Rakesh Bharania

DIGITAL HUMANITARIAN ADVISOR, USAID BUREAU FOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS

Rakesh Bharania is President of Tarian Innovation and has spent more than 29 years in the humanitarian sector, focusing on the intersection of emerging technologies and international crisis response. He has led cybersecurity, privacy and humanitarian efforts at Cisco, Apple and Salesforce, with a focus on the effective, equitable and protective use of technology in fragile contexts. 

He has responded to more than 50 emergencies, including the September 11, 2001 attacks and Hurricane Katrina in the United States, the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe.  Most recently he led major initiatives at Salesforce for the impactful use of technology for the COVID-19pandemic and the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict.