Archive - Speakers

Aaron Rasmussen is an American ‘serial entrepreneur’, inventor, and game designer. He is a co-founder of MasterClass, an education platform in which creative experts give classes to an online audience. Throughout the years, he has started and sold companies involved in software, robotics, and energy potions. He loves to bring technologies and products from fiction into reality.

Alex Beard is a critically acclaimed writer and educator. His book Natural Born Learners is a user's guide to transforming learning in the twenty-first century, taking readers on a dazzling global tour into the future of education, from Silicon Valley to Seoul, Helsinki to Hounslow. After starting out as an English teacher in a London comprehensive, he completed his MA at the Institute of Education before joining Teach For All, a growing global network of organizations working to ensure that all children fulfil their potential. He is fortunate to spend his time travelling the world in search of the practices that will shape the future of learning and has written about his experiences for the Guardian, Financial Times, Evening Standard, Independent and Wired.

Amy Mackinnon is a staff writer for Foreign Policy magazine. She began her journalism career as a freelancer in her native Scotland before moving to Moscow, where she joined the media start-up Coda Story as senior editor. Amy received a 2018 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia award for her reporting on homophobic vigilantes for the radio documentary “Russia’s New Scapegoats,” co-produced by Coda Story and Reveal. Her work has been published by BBC Radio Scotland, Slate, CNN, and Vice, among others. She has a master’s in Russian and East European studies from the University of Glasgow and Corvinus University of Budapest, and a master’s degree from the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. Although she is originally from Scotland, Americans can understand her accent just fine. Really.

Anshel Pfeffer has been reporting on Israeli and international affairs for twenty-two years. He is currently a senior correspondent and columnist for Haaretz and the Israel correspondent of The Economist, as well as reporting regularly from Israel for The Times, The Sunday Times and The Jewish Chronicle. Over the course of his career, he has covered politics, security, education, religion, the Jewish diaspora, as well as reporting from over thirty countries.
His critically-acclaimed biography, Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu was published in 2018.

Cate Adams is the Vice President at Warner Bros. Pictures

Lindsey Hilsum  is an English television journalist and writer. She is the International Editor for Channel 4 News, and a regular contributor to The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Guardian, New Statesman, and Granta.

Cristian Lupşa is the founder and editor of DoR (Decât o Revistă), a quarterly magazine devoted to narrative journalism and telling the stories of modern day Romania. He also writes, lectures, and trains people on the transformational impact true stories can have on a culture still seeking its identity. Cristian graduated from the University of Bucharest in 2003, and then, in 2005, earned an MA in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, the world’s oldest journalism school. He returned to Romania in 2007, and joined Esquire Romania as a senior editor. In 2009, Cristian and a group of rebellious journalists started DoR, a magazine – though some would call it a movement – predicated on the idea that good nonfiction storytelling can change people and communities. In 2011, continuing the mission of DoR, they started The Power of Storytelling, an international storytelling conference which has grown to be the largest in the region. Cristian is also an alumni of Aspen Institute Romania’s Young Leaders program. He spent the 2013-2014 academic year as a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Award-winning journalist and established digital executive with a proven track record of anticipating and driving transformational change in several of the world's most influential media and technology companies. My passion is making great media that is meaningful, accessible and delivers positive social impact in our rapidly changing industry environment. Early pioneer in social publishing, including mobile- and video-first content, collaborative open journalism, social media verification and emerging platform partnerships. I believe in strong journalism, transparent leadership, that diverse groups make better decisions, that data is an amazing tool to inform -- but not overwhelm -- a company's mission, and in iterative and goal-oriented strategy.

David Owen co-founded IDEA in 2009 with his partner Angela Hill. The company began by sourcing rare vintage art and design reference books for the fashion industry, with retail spaces in Colette and Dover Street Market, London. Interest in IDEA grew rapidly via Instagram and the company turned to publishing with titles by photographers including Willy Vanderperre, Alasdair McLellan, Glen Luchford and brands like Palace Skateboards, Vetements, Stussy and Gucci. IDEA also began to produce merchandise including bags and hats and apparel. IDEA shirts and sweatshirts are now carried in 40 stores worldwide. IDEA also consults on Instagram and social media for a number of companies and runs a motion graphics studio. 2019 will see new books published by Self Service, Harmony Korine for Gucci, Purienne and Harley Weir.

After graduating at the Rotterdam Artschool, I took in 1993 my Masters Degree at the National Film and Television School in England. The Nipkow Program in Berlin granted me a fellowship in 2002/03.

