Alec Ross (author)

Alec Ross (born November 30, 1971) is an American technology policy expert who was Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the duration of her term as Secretary of State. After leaving the Department of State in 2013 he joined the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University as a Senior Fellow and is the author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Industries of the Future. The Industries of the Future has been translated to fifteen languages, and was named the 2016 Book of the Year by the TriBeCa Film Festival's Disruptive Innovation Foundation. Ross is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University.

Ross was born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia. Ross's father was an attorney. In the seventh grade of grammar school he moved to Rome, Italy for a year to live with his grandfather, Ray DePaulo, then the commercial minister at the American embassy.

After graduating in 1994 from Northwestern University with a B.A. in history, Ross moved to Baltimore as a Teach for America corps member. Ross taught for two years and then accepted a position as special assistant to the president of the Enterprise Foundation. He focused on developing business, technology and fundraising strategies.

In 2000, he co-founded the nonprofit One Economy, a global nonprofit that uses innovative approaches to deliver the power of technology and information about education, jobs, health care and other vital issues to low-income people.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Ross played a key role in developing then-Sen. Barack Obama's technology and innovation plan, convening more than 500 advisors in the process of cultivating the candidate's innovation agenda.

In April 2009, Ross joined the State Department as Senior Advisor on Innovation. Hillary Clinton described his work by saying that "Alec Ross has been my right hand on all that we're doing for internet freedom."

Through his work at the State Department, Ross institutionalized ways to use Web video and social networking sites. In 2009 he told U.S. News and World Report, "It's about how can you reach large numbers of people who otherwise would be difficult to impossible to reach." Ross argued that governments using modern communications technologies can be more creative and responsive in how they enable people to engage directly with each other and with other countries.

Ross also drove efforts to aide other countries through digital development initiatives like wiring schools, adding wireless capacity to public works, text-message reminders to HIV patients, and leap frogging communities from cash culture to mobile banking. During the Libyan uprising, Alec drove the State Department's efforts to "restore communication networks in rebel-held territories such as Benghazi, working with the late Amb. Chris Stevens, to fight the Internet blackout imposed by Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi." Ross' team also "provided communications technologies to opposition members in the Syrian border areas and trained NGOs on how to avoid the regime's censorship and cyber snooping."

During his tenure at the State Department, Ross was a vocal critic of efforts to control or surveil the internet.

In addition to concerns over countries increasing surveillance capabilities, Ross highlighted cases where businesses prioritized profit motives over the potential harms of technologies. In 2011, he publicly "criticised the developers of internet surveillance equipment who were willing to sell their services to repressive regimes and allow governments to censor their citizens.”

Ross resides in Baltimore, Maryland with his wife, Felicity, and their three children.

Books

• 2016: Alec Ross. The Industries of the Future. Simon & Schuster.

Articles

• 2013: Alec Ross. Light Up the West Bank: Want to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process? Start with 3G. Foreign Policy.
• 2012: Alec Ross. How connective tech boosts political change. CNN.
• 2011: Alec Ross and Ben Scott. 21st Century Statecraft. NATO Review.
• 2010: Alec Ross. Internet Freedom: Historic Roots and the Road Forward. The SAIS Review of International Affairs Volume 30, Number 2, Summer-Fall
• 2007: Simon Rosenberg and Alec Ross. A Laptop in Every Backpack with Simon Rosenberg. NDN Globalization Initiative.
• 2016: Our Children and the Next Economy by Alec Ross
• 2016: "The Language Barrier is About to Fall." The Wall Street Journal.

• Ross, Alec (18 June 2013). "Light Up the West Bank: Want to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process? Start with 3G.". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 25 June 2013. 
• Ross, Alec (June 20, 2012). "How connective tech boosts political change". CNN. Retrieved 6 February 2013. 
• Ross, Alec; Ben Scott (2011). "21st Century Statecraft". NATO Review. Retrieved 17 November 2011. 
• Ross, Alec (Summer–Fall 2010). "nternet Freedom: Historic Roots and the Road Forward. The SAIS Review of International Affairs". 30 (2). Retrieved 17 November 2011. 
• Rosenberg, Simon; Alec Ross (1 May 2007). "Rosenberg". NDN Globalization Initiative. Retrieved 17 November 2011. 
• ""Our Children and the Next Economy" by Alec Ross - Omnivoracious - The Amazon Book Review". www.omnivoracious.com. Retrieved 2016-04-15. 
• Ross, Alec (2016-01-29). "The Language Barrier Is About to Fall". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-07-14. 

• Distinguished Honor Award from the U.S. Department of State
• Book of the Year, The TriBeCa Film Festival's Disruptive Innovation Foundation (2016)
• One of 40 leaders under 40 years old in International Development
• Disruptive Innovation Award, The TriBeCa Film Festival's Disruptive Innovation Foundation (2013)
• Oxford Internet Institute OII Award (2013)
• Huffington Post Game Changers (2010)
• Foreign Policy Magazine "Top 100 Global Thinkers" (2011)
• Newsweek Digital Power Index Top 100 (2011)
• TriBeCa Film Festival Disruptive Innovator Award (2012)
• Politico's "50 Politicos to Watch" (2010)

• "The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs". 
• "Meet the 40 Under 40". DevEx. Retrieved 17 November 2011. 
• Dale, Austin (April 3, 2012). "Tribeca to Honor Justin Bieber, Edward Burns and Others with Disruptive Innovation Awards". Indie Wire. Retrieved 21 March 2013. 
• "Oxford Internet Institute Honours Internet Pioneers, John Seely-Brown, Alec Ross, Max Schrems and Galaxy Zoo Co-founder, Chris Lintott". Oxford Internet Institute. October 24, 2013. 
• "Who Is The Ultimate Game Changer In Politics?". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-11-11. 
• "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2015-11-11. 
• "Digital Power Index: Navigators". Newsweek. Retrieved 2015-11-11. 
• "Tribeca to Honor Justin Bieber, Edward Burns and Others with Disruptive Innovation Awards". Indiewire. Retrieved 2015-11-11. 
• "50 Politicos to Watch 2010". POLITICO. Retrieved 2015-11-11.