Ari Lightman is a distinguished service professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He teaches graduate students, executives and physicians classes focused on marketing, assessing and measuring the impact of emerging technologies. Lightman has been involved in developing experiential learning, project-based learning initiatives throughout his career. In his class called Measuring Social, students work closely with company sponsors to develop recommendations and an analysis framework around a social initiative. Companies that have taken part in the class include eBay, Nike, Comcast, Warner Bros., Thomson Reuters, Verizon, Microsoft, Starwood, HP, NPR, Wal-Mart, Expedia, Autodesk and Intel.

Lightman is also the director of the CIOI Institute at Carnegie Mellon. The CIOI is an executive education center focused on providing skills for the next generation of technology managers. The center, during its span of more than a decade, has provided training for several hundred executives. Lightman is responsible for strategic execution and growth of the center into new content areas, organizations and international locations. CIOI has recently launched the CISO program in information security, in partnership with the Software Engineering Institute, to develop leadership skills for the next generation of information security executives.

Lightman has 20 years of experience in new technology development and commercialization. Earlier in his career, he was a member of several successful entrepreneurial tech ventures. He began assessing the opportunity for data analytics as a management consultant working with wireless carriers. He has developed executive workshops and digital media strategies for companies and organizations within the following industries: health care, telecomm, consumer packaged goods, technology and financial services. In addition, he has worked with leading research universities on strategies and processes for building expert communities to accelerate technology commercialization.