With writer Arthur Japin I realized in 2001 my first feature Magonia (Golden Tulip Best Film IFF Istanbul, Circulo Precolombino Best Film in Bogota). My second feature, The Aviatrix of Kazbek (Commersant Press Prize IFF Moscow) closed the 2010 IFF Rotterdam.

Since 2003 I made several documentaries: Poetins Mama and Black Gold under Notecka Forest (Silver Wolf Competition IDFA), Transit Dubai (IDFA, Audience Award IFF Gdansk) and Stand By Your President (IDFA). I’m currently working on a new film in Abkhazia.

Since 2011 I cooperate with radiomaker Jeroen Stout on sound/new media projects. I coach (international) projects of young makers, give workshops and advise funds and organizations. I live and work between The Netherlands and Georgia since 1989.

Thomas Dworzak is a German photographer. He has produced a number of books and is a member of Magnum Photos. He was President of Magnum from 2017 until 2020. Dworzak won a World Press Photo award in 2001 and in 2018 received the Hood Medal from the Royal Photographic Society in the UK.

Jon Lee Anderson is a journalist, investigative reporter, and war correspondent and is presently a staff writer for The New Yorker. He began his career in the early 1980s, reporting on Central America’s civil wars for TIME magazine and other journals. As a New Yorker staff writer since 1998, he has covered numerous international conflicts, including those in Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, Angola, Mali, Liberia, and Central African Republic. Before becoming a staff writer for the New Yorker, Anderson wrote for The New York Times. His work has also appeared in Harper’s, El Pais, Internazionale, The Financial Times, Guardian, The Sunday Times, TIME, The Nation, and other periodicals and journals.

Founder and CEO of News Revenue Hub, former Publisher of Voice of San Diego.

Margaret Coker is an award-winning investigative American journalist who has spent twenty years reporting in 32 different countries across the former Soviet Union, Middle East, Europe and Africa. She specializes in stories about authoritarian countries in transition, including Russia, Turkey and Libya. She is Disinformation Editor at Coda Story, and is currently writing a book about Iraq’s elite spy unit that successfully infiltrated the Islamic State and helped defeat the terror group.

Matthew Janney is a freelance journalist based in London who writes about literature, culture and the post-Soviet space. His work has also appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, The LA Review of Books and The Calvert Journal.

SUZANNE O’SULLIVAN is an Irish neurologist working in Britain. Her first book, Is It All in Your Head?: True Stories of Imaginary Illness, won the 2016 Wellcome Book Prize and the Royal Society of Biology General Book Prize.

CEO, Civil Foundation

Vivian Schiller is a longtime executive at the intersection of journalism, media and technology. She currently heads the Civil Foundation, an independent not-for-profit committed to the sustainability of trustworthy journalism around the world. She is also advisor to Craig Newmark Philanthropies

Prior to joining Civil, Vivian held a number of executive roles in the media industry. She was the Global Chair of News at Twitter. In this role, she led the company’s strategy for news and partnership with journalism organizations and the news publishing ecosystem.

Before that Vivian was Senior VP & Chief Digital Office, NBC News where she led strategy and operations for the networks’ presence on the web, mobile, devices, and social media.

Prior to NBC, Schiller served as President and CEO of NPR, leading all of NPR's worldwide media operations. She was Senior Vice President and General Manager of NYTimes.com and Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture of The New York Times and Discovery Communications. Earlier in her career, Schiller was the head of CNN Productions, where she led CNN's long-form programming efforts. Documentaries and series produced under her auspices earned multiple honors, including three Peabody Awards, four Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards, and dozens of Emmys.

Schiller is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; and a Director of the Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian. 

Suketu Mehta is the New York-based author of ‘Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found,’ which won the Kiriyama Prize and the Hutch Crossword Award, and was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, the Lettre Ulysses Prize, the

BBC4 Samuel Johnson Prize, and the Guardian First Book Award. He has won the Whiting Writers’ Award, the O. Henry Prize, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for his fiction. Mehta’s work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Granta, Harper’s Magazine, Time, and Newsweek, and has been featured on NPR’s ‘Fresh Air’ and ‘All Things Considered.’

