Paul Markillie Keynote Speaker

Paul Markillie is Innovation Editor at The Economist. Paul worked for a number of national newspapers in Britain before joining the magazine in 1986 to work for the business section, where he covered transportation industries, including the global automotive and aerospace businesses. In 1994 he moved to Hong Kong to become the magazine’s first Asian business correspondent, covering greater China, South-East Asia, South Korea and Australia. He later became Asia Editor. In 2008 Paul took the title Innovation Editor, a newly created post designed especially to cover emerging trends in industry and manufacturing.

Paul principally writes about new technologies and their implications in business. He travels widely, visiting many universities, research organisations and companies, interviewing a wide range of scientists, engineers and business executives. He was one the first journalists to spot and write about the emergence of additive manufacturing (popularly known as 3D printing) and civilian drones.

His highly acclaimed special report “The Third Industrial Revolution” (April 2012) followed an extensive series of interviews which Paul carried out worldwide. This report described how digitalisation is radically altering global manufacturing, supply chains and labour markets with advances in areas such as robotics, materials and additive manufacturing. The report also predicted that as manufacturing goes digital it will change the economics of production, lowering the cost of entry in particular areas and resulting in some manufacturing moving back from countries like China. This report has been followed by others exploring subjects as diverse as autonomous cars, artificial organs and electric aircraft. A recent study also looked at how developments in materials science will deliver new materials for the future.

Paul has an encyclopaedic knowledge of how these disruptive technologies are affecting sectors as diverse as aerospace, automobiles and medicine. Having discussed these developments with everyone from leaders of multinational corporations to CEOs of start-ups, he also has an insider’s view of the personalities behind these dramatic changes. See Paul presenting at the UBS Global Thought Leadership Debate and being interviewed at the Middle East Rail and Logistics Conference in Dubai