Nirav Desai is a chief technologist in Booz Allen Hamilton’s Strategic Innovation Group, leading the firm’s innovation in immersive technology strategy. In this role he connects government, corporate, and academic research with client needs and the start-up ecosystem (startups, venture capital, and accelerators) to support technology planning and adoption. Additionally, Nirav serves as the firm’s innovation lead for the Pacific Northwest, developing strategy and building a culture of innovation to foster entrepreneurship across a diverse staff and client base. Over the past three years, he helped establish the firm’s immersive practice with a focus on next-generation augmented reality, virtual reality, haptics, and brain-computer interfaces.

Nirav has contributed to and led multimillion-dollar projects as an individual performer (system architect, data scientist, software developer) and as a technical manager. Through his career, he has worked on projects in the defense, national security, global health, technology, civil, and financial sectors. Beyond his work with the federal government, Nirav contributes to his community through being a Civic Council member for the University of Washington Masters of Arts in Applied International Studies, a start-up mentor for TechStars Seattle and CoMotion Labs, and the Innovation Working Group co-chair for the Pacific Northwest Economic Region. He regularly speaks at industry conferences and trade shows. Nirav received a bachelor of science in computer science and a bachelor of arts in philosophy and mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, he has an affiliate assistant professor appointment in the University of Washington’s Department of Electrical Engineering.