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VIJAY VAITHEESWARAN

Global energy and climate innovation editor for The Economist

Covering the energy and utility industries, the clean energy transition, climate innovations and low carbon technologies
Previously served as both US Business Editor and China Business Editor
Chairman of The Economist Innovation Summit, a provocative series of global conferences on innovation
Advisor on sustainability and innovation to the World Economic Forum at Davos

Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran is the Global energy & climate innovation editor, covering the energy and utility industries, the clean energy transition, climate innovations and low carbon technologies. He covers America’s climate and green infrastructure efforts, and keeps a watchful eye on ESG trends and corporate pledges of net-zero emissions for signs of promise as well as greenwashing.

An award-winning senior journalist, he previously served as both US Business Editor and China Business Editor. He also serves as chairman of The Economist Innovation Summit, a provocative series of global conferences on innovation.

He joined the editorial staff in 1992 as its London-based Latin America correspondent, and opened the magazine’s first regional bureau in Mexico City. From 1998 to 2006, he covered the politics, economics, business and technology of energy and the environment. From 2007 to 2011 his portfolio encompassed innovation, global health, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

He is the author of three highly regarded books, the most recent of which was 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, which Kirkus declared “a perfect primer for the post-industrial age.” His previous books include Power to the People: How the Coming Energy Revolution Will Transform an Industry, Change Our Lives, and Maybe Even Save the Planet, and Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future. Most recently, Vaitheeswaran was the author of The World is Not Flat, a special report published by The Economist on the disruptive future for globalization, multinational firms and supply chains.

Vijay is a life member at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an advisor on sustainability and innovation to the World Economic Forum at Davos, and his commentaries have appeared on NPR and the BBC, in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. He has addressed groups ranging from the US National Governors’ Association and the UN General Assembly to the Technology, Entertainment & Design (TED), Aspen Ideas and AAAS conferences.

Vijay tailors each presentation to the needs of his audience and is not limited to the topics listed below. Please ask us about any subject that interests you:

Innovation
Climate change
Energy
Environment
Technology
Business
China

The Disrupted Economy: What Lies Ahead for Business?

The economy and corporate business have been disrupted as never before by the covid-19 crisis and associated policy responses. After a record-breaking bull market and unprecedented economic boom, we are now in the midst of historic fluctuations in employment, consumer demand, share valuations, capex and R&D investment and other important indicators of economic wellbeing. The backdrop to today's challenges include festering trade and tariff battles, the unnerving unreliability of supply chains and a technology cold war with China. Vijay Vaitheeswaran, with experience as U.S. Business Editor and China Business Editor at The Economist, helps audiences make sense of this highly unsettled business climate. Vijay breaks down the big picture trends to assess how challenging this period of uncertainty might get for the U.S. economy, and the likely scenarios toward sustainable recovery and rejuvenation for American industries. And he deciphers the international feedback loop – from a rising China and bellicose Russia to the shift from globalization to "slowbalization" – to help businesses strategize, innovate, and find opportunity in today’s disruptive landscape.

The NEW Innovation Revolution: How to Win in the Post-Covid Economy

“Bad companies are destroyed by crisis, good companies survive them, great companies are improved by them.” So declared Andy Grove, the legendary former chairman of Intel, three decades ago. How can companies and corporate leaders today rise to the challenges of covid-19, so that they too emerge stronger from this crisis? The answer is to embrace radical innovation fueled by bottom-up solutions. Many companies are too top-down and bureaucratic to be innovative in normal times. However, a crisis can unleash the animal spirits. Business history reveals that in a small crisis power gets centralized in the C-suite, but that in a really big crisis power flows down to those most capable of responding quickly and imaginatively. Vijay Vaitheeswaran persuasively argues this new innovation revolution will be driven by Frugality – Proximity – Agility - Connectivity and Vitality. And these “Five Pillars,” says Vijay, provide a roadmap to the post-Covid economy.

Energy in Today’s World

With his extensive experience covering energy topics for The Economist, authoring two books on the subject, and chairing the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Energy, Vijay tackles the topic of energy. Covering the politics, economics, business, and technology issues, he helps audiences understand what the world’s energy situation is, how it affects their country, and what the future will look like in terms of energy (in)dependence, and how it affects regional strategic partners and geopolitics.

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

Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, award-winning author and Energy & Climate Innovation Editor of The Economist, will deliver a provocative keynote address that surveys the megatrends reshaping the 21st century global economy, from the prospects for future pandemics to the disruptive and widespread impacts of climate change. Global warming in particular poses enormous challenges, and if left unchecked, could devastate significant parts of the global economy, turn low-lying and vulnerable parts of the world uninhabitable, spread disease and famine and fuel refugee crises. However, a much more open, accelerated and ambitious approach to climate innovation could also produce many solutions over the next decade as every industry in every geography is forced to respond to this existential threat.