Alec Ross is one of America's leading experts on innovation. He is currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and the author of The Industries of the Future, being published by Simon & Schuster in February of 2016. The Industries of the Future explores the technological and economic trends and developments that will shape the next ten years, from cybersecurity and big data to the commercialization of genomics to the code-ification of money, markets and trust.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt writes that, "In a world growing more chaotic, Alec Ross is one of those very rare people who can see patterns in the chaos and provide guidance for the road forward. He has an unusual diversity of expertise that allows him to apply multiple lenses to the world's challenges and dream up the kind of innovative solutions that are changing the world."

Among recent recognitions:

• Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine
• U.S. Department of State Distinguished Honor Award
• Oxford University Internet & Society Award
• Huffington Post's 10 Game Changers in Politics
• Tribeca Film Festival Disruptive Innovation Award

Alec Ross recently served for four year as Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a role created for him by Secretary Clinton to maximize the potential of technology and innovation in service of America's diplomatic. In this role, Alec acted as the diplomatic lead on a range of issues including cybersecurity, Internet Freedom, disaster response and the use of network technologies in conflict zones.

Alec served as the Convener for the Technology, Media & Telecommunications Policy Committee on Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and served on the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team.

In 2000, he and three colleagues co-founded the technology-focused nonprofit organization One Economy and grew it from modest origins in a basement into a global organization serving millions of low-income people, with programs on four continents.

Alec has served as a guest lecturer at numerous institutions including the United Nations, Oxford University, Harvard Law School, Stanford Business School and a number of parliamentary bodies. His writing has appeared in academic publications including the Johns Hopkins SAIS Review of International Affairs and the NATO Review.

Alec started his career as a sixth grade teacher through Teach for America in inner-city Baltimore where he lives with his wife and their three young children.

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