Vijay  Vaitheeswaran Profile Picture

Keynote SpeakerVijay Vaitheeswaran

Award-Winning Senior Economist Editor, Multi-Book Author, Accomplished Public Speaker at Davos and Other Leading Forums

Vijay is the Global Energy & Climate Innovation Editor of The Economist. He has produced numerous cover stories and won awards for his reporting. He is an accomplished public speaker and his three books have created a stir, with accolades ranging from lengthy reviews in The New Yorker to shortlisting... Read more

Biography

Vijay is the Global Energy & Climate Innovation Editor of The Economist. He has produced numerous cover stories and won awards for his reporting. He is an accomplished public speaker and his three books have created a stir, with accolades ranging from lengthy reviews in The New Yorker to shortlisting for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year prize. The Financial Times has declared him to be “a writer to whom it is worth paying attention.”

From 2017 to 2021, he served as the New York-based US Business Editor. He opened the magazine’s first Shanghai bureau in 2012 and served as its China Business Editor until mid-2017. Prior to that, he covered biotechnology, healthcare and global innovation. He also opened the Mexico City bureau, the publication’s first in Latin America.

His opinion pieces have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Times and Foreign Policy, and his commentaries on CNBC and Bloomberg. He has addressed groups ranging from the US National Governors’ Association and the UN General Assembly to the TED and Aspen Ideas conferences. He also serves as chairman of sustainability & innovation summits organised by The Economist, held annually in New York, London, Bangkok and Cape Town.

Vijay is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves as an advisor on innovation to the World Economic Forum/Davos, and has taught at NYU Stern Business School and Northwestern University. Vijay is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"We consistently hear that our events have the best content vs our competitors like the FT, Reuters, Innovation Zero and ReThink Hong Kong. Comments include 'you are light years ahead of the FT' or 'Your content is far superior to other events and you ask the tough questions that matter."
"That interview was unbelievable, much better than any other journalist interview we have had in years."
"We really enjoy our relationship with Vijay and his interview style."
"That Vijay is an absolute killer, he really made the event - I think he should be a new presidential candidate."
"Vijay was by far the best moderator at your event in Cape Town."

Popular Talks by Vijay Vaitheeswaran

  • The Surprising Future of Global Innovation

    Will Silicon Valley and Big Tech dominate global innovation in the 21st century? Or will new clusters of innovation from Boston to Berlin pose a real challenge as “hard tech” like synthetic biology and climate tech rise in importance relative to software? And could Bangalore and Beijing have the edge...

  • Hard Truths about Sustainability & the Energy Transition

    The energy world stands at a crossroads. Climate change remains a potent challenge, but the Green New Deal, the UN COP negotiations and the ESG investing trend have not achieved their aims. From Trump’s America to farmers in Brussels to coal-belching China and India, the energy transition seems in trouble....

  • How Business Can Flourish in an Age of Disruption
  • Rethinking the AI & Energy Nexus