A communicator with a producer’s instincts and a drummer’s timing.

Shai joined the U.S. Department of State in 2005 as a Presidential Management Fellow, and stayed for more than a decade as one of its most groundbreaking national security and foreign policy communicators.

As the department’s director of international media engagement, he developed and oversaw the expansion of the U.S. government’s communication with foreign audiences, including media hubs in Brussels, Dubai, Johannesburg, London, Manila and Miami. He was twice nominated for the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy, and has also served as director of communications at the United States Institute of Peace and the Center for a New American Security.

Through P4T Media he works with a wide range of people and industries, designing, facilitating, hosting and producing virtual and in-person events, podcasts, trainings, strategy sprints and workshops. He holds a Certificate in Executive Facilitation from Georgetown University, an MA in International Affairs from the George Washington University’s Elliott School, and a BA from McGill University.

He also makes things with the people closest to him. In 2021 he co-founded K180 Studios with his sisters, best friends and creative partners, Lily and Becky. Their debut feature, The Floaters, premiered at the Bentonville Film Festival in June 2025 and opened in theaters in July 2026. The three of them have hosted Friday Night Movie since 2017; the podcast has played live at SXSW and Baltimore Comic Con and won five Signal Awards. And he still co-writes and drums for What Does It Eat with Howie Kislowicz, his musical partner since their McGill days.

In 2018 he was inducted into the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation’s ROI Community, as part of a cohort of 150 innovators, entrepreneurs and changemakers from around the world. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife and two daughters.