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Jared Cohen        

President, Jigsaw (previously Google Ideas) & Chief Advisor to Alphabet Executive Chairman (former Google CEO) Eric Schmidt

Jared Cohen is the President of Jigsaw and an adviser to Alphabet's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. He is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously he served as a close adviser to Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. Cohen is the New York Times bestselling author of four books. He has been named to the 'TIME 100' list, Foreign Policy's 'Top 100 Global Thinkers,' and Vanity Fair's 'Next Establishment.'

According to Jared Cohen, “You can’t understand the future of anything without applying both a physical and digital lens to it. There’s no such thing as cyberspace. There’s no such thing as physical space. It’s one world and companies and individuals are going to have to interact on both fronts.” As the president of the world’s preeminent technology incubator, Jigsaw (previously, Google Ideas, a top-ranked global think tank), chief advisor to Alphabet Executive Chairman (former Google CEO) Eric Schmidt, a best-selling author, advisor to two Secretaries of State and traveler to 93 countries, Cohen looks through both lenses with an acuity of vision and foresight that few on the planet possess. Whether he’s sharing his risky encounters with Somali pirates or his celebrated meeting with the Pope to talk ethics in tech innovation — Cohen’s dual-lens, wide-angle view informs the current state of the world, your industry or organization. It could even illuminate its future.

Identified simply as “Jared Cohen, Idea Man” when he was named as one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People,” Cohen has spent his remarkable career at the nexus of business, technology and global politics. After Stanford and Oxford, he joined the policy planning staff at the U.S. Department of State, advising both Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. In 2010, he founded the highly influential think tank Google Ideas. Now a tech incubator called Jigsaw, its expanded mission as a group within Alphabet, Inc. is “to use technology to tackle the toughest geopolitical challenges, from countering violent extremism to thwarting online censorship to mitigating the threats associated with digital attacks.”

Jared Cohen’s keynotes are entertaining, inspiring and the perfect combination of weighty substance and sparkling storytelling. Speaking off of photos from his extensive travels, Cohen frames his core ideas to make them relevant to a broad range of audiences, industries and areas of interest — leaving all with an incomparable perspective on our rapidly changing world.

Speech Topics


One World: The Merging of the Physical & Digital Domains

Jared Cohen sees a future filled with unparalleled advances in education, economic empowerment, technology and health – accompanied by unprecedented threats and challenges. To succeed, we must realize that the digital and physical worlds can no longer be viewed as separate domains, but as one world with two fronts. In this electrifying keynote, Cohen leverages his vantage point as the president of the world’s preeminent technology incubator and experience as a State Department strategist to share eye-opening insights into the merged physical/digital world that we’re actually living in today. From the geopolitical and technological big picture, to how this merging of domains has transformed everyday life around the planet, Cohen illustrates his core ideas with case studies and stories gathered during his extensive global journeys. Known as a highly collaborative and imaginative speaker, Cohen “rolls up his sleeves” to work with clients and provide a perceptive view of the issues that affect their organization most. From current trends to anticipating what’s next, Jared Cohen’s remarkable vision will change the way you look at your work, life, organization and the future that lies ahead.

Harnessing the Power of Youth

Did you know that over 60 percent of the world's population is under the age of 30? Jared Cohen does, and understands that this generation is the most savvy in connection technology yet, making it also the most individually-empowered generation in the world's history. Yet governments seem to ignore the size and potential influence of this demographic, perhaps failing to understand that the future of the world depends on what happens as this global youth bulge enters adulthood.

Today, young people in democratic societies take full advantage of new technologies, finding it increasingly easy to connect to the new diplomats and change-makers of the 21st century. And where autocracy dominates, the youth of these nations will become the de facto opposition. Cohen deftly articulates this phenomenon, while outlining a path for these young people – from the world's most democratic to its most autocratic societies.

