the Israeli Lean Launchpad program. Previously, Dr. Harel founded and served as the Academic Director of the Executive MBA Startup 360˚ Program. He was one of the founders and a board member of the Hebrew University's entrepreneurship center, a board member at the Asper center for entrepreneurship, and represented the Hebrew University at Labs/O2 incubator’s investment committee.

Alongside his academic activities, in the past 15 years, Dr. Harel has been advising startups, commercial companies, venture capital funds, and government institutions. Dr. Harel has advised the Ministry of Finance, the Tax Authority, and the Innovation Authority on policy issues related to the venture capital industry and has authored several research and policy reports for Bertelsmann Stiftung and for the European Commission.

Fields of research

Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Entrepreneurial Finance

Education

• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Strategy and Entrepreneurship 2008 - 2013
• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem - MBA, Finance, Strategy and Entrepreneurship 2003 - 2007
• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Bachelor's degree, Sociology and Anthropology; Business Administration Oct 1996 - Jan 2000