Neil Shah

CEO

Neil has committed his life to humanity and discovering creative solutions to the hardest challenges and most promising opportunities. His drive to radically change society sparked when working alongside Black Panthers in New Orleans post-Katrina. He joined Concrn as a founding Board member and crisis responder in 2015 to launch operations in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District and transitioned to CEO in 2016. Prior to Concrn Neil worked as a Director at startup nonprofit Code Tenderloin and co-founded a social enterprise, Apprenta, to provide apprenticeships in software and design to people from underrepresented backgrounds in tech. He started his career working for Larkin Street Youth serving homeless youth in San Francisco, and has since worked in a range of professional roles, including the spectrum of tech corporate finance to real estate development to workforce development. Along the way he experienced mental health and substance abuse issues which led to repeated run-ins with the criminal justice system, which keeps him grounded in Concrn’s compassionate response ethos. He has also served on the Board at Lava Mae and as a small business advisor at La Colectiva, immigrant women’s rights collective. As the son of Indian immigrants, he cultivated a deep-rooted love for culture, diversity and the principles of nonviolent direct action. He has a BA in Human Biology from Stanford and MBA in Finance & Social Innovation from UC Irvine. He’s lived in Brooklyn, Bogota and the Bay and is from the hot ass desert in southern California.