# Marcelo Kanhan
Executive · AI Business Strategist · Technical Founder · Author on AI & society

Certification: AWS Certified AI Business Strategist (Oct 2026)

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil · [kanhan.com.br](https://kanhan.com.br) · [linkedin.com/in/kanhan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanhan) · [kanhan.substack.com](https://kanhan.substack.com) · marcelo@collecto.com.br

Languages: Portuguese (native) · English (professional) · Spanish (intermediate)

## Summary
Twenty years as an executive, advising the leadership of large companies across many sectors on organizational design, change management and strategic communication. Since 2023, he has researched and built AI software as a solo founder. Author of "Antes que Escolham por Nós" (Before They Choose for Us), on the social risks of large-scale AI adoption. He grows by carrying knowledge across domains, with depth in business, technology and the social sciences.

## Journey — AI expert, from strategy to operations.
My path to becoming a full-stack AI professional.

_Scale: 2 essential · 3 proficient · 4 advanced · 5 reference / teaches._

### Design & Strategy
- AI and business strategy — 5/5 · AWS Certified AI Business Strategist
- Competitive analysis — 3/5 · Technology Maps; FGV MBA
- AI readiness — 5/5 · Proprietary assessment and adoption framework
- Futures and scenarios — 4/5 · Institute for the Future; scenarios published on Substack
- Computational social science — 3/5 · Specialization at UC Davis

### Development
- Agentic systems — 3/5 · Janis and Commit; DeepLearning.AI (CrewAI, LangChain)
- Spec-driven development — 4/5 · SDD as the default method since 2024
- Software architecture — 4/5 · Archlint
- Digital products — 3/5 · Eight products shipped since 2023
- Data and pipelines — 2/5 · Preprocessing Unstructured Data for LLM Applications (DeepLearning.AI)
- Applied machine learning — 3/5 · Stanford (supervised ML)

### Operations & Management
- AI project management — 3/5 · Duke University (ML for PMs); FGV MBA in Project Management
- Governance — 5/5 · AWS: governance and responsible AI; a book on the subject
- Security — 3/5 · Code audits in production, guardrails
- Privacy and data protection (LGPD) — 4/5 · Bartleby; AWS: Privacy
- Metrics and monitoring — 3/5 · AWS Well-Architected Framework (Operations)

### Foundation: Executive leadership
- Organizational design — 4/5 · Internal organizational design consulting at YDUQS
- Change management — 5/5 · Deep transformations at four organizations, as head of communications
- Executive and strategic communication — 5/5 · Twenty years as a manager and executive
- Leadership — 4/5 · 4× productivity at 60% of the original cost
- Mentoring — 5/5 · Hard Gate: preparing executives and founders

## Evidence
- 2026 · certification · AWS Certified AI Business Strategist — https://www.credly.com/badges/c8606ee8-8818-4185-a959-bec346b97fc3
- 2026 · product · Hard Gate · strategy and governance for AI management systems, including audits and executive training (in Portuguese) — https://hardgate.com.br
- 2026 · certification · AI Solutions Architecture · Ibmec
- 2026 · product · Commit · boutique software studio (in Portuguese) — https://commit.ia.br
- 2026 · product · Archlint · architecture checks for coding agents — https://archlint.pro
- 2026 · product · Bartleby · LGPD documentation for AI agents — https://bartleby.com.br
- 2026 · authorship · Book "Antes que Escolham por Nós" (Before They Choose for Us), on the social risks of AI · in Portuguese
- 2025 · education · Corporate Finance Essentials · IESE
- 2025 · product · Paper9 · long-form writing studio
- 2024 · product · Janis · agent orchestrator for Claude Code — https://github.com/MKanhan/janis
- 2023 · education · UC Davis · specialization in Computational Social Science
- 2019 · executive · YDUQS · Director of PR & Corporate Communications (current)
- 2013 · executive · MRS Logística · General Manager, Corporate Communications
- 2012 · executive · Universidade Veiga de Almeida · Executive Director of Institutional Relations
- 2004 · executive · Unimed-Rio · Executive Manager, Communications
- 1997 · executive · LANCE! and Globo.com · editorial and digital media

