Hany Syed was born in Saudi Arabia to parents of South Asian origin. He migrated as a child with his family to the US at the age of two. Growing up in Southern California, he became an avid athlete and sports fan, engaging in baseball, football and basketball from young. He studied History at UC Berkeley and began a career in investment banking and then joined a few startups. He then earned his MBA from a joint UC Berkeley Haas Business School / Columbia University Business School program where he spent a year at each. He then made his way to Dubai in a principal-investing role. His focus was on social infrastructure sectors, with a particular emphasis on education. He recently launched Athleta Ed, a company focused on using sports examples to drive learning outcomes for traditional university accredited classes and industry validated certificate courses.