Tjai Nielsen is a seasoned Senior Principal at ghSMART with extensive experience in leadership consultancy, talent assessment and development, and initiatives to optimize organizational performance. He has worked with private equity and venture capital investors, Fortune 500 senior executives, hedge fund and alternative asset managers, and organizations ranging from Fortune 100 corporations to the United States Congress.

Before joining ghSMART, Tjai was the Founder & Managing Director at C-Suite Future and worked as a management consultant at RHR International Company. He also held academic positions in the business schools at George Washington University, Copenhagen Business School, and High Point University, where he served as the Director of Executive Education & MBA Programs and the Professor of Management. Tjai's academic work has produced over 55 refereed research articles, book chapters, and technical reports, and he has been invited to give more than 85 talks and presentations on senior team performance, leadership development, and international investment strategies.

Tjai holds a Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from UT, an M.A. in health & human performance from UNC, and a B.S. in psychology from Virginia Tech. He has received numerous awards for leading undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral classes and was invited to join a United Nations Expert Group for his research in the field. Tjai also has experience consulting and working with organizations in more than 20 countries across North America, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.