Understanding the Technological Revolution

Jared Cohen pioneered the use of technology in America's foreign policy. Using anecdotes and insights gleaned from his years in the State Department, Cohen explains that the technological revolution is not just about new technologies: it is about how individuals use them. For example, it was Cohen who successfully led the charge from the State Department to urge the postponement of the routine scheduled maintenance of Twitter.com during the Iranian election protests in the summer of 2009, recognizing Twitter as the Iranians' only outlet for voicing what was truly happening in their country. It was also Cohen who led dozens of tech CEOs from Silicon Valley into the most turbulent parts of the world in efforts to connect the industry and foreign policy. In this fascinating keynote, Cohen will use stories such as these to broaden your grasp of what technology is capable of, deepening your understanding of how it can be used creatively and strategically to put you – and your business – on the cutting edge.

21st-Century Statecraft: A New Way of Thinking

In the 21st century, statecraft – the art of leading a country, organizations, and companies – will be as much about relationship-building as it is negotiating. Drawing on his experience both in the government and in the private sector, Jared Cohen makes the compelling argument that governments and corporations must partner in order to develop fresh new solutions to traditional problems. This collaboration and exchange of ideas between the private and public sectors provides new and innovative ways to go about solving challenges, and opens up both parties to opportunities not available without the other. As the world changes rapidly around us, the communication and sharing of ideas between private and public has never been more vital. Throughout this keynote, Cohen shares successful examples and explores the vast possibilities that these collaborations can bring about in the future.

Cyber Crimes of the Future

We witnessed a physical attack on our nation on 9/11, as terrorists forcefully hijacked aircrafts and flew them into the Pentagon and Twin Towers. We've also experienced cyber attacks on our networks, as hackers on the other side of the world inserted malicious software into systems that operate some of our critical infrastructures. Now imagine a combined physical and cyber attack.

In this gripping keynote, Jared Cohen looks to the future and predicts that in the new digital age, every state will have two foreign policies and two domestic policies: one for the physical world and one for the virtual world. And to make matters even more complicated, these physical and cyber policies will often contradict each other. Cohen shares his insights on what to expect in the future and what we can do to protect ourselves from coordinated physical and cyber attacks.

Understanding Risks & Disruptions in the New Digital World

Within the next decade, approximately five billion new people will go online. "The next five billion," as they're being called, are vastly different from the current two billion who populate the digital sphere, however. They will come from the most problematic parts of the world - regions wrought with political and economic instability - and will require drastically different customer service than the current "first world" users.

In this highly innovative and forward-thinking keynote, Jared Cohen examines how this shift in online demographics will affect geo-politics and corporations, as businesses and financial institutions will want to understand the needs and attributes of this new customer base in order to effectively serve it.

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The Next 5 Billion: Life in Our New Connected Age

Within the next decade, approximately five billion new people will go online. "The next five billion," as they're being called, are vastly different from the current two billion who populate the digital sphere, however. They will come from the most problematic parts of the world - regions wrought with political and economic instability - and will require drastically different customer service than the current "first world" users.

In this highly innovative and forward-thinking keynote - drawing on his book, co-authored with Google executive chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt, The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business - speaker Jared Cohen examines how this shift in online demographics will affect geo-politics and corporations, individuals and groups alike as businesses and financial institutions strive to understand the needs and attributes of their new customer base. This is a highly customizable presentation; Cohen will provide both a big-picture view of the coming decade as well as a granular view of the aspects that affect your organization most - whether it is the future of commerce and trade; the future of identity and citizenship; the future of revolution or terrorism; or the future of conflict and intervention.

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News


Inside Google's Internet Justice League and Its AI-Powered War on ...
Jigsaw's Jared Cohen: “I want us to feel the responsibility of the burden we're ... disproportionate weight,” says Jigsaw founder and president Jared Cohen.
News Google Ideas to become Jigsaw tech incubator
Jared Cohen will serve as president of Jigsaw and will continue to advise Schmidt. ... Schmidt recruited Cohen, a former State Department staffer, to create the ...
Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen on Technology in 2016 | TIME
Inventive artificial intelligence will make all of us better.

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