Dr Kumar Mehta has been at the forefront of exceptional performance, research, innovation, and data analytics for over 30 years. He founded Bridges Insight, a think tank committed to researching sustained personal and organizational excellence. Individuals and corporations around the world use his sensible approaches to achieve extraordinary outcomes.
Kumar’s research areas include the science of exceptional performance and understanding why some people become truly exceptional and elite, and others don’t. Kumar’s extensive research with Olympic athletes, Nobel Laureates, world-renowned musicians, and people at the very top of many other fields has formed the basis of The Exceptionals, How the Best become the Best & How You Can Too.
From 2007 – 2016, Kumar was the CEO of Course 5 Intelligence, a data analytics company that he grew from a startup to a team of over 1,000 employees. Kumar managed this company with high growth and profitability, and without any external investment.
From 1993-2007 Kumar was at Microsoft, where he started as one of the founding members of the very first research and analytics team, and over time managed some of Microsoft’s most significant and strategic projects. He has directed over a quarter billion dollars of consulting, research, and analytics at Microsoft. Kumar also worked in Business Strategy, Corporate Development, Competitive Intelligence, Corporate Finance and has directly led some of the most strategic analytic initiatives at Microsoft.
Kumar also currently serves as a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California.
Kumar is passionate about education and is active as a board member and Treasurer for the Committee for Children (CFC), a global nonprofit dedicated to fostering the safety and well-being of children through social-emotional learning and development. CFC is the world’s largest provider of research-based educational programs that promote social-emotional skills and prevent bullying and sexual abuse. Today the organization’s social-emotional learning and child safety programs reach more than 16.5 million children worldwide.
Kumar holds a PhD in pharmaceutical socioeconomics from The University of Iowa and lives in Seattle.