Bijal Shah

Company: GuildTitle: Chief Executive OfficerIndustry: EducationNotable in 2024: Shah expanded Guild's employee partnerships by 50% in 2024, now helping upskill six million people across the workforce.

At Guild, which provides an education platform for employees at Fortune 500 companies to earn degrees and certificates that allow them to advance in their careers, human connection is core to the business model. That has remained the case for Bijal Shah, who took over as CEO of the company last year during the unexpected leave of its founder Rachel Romer, who suffered a stroke in August 2023.

Since then, Shah has grown Guild's customer base by 50%, forging new partnerships with the likes of Team USA and the LA28 Olympic Committee, while continuing to expand into sectors including manufacturing and health care, and extend existing partnerships with Walmart, Disney and others. The company was most recently valued at $4.4 billion, according to PitchBook data, and has attracted big-name investors through its history, including Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Curry and Ken Chenault.

"Stepping into the role of Guild's CEO was a career change I never anticipated, but it was a transformational moment that reinforced the importance of building resilient companies with strong leadership at every level," Shah told CNBC. "It was a moment that tested my ability to adapt, make decisions in uncertainty, and lead with clarity. But more than anything, it proved that companies are not defined by any one leader — they are shaped by the strength of the teams behind them."

Prior to taking on the CEO role at Guild — which has been named to the CNBC Disruptor 50 list three times, most recently in 2023 — Shah served as the company's chief experience officer and head of platform, leading teams across product, technology, analytics, coaching, and customer success functions.

These days, Guild is very focused on how AI can improve the lives of the front-line workers at companies which use its services. At a 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50 event in San Francisco, Shah said she sees AI as a tool to travel alongside the learner in a way that goes well beyond helping students get answers to tests and write term papers, adding that the No. 1 predictor of success in a higher education program is the removal of life barriers.

Child-care bills, not being able to pay rent or a flat tire are all examples. "They all contribute to the inability to focus on something that feels like an investment in yourself, and once that happens … you lose confidence and then struggle to figure out the right next step forward."

Before Guild, Shah held executive roles at Ibotta and in corporate strategy at Visa.