James Manyika
James M. Manyika is a Zimbabwean-American consultant, researcher, and writer. Known for his research and scholarship into the intersection of technology and the economy, including artificial intelligence, robotics automation, and the future of work, he is currently Google's first Senior VP of Technology and Society, focused on "a broad view on how today's technology is impacting society, the economy and the planet." He is also Chairman Emeritus of the McKinsey Global Institute. Previously, he was director and chairman of the McKinsey Global Institute where he researched and co-authored a number of reports on topics  such as the future of work and workplace automation. In 2011 he was named to the US National Innovation Advisory. During the Obama administration he served as vice-chair of the United States Global Development Council at the White House. In 2015 he published the book "No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends". As a board-member, trustee, or advisor, Manyika is involved with think tanks, national and international commissions, academic institutions, and non-profit and philanthropic foundations such as the Hewlett Foundation, Stanford's Human-Centered AI Institute, the Oxford Internet Institute, and the Aspen  Institute. He is a fellow at DeepMind. He is also a Visiting Professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government. Early life and education. Born and raised in Zimbabwe, James Manyika attended Prince Edward School and received a Bachelor of Science at the University of Zimbabwe. He attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a Master of Science in mathematics and computation, a Master of Arts, and a Doctor of Philosophy in AI and Robotics. Career. 1989-1995. Trained as a roboticist, while at Oxford Manyika studied computer science, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and topics such as Bayesian  networks and decentralized data fusion. He and Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte published the book "Decentralized Data Fusion: An Information Theoretic Approach" in 1994. Early in his career Manyika was awarded a research fellowship at Oxford's Balliol College and served on the engineering faculty at Oxford. During that time he was also a faculty exchange fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a visiting scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Labs in California. 1995-present. He joined McKinsey & Company in the United States by 1997, then became senior partner and a member of McKinsey’s board. He also became chairman  of the McKinsey Global Institute. In 2011 he was named to the US National Innovation Advisory Board at the Department of Commerce. During the Obama administration, from December 2012 until 2017 he served as vice-chair of the United States Global Development Council at the White House. In 2015 he also co-wrote the book "No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends". In 2017, he resigned from the Commerce Department's Digital Economy Board of Advisors after Donald Trump made controversial comments about deadly violence against counter-protestors in Charlottesville, Virginia. Manyika was a guest speaker  in September 2017 at an Estonian summit involving European Union heads of state. His decision-making process and predictions about the future of work were described in Ben Sasse's 2018 book "Them: Why We Hate Each Other--and How to Heal". He was named one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2020 by "New African". In February 2021, he co-authored a McKinsey report titled "The Race in the Workplace: The Black Experience." He also has been writing about and researching companies in the 21st century, including the role of companies in 2021. Commissions. In August 2019, California  Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Manyika and Mary Kay Henry as co-chairs of the state's Future of Work Commission. In March 2021, he and the Future of Work Commission co-authored a report urging California to better address pay inequality and working conditions by 2030. He also co-chaired, with Admiral McRaven, the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S. Innovation Strategy and National Security, which issued their final report, "Innovation and National Security: Keeping Our Edge" in 2019. Manyika currently serves on the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine's Committee on Responsible Computing Research and  its Application. Boards and memberships. Manyika is involved with a number of think tanks. He is a trustee of the Aspen Institute and has been a trustee of the World Affairs Council of California. He is on the advisory boards of Harvard's W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute and has been on the advisory board of the University of California, Berkeley School of Information. In April 2019 he was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Several of his affiliations involve artificial intelligence: he is a research fellow at DeepMind and on the advisory council of  the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University. He was an officer of the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, a project at Stanford University where experts discuss the future societal impacts of AI. Concerning digitization, he is also on the advisory boards of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE) and the Oxford Internet Institute, having joined the latter in September 2011. In 2021 he was elected to a Visiting Fellowship at Oxford University’s All Souls College, Oxford. Foundations and Non-Profits. Manyika is a board member of Lever For Change, a MacArthur Foundation  project connecting philanthropists to projects with positive social impact. Other foundations where Manyika is a board member of include the Hewlett Foundation, and the Markle Foundation. He is a trustee of the XPrize Foundation. and a senior advisor at the philanthropic Schmidt Futures. Through the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, he established the "J.M.D. Manyika Fellowship" to support scholars and artists from countries in Southern Africa. He is on the board of the Khan Academy, which offers free education online. Personal life. Manyika is married to the writer Sarah Ladipo Manyika.