Alec Ross – U.S. Department of State, Senior Advisor for Innovation
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Ross served as Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, where he was tasked with maximizing the potential of technology and innovation in service of America’s diplomatic goals and stewarding Secretary of State Clinton’s 21st Century Statecraft agenda. In this role, Alec helped ensure America’s leadership and advanced the State Department’s interests on a range of issues from Internet Freedom to disaster response to responding to regional conflicts.
Alec Ross is one of America’s leading experts on innovation. He serves as an advisor for both the political and technological elite to help them better understand the implication of factors emerging at the intersection of geopolitics, technology, and innovation. Ross brought these two select worlds together for President Obama for his first presidential campaign. He did the same during his time as Senior Advisor for Innovation to the Secretary of State, a role created for him to maximize the potential of technology and innovation in service of America’s diplomatic goals. In this role, Ross advanced the State Department’s interests on a range of issues including Internet Freedom, cybersecurity, disaster response, and the use of network technologies in conflict zones. Currently, he continues to educate various world leaders and top CEOs about these topics. Ross’s highly anticipated book, The Industries of the Future, set to be released February 2016, will give readers an understanding of the next wave of innovations that are going to disrupt markets and workplaces around the world, for better and for worse. Ross currently serves as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and sits on the board of directors or advisors for companies in the fields of technology, media, telecommunications, education, health care and cybersecurity.