BIO

Kenneth Cukier is an award-winning writer and journalist. He is the Deputy Executive Editor of The Economist, following a 20-year career as a foreign correspondent in Europe, Asia and America, as well as its data editor and commentary editor.

His most recent book is “Framers” on the power of mental models and the limits of AI. His earlier book, “Big Data” was a NYT bestseller translated in over 20 languages, and sold over 2 million copies worldwide. It won the National Library of China’s Wenjin Book Award and was a finalist for the FT Business Book of the Year. Kenn is also the co-author of “Learning with Big Data: The Future of Education”.

Previously, Kenn was a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, on the board of directors of Chatham House, and an associate fellow at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times and Foreign Affairs, among others. He has been a frequent commentator on CBS, CNN, NPR, the BBC and was a member of the World Economic Forum’s global council on data-driven development.

Kenn is a board director of The Open String Foundation, which provides classical instruments to underprivileged children globally. In 2007-2018 he was a director of International Bridges to Justice, which fosters legal rights in developing countries, and served on the board of advisors to the Daniel Pearl Foundation. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Kenn has given talks at the World Economic Forum, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, McKinsey & Co, Linklaters, Schroders, GE, IBM, Visa, Mastercard, NetApp, VMWare and Mishcon de Reya, among others. He has also spoken at the IMF, World Bank, US State Department, Council on Foreign Relations, Aspen Institute, Royal Statistical Society and the universities of Harvard, MIT, Oxford and Cambridge, among others. His TED Talk on data and AI has more than 2 million views.