Eric Schmidt is an accomplished technologist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He served as Google’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman from 2001-2011 where he pioneered the company’s transformation from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology. Eric oversaw the company’s technical and business strategies alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Under his leadership, Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation.

From 2018-2020, Eric served as the Technical Advisor to Alphabet, the holding company of Google, advising its leaders on technology, business, and policy issues. He was also the Executive Chairman of Alphabet from 2015-2018 and remained as the Chairman of Google until 2015.

Prior to joining Google, Eric was Chairman and CEO of Novell, a software as a service company. He previously spent 14 years at Sun Microsystems, Inc., starting his career as a manager and rising to become their Chief Technology Officer. He also held technical positions at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Bell Laboratories, and Zilog.
Eric has been honored with numerous accolades and supports a variety of esteemed organizations. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a fellow in 2007. He was on the Board of Trustees at Carnegie Mellon University from 2004 to 2006, and at Princeton University from 2007 to 2010. Additionally, since 2008, he has served as a trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and after a 12-year tenure was named an emeritus board member in 2020. Eric was also a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science from 2009 to 2017. He currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Broad Institute and is on the board of The Mayo Clinic, as well as Director of Science for America. Since 2022, Eric has served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Sandbox AQ.
Eric became the Chairman of the Department of Defense’s Innovation Board in 2016 and held the position for four years, during which he was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service in January 2017 by Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. He was also a member of NASA’s National Space Council User Advisory Group for two years which was chaired by the Vice President. He served as the Chairman of the US National Security Commission for Artificial Intelligence for three years. In 2021, he launched, and currently Chairs, the Special Competitive Studies Project, an initiative that makes recommendations to strengthen America’s long-term global competitiveness for a future where artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies reshape our national security, economy, and society. Eric is also a commissioner on the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB), which was tasked to review how advancements in emerging biotechnology and related technologies will shape current and future activities of the Department of Defense.

Eric contributes much of his time to various programs at MIT. He is an MIT Visiting Innovation Fellow, a member of the Advisory Board for MIT IQ, a member of the MIT Commission on the Work of the Future, a member of the MIT CEO Advisory Board, and a member of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Advisory Council.

An accomplished author, Eric and Jared Cohen co-wrote The New York Times bestselling book, The New Digital Age: Transforming Nations, Businesses, and Our Lives in 2013. In 2014, Eric published his second New York Times bestseller, How Google Works, which he and Jonathan Rosenberg co-authored with Alan Eagle. In 2019, Eric published his third New York Times bestseller, Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell, co-authored with Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle. In 2021, Eric wrote the WSJ-best selling book The Age of AI: And Our Human Future with Dr. Henry Kissinger and Professor Daniel Huttenlocher.

Inspired to continue their legacy of giving back, Eric and his wife Wendy have founded several philanthropic initiatives under the umbrella of the Schmidt Family Foundations including the Schmidt Ocean Institute, Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation, and the Marine Science and Technology Foundation. In 2017, they co-founded Schmidt Futures, which supports projects at the intersection of talent and technology, centered on specific, finite challenges that are connected to other efforts in the Schmidt philanthropic network. Most recently in 2024, they co-founded Schmidt Sciences, a philanthropic venture to fund unconventional areas of exploration in science and tech.

Eric holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Wendy Schmidt is a philanthropist and investor who has spent nearly two decades creating innovative non-profit organizations to work with communities around the world for clean, renewable energy, healthy food systems, healthy oceans and the protection of human rights. The critical interconnections between human activity, the land we live on and the ocean we depend upon are the central drivers of Wendy’s philanthropic work. Through their philanthropy, Wendy and her husband Eric are working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all.

Wendy is president of the Schmidt Family Foundation, which she and Eric founded in 2006. She leads the foundation’s grant-making and investment programs—the 11th Hour Project, which works to create a just world where all people have access to renewable energy, clean air and water and healthy food, and Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, which supports scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs in developing technologies that restore ocean health.

Wendy also serves as president of Schmidt Ocean Institute, which she and Eric founded in 2009 to advance oceanographic research by offering scientists access to the world’s first year-round philanthropic research vessel in exchange for making their findings publicly available. After operating the ship Falkor for a decade, hosting more than 1,000 scientists, discovering scores of new marine species and underwater formations and mapping more than half a million square miles of the seafloor, Wendy and Eric began developing a larger research vessel, Falkor (too), in late 2021. The new ship, equipped with the latest technology and robotics that will broaden the capacity and capability of conducting science at sea, began expeditions in March 2023.

A competitive sailor, Wendy has extended her oceans-focused work to the sporting world through 11th Hour Racing, an organization she co-founded in 2010 to work with the sailing community and maritime industry to advance solutions and sustainability practices that protect and restore ocean health. Wendy also founded Remain to strengthen the economic, social and environmental vitality of downtown Nantucket and to encourage innovation and resilience across the island. Its Envision Resilience Challenge calls on professionals and students to develop innovative, interdisciplinary solutions for coastal communities facing sea level rise.

