Teach where the decisions get made.
Universities want practitioners who have actually run something. Most senior operators never hear about the opening, because the search happens through faculty networks they are not part of. ZAI Fellows is the way in. We build your case, present it to our university network, and make the introduction.
The institute has spent years on the other side of this. We work with universities to build and staff AI executive education programs, which means we are the ones asking who should teach the session. ZAI Fellows turns that around and represents the practitioner.
The Fellowship
When you approve your media kit you become a ZAI Fellow. The title is yours for twelve months, it appears on everything we put in front of a university, and it renews at no cost if you have taught or scheduled at least one engagement during the year.
It is held while you are active rather than bought outright. That is deliberate. A designation anyone can buy and keep is worth what they paid for it, and the faculty who matter can tell the difference.
What we build
A media kit, which is the document a department chair actually asks to see.
- Your biography
- Teaching and speaking topics
- Areas of expertise
- A professional headshot
- A one page summary written for faculty
Nothing goes to any institution until you have approved it in writing. Two rounds of revisions are included.
Where it goes
To faculty, deans, department chairs and program directors across our university network. We look for openings that match the geography and the kind of engagement you want, make the introduction directly, and coordinate the interview.
We keep going for the full three months. Accepting a position does not end it, because most people want more than one engagement and the first usually makes the next easier to arrange. We tell you what we have sent and what came back as we go.
After that, for as long as you hold the Fellowship, we continue to present you as suitable openings arise.
What we need from you
- Where you will travel, and whether remote works
- The kind of engagement you want: guest lecture, semester mentor, executive in residence, workshop
- Accurate professional information and a current headshot
- Written approval of your kit within fourteen days
- Availability for interviews, usually thirty to forty five minutes
Most of these roles begin unpaid
Worth saying plainly, because it is the thing people find out later. Universities bring executives in for the expertise and for the standing it gives their programs. Paid engagements typically follow once you have built a relationship with the department.
Our obligation is to secure your first offer, in either form.
The fee
One fee, once, on signing.
The Executive Representation and Onboarding Fee covers everything above: your initial consultation and positioning, media kit development, opportunity identification, active university outreach, faculty introductions, and three months of representation.
No commissions. No success fees. No placement fees of any kind.
The fee is for our representation services. It is not a payment to a university, and it is not a payment for a title, appointment, or position. Universities and faculty retain complete discretion over whom they engage.
We go through the figure in the first conversation, once we know what you are asking us to do. Ask us and we will walk you through it.
Our guarantee
If you have not accepted a qualifying university position, volunteer or paid, by the end of the three month representation period, we refund the fee in full.
That applies provided you approved your media kit within the required timeframe, participated reasonably in the process, and did not decline a qualifying position we secured for you consistent with the preferences you gave us. Taking the refund ends the Fellowship.
What we do not promise
Universities are selective. Faculty and academic departments make every appointment decision on their own criteria and by their own process, and they will interview you as they would any candidate.
We secure the introduction and the interview. We do not control the outcome, and we do not guarantee placement.
Start with a conversation.
Tell us what you want to teach and where, and we will walk you through how the fee structure works. If we do not think we can place you, we will say so on that call rather than take the fee.