Vijay Vaitheeswaran Keynote Speaker

Global Energy & Climate Innovation Editor at The Economist
Author of several books including "Need, Speed and Greed: How the New Rules of Innovation Can Transform Businesses, Propel Nations to Greatness, and Tame the World’s Most Wicked Problems"
Contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Times and Foreign Policy

Vijay Vaitheeswaran's Biography

Vijay Vaitheeswaran 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 Financial Times Business Book of the Year prize. The FT 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. He previously covered biotechnology, healthcare and global innovation.

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 innovation summits organised by The Economist, held annually in New York, London, Bangkok and Cape Town.

Vijay is a Life Member at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York. He has served as an advisor on sustainability and 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 of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

World economic outlook and the post-pandemic business revival

The future of innovation

The evolving landscape of globalisation and supply chains

He sits at the intersection of business, technology and climate policy as The Economist’s Global Energy and Climate Innovation Editor, bringing leaders a clear view of how the energy transition is reshaping markets and competitiveness.
He translates complex forces such as climate innovation, AI-enabled energy systems and decarbonisation into practical implications for strategy, investment and risk management.
He brings rare global reporting depth, having led The Economist’s U.S. business coverage and opened its Shanghai bureau, helping audiences connect energy and climate shifts to the realities of geopolitics and global trade.
He is a recognised author on the future of energy and innovation, with Power to the People and other works that strengthen his authority on what comes next for industry, investment and society.
His briefings help boards and senior teams stress-test decisions through volatility, spot opportunity in climate tech and communicate transition strategy with confidence to investors, employees and stakeholders.

Videos of Vijay Vaitheeswaran

Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran - Need, Speed and Greed (2012)

Vijay Vaitheeswaran: The Challenge of Future's Innovation (2012)

Vijay Vaitheeswaran: A Better Way of Innovating, Asia Society (2012)

Books by Vijay Vaitheeswaran

Need,Speed and Green: How the New Rules of Innovation Can Transform Businesses, Propel Nations to Greatness, and Tame the World's Most Wicked Problems