In 2024, Eric and Wendy founded Schmidt Sciences, a nonprofit organization working to advance science and technology that deepens human understanding of the natural world and develops solutions to global issues.

Most recently, Wendy co-founded Agog: The Immersive Media Institute, a groundbreaking initiative at the intersection of technology, communications and social impact. Agog will help creators and nonprofit leaders harness the power of extended reality (XR) technologies to spur positive social transformation, opening new avenues for empathy, understanding and activism.

A journalist early in her career, Wendy developed a deep appreciation for clear, concise communication that has extended into her philanthropy, as she works to strengthen community-based, environmental, science and investigative journalism. She has provided startup funding for media organization Climate Central, and her grant making has supported fellowships at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and the Missouri School of Journalism. Recognizing the power of effective storytelling, Wendy has supported a number of documentaries and served as executive producer of the award-winning films Gather and The Human Element.

Wendy has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley, and she graduated magna cum laude from Smith College with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology. After working briefly as a journalist, she worked in marketing communications in Silicon Valley, studied design and ran an interior design business for 16 years before turning her focus to philanthropy in 2006.

Fareed Zakaria hosts Fareed Zakaria GPS for CNN Worldwide and is a columnist for The Washington Post, a contributing editor for The Atlantic, and a bestselling author.

Fareed Zakaria GPS is a weekly international and domestic affairs program that airs on CNN/U.S. and around the world on CNN International. Since its debut in 2008, it has become a prominent television forum for global newsmakers and thought leaders.

Interviews on Fareed Zakaria GPS have included U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Other past guests include military officials such as Gen. David Petraeus and Adm. Michael Mullen; corporate leaders such as Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi; and other public figures like Bill Maher and Bono. The program earned the prestigious Peabody Award in 2011 and has received multiple Emmy nominations.

Zakaria has regularly hosted primetime specials for CNN Worldwide, such as “Blindsided: How ISIS Shook the World,” “Why Trump Won,” and “Putin: The Most Powerful Man in the World.” He frequently contributes his thoughtful analysis of world events and public affairs to CNN.com; Fareed’s Global Briefing, a daily digital newsletter; and other programming across CNN’s multiple platforms.

Zakaria is the author of three highly-regarded and New York Times bestselling books: In Defense of a Liberal Education (2015), a commentary on the importance of a well-rounded education; the international bestselling The Post-American World (1st ed. 2008, 2nd ed. 2011), a discussion of the rise of non-Western powers; and The Future of Freedom (2003), a study of “illiberal democracy” in various countries, also an international bestseller. His latest book is Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World.

Prior to his tenure at CNN Worldwide, Zakaria was editor of Newsweek International, managing editor of Foreign Affairs, a columnist for Time, an analyst for ABC News, and the host of Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS.

In 2017, Zakaria was awarded the Arthur Ross Media Award by the American Academy of Diplomacy, and in 2010, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, one of its highest civilian honors. He was named a “Top 10 Global Thinker of the Last 10 Years” by Foreign Policy magazine in 2019, and Esquire once called him “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation.”

Jared Cohen is the President of Global Affairs and Co-Head of Applied Innovation at Goldman Sachs, where he joined as a Partner and Member of the firm's Management Committee in 2022.

Prior to joining the firm, Cohen was Chief Executive Officer of Jigsaw, which he founded at Alphabet Inc. in 2016. In this role, his work focused on applying frontier technology to the greatest challenges facing humanity. Prior to that, Cohen was Google’s first Director of Ideas and Chief Advisor to Google’s Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. From 2006 to 2010, he served as a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff and as a close advisor to both Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.

Cohen is a New York Times bestselling author of five books, including One Hundred Days of Silence: America and the Rwanda Genocide, Children of Jihad, The New Digital Age: Transforming Nations, Business, and our Lives, which he co-authored with Eric Schmidt, Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America, and the forthcoming Life After Power. He is also the author of the children’s book What Presidents Said, which is forthcoming. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, TIME Magazine, Financial Times and Foreign Policy.

Cohen has been named to the "TIME 100" list, Foreign Policy's “Top 100 Global Thinkers,” Fortune’s “40 Under 40”, and Vanity Fair's "Next Establishment." He is a member of and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and also a member of the Trilateral Commission. He serves on the Board of Directors of Gilded, Stanford University’s Freeman-Spogli Institute and the Chapin School. He serves on the advisory boards of RAND, the National Counterterrorism Center, Schmidt Futures and the Anti-Slavery Collective. He has also previously served as an advisor to Allianz, ScaleAI, RizviTraverse, ASAPP, Andreesen-Horowitz, and the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Advisory Board.

Cohen received his B.A. from Stanford University and his M.Phil in International Relations from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He speaks fluent Swahili.