Mehta is an Associate Professor of Journalism at New York University. His book about global migration, ‘This Land is Their Land’, will be published by Farrar Straus & Giroux in June 2019. He is also working on a nonfiction book about immigrants in contemporary New York, for which he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. Mehta has written original screenplays for films, including ‘New York, I Love You’. Mehta was born in Calcutta and raised in Bombay and New York. He is a graduate of New York University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Keith Gessen was born in Moscow in 1975 and came to the United States with his family when he was six years old. He is a co-founder of the literary magazine n+1 and the author of the novels All the Sad Young Literary Men and A Terrible Country. He has written about Russia for the London Review of Books, n+1, the Nation, the New Yorker, and the New York Times Magazine, and has translated or co-translated several books from Russian, including Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich, There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, and It's No Good by Kirill Medvedev. He is also the editor of the n+1 books What We Should Have Known, Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager, and City by City. He lives in New York with his wife, the author and publisher Emily Gould, and their son, Raphy, who likes squishy candy.

Joe oversees creative development of digital channels at Conde Nast Entertainment, leading the creation of franchises across the portfolio, as well as being the creator and interviewer of Vogue’s 400 million-view celebrity interview franchise "73 Questions

Joe started his career as a founder of a digital lab at HBO, where his independent directing and remixing career took off with a viral recap of every season of the Sopranos. In 2010 he gave a TED talk on storytelling, co-hosted Boing Boing TV on Virgin America airlines, sits on the programming board of The Moth, and is co-founder of the YouTube channel “CDZA”, a 300,000-subscriber channel which featured over 150 conservatory musicians in high concept music videos. As a one-man creative shop, he has created ideas and videos for such companies as Google, CFDA Fashion Awards, Interscope Records, BBC America, Comcast, ATT, and others.

Joe is the most ardent American fan of Georgia and unofficial ambassador. He has been to Georgia 16 times since 2006, can read and write kartuli, co-owned Piano (on Tabidze street), and currently co-owns DASTA. He once drove in a crappy car from England to Mongolia, plays classical piano, had a license plate that spelled “RIKROLL”, is an Italian dual citizen and is the 2007 International Pun Champion. 

Raised in Germany and trained by Haarmann & Riemer (now Symrise), Geza has worked as a perfumer with Diesel, Ormonde Jayne, Baldessarini and Boris Bidjan Saberi. His cutting-edge synthetic ingredients have placed him at the center of some of the 21st century’s most dynamic fragrances, from cult favorites like Boudicca Wode and Paper Passion, to the breathtaking opulence of the beautiful mind series. Geza is the driving force behind the bestselling Escentric Molecules brand, a project that highlights the often ovelooked Iso E Super aroma-molecule known for its velvety and cocooning effect. Geza is known for pushing the boundaries of the fragrance industry and collaborates with artists across the creative spectrum. Working with German artist Wolfgang Georgsdorf he created the Smeller, a piano-like instrument that allows the user to play their own “aromascapes.” Sometimes outrageous, always outspoken, and truly unique, Geza Schön is living proof the future of niche perfume is bright.

Kerry Hudson was born in Aberdeen. Her first novel, Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice-Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, was greeted with wide critical acclaim and won the Scottish First Book Award. Kerry’s second novel, Thirst won the Prix Femina étranger, France’s most prestigious award for foreign fiction. Her new book, Lowborn, is a deeply personal story which will see Hudson return to the towns she grew up in around the UK. In returning to these places, she hopes to uncover long buried truths about her own life but also seeks to illuminate what life is really like for Britain’s poorest today.

Emily Goligoski is Research Director for the Membership Puzzle Project, a collaboration between the Dutch journalism platform De Correspondent and New York University. She previously worked as a user experience research lead in The New York Times newsroom and brought design research to the Mozilla Foundation. Emily completed her Master’s in Learning, Design & Technology at Stanford while conducting user research at Intel Labs. She previously worked at Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ) and studied journalism at Northwestern.

Shaun Walker is the Guardian's central and eastern Europe correspondent. Previously, Shaun spent more than a decade in Moscow and is the author of The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past. He is a contributor at Coda Story.

Simon Ostrovsky is an award-winning journalist famous for his intrepid reporting in eastern Ukraine, where he was kidnapped, blindfolded and beaten by pro-Russia separatists. He has spent most of his career covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, where he witnessed the rise of Putin and reported on four revolutions. He is now Investigations Editor at Coda Story and a contributor at PBS Newshour.

Peter Pomerantsev is a journalist, author and TV producer whose memoir of his time in Russia Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia pioneered the concept of the post-truth world and has since been translated into over a dozen languages. Peter is currently a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics, where he co-directs the Arena program. He is a regular contributor to mainstream publications such as the Atlantic, the London Review of Books and BBC among others. He is Editor-at-Large at Coda Story.