Pankaj Shah

Pankaj Shah is the executive director of OARnet, the statewide research and education network in Ohio. As a division of the Ohio Department of Higher Education's Ohio Technology Consortium, OARnet serves the specialized needs of a broad range of clients including Ohio’s higher education, K-12, research, health care, libraries, public broadcasting, public safety and government communities.

For more than 35 years, Shah has committed himself to IT infrastructure and broadband initiatives through his work in both private and public entities in the research and education community, identifying trends in high-speed data transfer, videoconferencing, satellite and hybrid networking. Under his leadership, OARnet has helped Ohio become a national broadband leader with an expansive network backbone and robust services, while partnering with private sector to create economic development opportunities. Shah served a previous tenure at OARnet, creating and managing the Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center (ITEC-Ohio) and as a partner in the Transportable Satellite Internet System. Shah also served as Executive Director of the Ohio Supercomputer Center from 2013-2015. He has previously served as Director of Infrastructure at Marquette University in Milwaukee and CEO at LEARN (Lonestar Education and Research Network), Texas.

Shah serves as a board member for The Quilt and the 2024 Ohio Higher Education IT Leadership Summit. He previously represented OARnet on the board of Internet2 and the Ohio Digital Government Summits from 2010-2015. Additionally, he served on OhioLINK's advisory board; The Quilt and Internet2's governance and nominations committees; the steering committee of StateNets; and he contributed to the Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, 2nd Edition. 

Shah received a diploma in mechanical engineering, as well as certification in advanced tool technology, from S.B.M Polytechnic in Bombay (Mumbai), India. He earned his master's degree in computer and information science from Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He most recently received his executive MBA in 2011 from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.