## Executive career
Twenty years in management.

- **4×** productivity of my teams after one year
- **50%** OPEX reduction after two years
- **85%+** NPS for my teams' work
- **10** AI certifications


### YDUQS — Director of PR & Corporate Communications
Nov 2019 – present · Rio de Janeiro
- Led high-impact institutional initiatives, including the ESG Forum and the communication of the integration with Adtalem.
- Internal consulting practice in communications, planning, leadership and organizational design.

### MRS Logística — General Manager, Corporate Communications
May 2013 – Nov 2019 · Juiz de Fora
- Internal communications for 6,200 employees; scope expanded to advertising, media, reputation and corporate media.
- Raised the function to report directly to the C-suite. Flagship: MRS TV, a pioneering corporate streaming TV channel.

### UVA (Universidade Veiga de Almeida) — Executive Director of Institutional Relations
Jun 2012 – May 2013 · Rio de Janeiro
- Built the PR model (guidelines, KPIs, processes) during rapid expansion; strategic relations (Rede Ilumno).

### Unimed-Rio — Executive Manager, Communications
Oct 2004 – May 2012 · Rio de Janeiro
- End-to-end communications: investors, employees, press, community.
- Led the company's vertical integration (the creation of its own care network).

### Early career: editorial and media
1997 – 2004 · Rio de Janeiro
- Editorial and production roles at major outlets (LANCE!, Globo.com).

## Builder track
Solo founder of AI software. The arc: Janis (the agent orchestrator that became my personal "dark factory") → production products → Commit, the software factory as a business.

### Janis (2024–25) — https://github.com/MKanhan/janis
A CLI work orchestrator for Claude Code: you steer, the machine executes. The origin of my personal dark factory.

### Photo6 (2024)
A desktop photo editor, upscaler and developer.

### Upscaler Pro (2024)
A desktop image denoiser and upscaler (2×, 4×, 8×).

### Paper9 (2025)
A long-form writing studio, built as a lab project for professional writing.

### Bartleby (2026) — https://bartleby.com.br
LGPD documentation for AI agents: reads the agent's code and generates signable RIPD, ROPA and Risk Map. A static gate in CI, no LLM.

### Archlint (2026) — https://archlint.pro
Architecture guardrails for coding agents: a hook (Claude Code / Cursor) that checks each edit against the layer rules in your CLAUDE.md, catching drift inside the loop. Deterministic, Python stdlib, open-core.

### Commit (2026) — https://commit.ia.br
The boutique software studio: the personal dark factory grown into a business.

### Hard Gate (2026) — https://hardgate.com.br
Strategy and governance for AI management systems, including audits and executive training.

**Pipeline.** Three systems planned for 2026 and a personal productivity harness in daily use.

**Consulting.** A selective, tailored practice with a dual philosophy: solve the problem and build the client's own capability. Entrepreneurial roots at the e-commerce Collecto.com.br (2007–2010).

## Authorship
**Antes que Escolham por Nós (Before They Choose for Us)** (Feb 2026) — A book on the social risks of large-scale AI adoption, informed by the perspective of computer scientists and written for a general audience. Available in Portuguese only.

## Education
- **UC Davis** — Specialization in Computational Social Science (2023–2024)
- **FGV** — MBA, Project Management (2006–2007)
- **UFRJ** — BA in Communications, Journalism (1995–1998)
- **CEFET/RJ** — Technical degree in Civil Engineering (1991–1994)

### Certifications and courses
- **AWS Certified AI Business Strategist** — Amazon Web Services · Oct 2026
- **Strategy, futures and management** — Institute for the Future, IESE, IE
- **Change and reputation management** — Change management, reputation management, GRI reporting
- **AI and agentic systems** — DeepLearning.AI, Stanford, Duke, U. Michigan, incl. Spec-Driven Development and Harness Design

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