About Justin

Technology leader, author, and consciousness researcher based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Justin Harnish

Professional

Justin A. Harnish is Vice President of AI & Product Management at Mastercard, where he leads initiatives at the intersection of artificial intelligence, product innovation, and enterprise strategy. His work focuses on building intelligent systems that create genuine value for businesses and consumers worldwide.

Before Mastercard, Justin spent over two decades in semiconductor research, development, and manufacturing at IM Flash Technologies (a Micron/Intel joint venture), where he held engineering and strategic leadership roles in process development and manufacturing innovation. He holds 30+ patents in AI/ML, Open Banking, and semiconductor process technology.

Justin holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Montana State University and an MBA from Walden University.

Author & Intellectual

Justin is the author of Meaning in the Multiverse, which explores questions of consciousness, purpose, and reality at the intersection of physics, philosophy, and lived experience. His poetry collection Dance to Spawn a Galaxy brings a lyrical lens to similar themes. His forthcoming book, Marshal Your Awareness, examines the relationship between awareness, technology, and human agency.

He publishes Ordinary Illuminated, a Substack newsletter exploring the extraordinary within everyday experience, and co-hosts the Emergent podcast, featuring conversations at the intersection of technology, consciousness, and human flourishing.

His research interests include consciousness studies, the philosophy of mind, integrated information theory, contemplative neuroscience, and the ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence.

Humanitarian

Justin co-founded Women of the World (WoW) in 2010 with his wife Samira Harnish. WoW is an award-winning Salt Lake City-based nonprofit empowering forcibly displaced women to achieve self-reliance and economic success, having raised $5M+ in funding.

WoW has been recognized with the Americas Nansen Award (UNHCR), and Justin has been individually awarded the Utah Philanthropy Day Award (2022), and a Mastercard CEO's Force for Good Award (2023).

Personal

Justin lives in Salt Lake City with his wife Samira. Outside of work, he is a dedicated reader, meditator, and long-distance runner. He maintains an extensive personal knowledge system (a "second brain") as a practice in sense-making and creative synthesis.

He is drawn to the places where rigorous thinking meets contemplative practice — where science, philosophy, and direct experience converge to illuminate what it means to be human in an age of intelligent machines.

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