Keynote Speaker: Thomas L. Friedman
Foreign Affairs Columnist, The New York Times
Bestselling author of The World is Flat and New York Times foreign affairs columnist Tom Friedman is renowned for his direct reporting and sophisticated analysis of complex issues facing the world. According to Foreign Policy magazine, “Friedman doesn't just report on events; he helps shape them.” Winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, he has covered the since 1981.
In his latest bestseller, , Friedman offers a blueprint for overcoming the stresses and challenges of a world being transformed by technology, globalization, and climate change.
His previous New York Times bestseller, co-written with Michael Mandelbaum, was That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back. According to The Christian Science Monitor, “Anyone who cares about America’s future ought to read this book and hear the authors’ compelling case.”
Friedman's has sold four-and-a-half million copies and won the inaugural Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. In 2012 Friedman updated his National Book Award-winner, From Beirut to Jerusalem, adding a fresh discussion of the Arab Awakenings and Arab/Israeli relations in a new preface and afterword.
Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Friedman's other bestsellers include Longitudes and Attitudes: The World in the Age of Terrorism, and The Lexus and the Olive Tree, which Kirkus Reviews called “simply the best book written on globalization.”
Ranked #2 on The Wall Street Journal's list of “influential business thinkers,” named to the 2011 Thinkers50 and the 2013 list of Foreign Policy's Top Global Thinkers, and considered one of “America's Best Leaders” by US News & World Report, Friedman is a frequent guest on programs such as Meet The Press, Morning Joe, and Charlie Rose. His TV documentaries, Searching for the Roots of 9/11, The Other Side of Outsourcing, and Addicted to Oil, have aired on the Discovery Channel. Friedman is featured in Showtime's climate change documentary series , executive produced by James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In awarding Friedman his third Pulitzer Prize, the Pulitzer Board cited his “clarity of vision, based on extensive reporting, in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat.”