MARTYNAS KAIRYS

I started in uniform. Six years at the Royal Danish Naval Academy and a commission as a naval officer, while finishing an economics degree in Lithuania at the same time. That mix of discipline and curiosity has carried everything since.

More than twenty years across logistics in Shanghai, investment banking at Finasta and Nordea, my own startups in London, and eight years at Shift4, where I went from building a developer marketplace in New York to Head of AI and helped grow the Vilnius office from 40 people to over 800. Today I run Zedge, building AI-powered products used by millions.

I believe in karma projects: giving back without expecting anything in return. FinansaiPaprastai.lt teaches financial literacy in plain Lithuanian, free and independent of any bank. Dovanokime.lt passed donated clothing to more than 10,000 people during the recession years. And there is always a community bookshelf or two.

I live AI 24/7. My day job is running Zedge Lithuania, where I work with teams, AI, and a lot of other interesting problems. When my regular work at Zedge leaves me free time, I give keynotes and hands-on workshops, and I build my own AI tools (see the Lab below). Freshly back from MIT Professional Education's program on AI and business strategy.