Profile
Tarun Wadhwa is an entrepreneur, strategist, lecturer, and writer who is working at the intersection of technological advancement, innovation, global growth, security, and public policy.
He writes for Forbes, and his work has appeared in CNN Business, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Digital-Life-Design, Venture Beat, Huffington Post, and many other publications. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at Emory University’s Department of Political Science and was previously a Visiting Instructor at Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering in Silicon Valley, where he taught the popular Exponential Innovation course. He was previously co-Founder and COO of AIC Chile, a private innovation lab that creates technologies aiming to alleviate poverty (acquired in 2016). He worked to commercialize the breakthrough Plasma Water Sanitation System (PWSS), a sanitation technology that is currently providing clean water to at-risk communities across Latin America.
Tarun’s anticipated new book, Identified: The Digital Transformation of Who We Are, which explores the global rise of digital identification systems, will be out later this year. It analyzes the technologies that governments and companies use to see who we are — things such as national identification systems, biometrics, and online identity. He tracks these systems over time to see how they are changing governments, social norms, and the lives of people all around the world.
One of Tarun’s most exciting ventures is Day One Insights, a strategy and advisory firm he founded around technological convergence, corporate reinvention, and social impact. This work focuses on trends that are overturning established industries; developments in cyber-security, privacy, and surveillance; and the impact of technological advancements on legal systems and societal institutions. All of this cutting-edge research has provided opportunities to partner with several of the most talked about companies in the world and influence leadership decision-making that's transforming these organizations. He is also Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at R2 Labs, a consultancy focused on cryptography, protocols, and emerging financial systems.
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