Alec Ross Keynote Speaker

Alec Ross is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at l’Universitá di Bologna Business School, New York Times bestselling author, and a renowned speaker on innovation and the future of work, technology and society.

He is the author of recently published book, “The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People and the Fight for Our Future” (2021), named a Bloomberg book of the year.  Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon called it “thought-provoking” and Mukesh Ambani (“Asia’s Richest Man”) listed it in his top five books of 2021.  In the book he explains how we are in the ‘car crash at the intersection of business, government, and everyday people’ and proposes a path forward for the ‘Raging 2020s’.  His first book, “The Industries of the Future”, was published in 2016. It was translated into 24 languages and a best-seller on five continents.

He is a Board Partner at global venture capital firm, Amplo. He sits on the board of directors or advisors for several companies in the fields of technology, finance, education, human capital and cybersecurity.

He has served as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and as a Senior Fellow at the Columbia University School of International & Public Affairs. He has also been a Visiting Professor at King’s College London.

His writing has featured in several publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Foreign Policy. His academic writing has appeared in publications, including the SAIS Review of International Affairs and the NATO Review, as the journal cover articles.

He served as Senior Advisor for Innovation to the Secretary of State during the Obama Administration. This role was created for him to bring innovative solutions to advance America’s foreign policy interests and to help modernize the practice of diplomacy.  During Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, Alec served as Convener for the Technology & Media Policy Committee. He also served on the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team.

He is co-founder of a technology-focused social enterprise, which he helped grow from modest origins in a basement into a global organization running programs on four continents and serving millions of low-income people.

Among recent recognitions:

• 2020 National Consumers Union, Massimiliano Dona Award, presented to him for “his commitment on the frontier of change, his gaze to the future and his step into the reality of a world that in order to change cannot betray the trust of consumers.”
• U.S. Department of State Distinguished Honor Award
• Oxford University Internet & Society Award
• Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine
• TriBeCa Film Festival Book of the Year Award

Alec began his career working as a sixth grade teacher through Teach for America in inner-city Baltimore.