Joshua Cooper Ramo Vice Chairman, Kissinger Associates • China Specialist • Author, The Age of the Unthinkable
PROFILE
Vice Chairman at Kissinger Associates, China specialist, and author of The Age of the Unthinkable, Joshua Cooper Ramo has been called “one of China’s leading foreign-born scholars” by The World Economic Forum. Questioning conventional thinking, he puts forth a radical new model for thriving in a world of uncertainty.
A Mandarin speaker who divides his time between Beijing and New York, Ramo has spent the past decade witnessing firsthand the remarkable rise of a superpower. With an unparalleled network of business and political contacts and a wealth of historical and cultural knowledge, he understands China in all of its dynamism and complexity.
Prior to entering the strategic advisory business, Ramo was an award-winning journalist and the Foreign Editor of TIME magazine. Among his nearly two-dozen TIME cover stories were the 1997 Man of the Year profile of Andy Grove, an award-winning profile of Kofi Annan, and most recently, reports on unemployment in America and China-U.S. relations.
In his book, The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It (March 2009), Ramo argues that economic and technological shifts have ushered in an era of unprecedented change and unintended consequences. Instead of relying on our traditional models and institutions of the past, we must be adaptive and embrace a revolutionary spirit and innovative problem-solving to face the global risks and opportunities ahead. Forbes called it “a poignant, informed and optimistic book,” and Newsweek described it as "a call to arms for smarter management of this increasingly complex world."
Trained as an economist, Ramo holds degrees from the University of Chicago and New York University. He spent two sabbaticals working at AIDS hospices in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, and co-founded the US-China Young Leaders Forum. An Aspen Institute Fellow and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Asia21 Leaders Program. His papers on China's development, including "The Beijing Consensus" and "Brand China," have been widely distributed in China and abroad.
Ramo was the China analyst for NBC during the 2008 Olympic Games and has appeared on such programs as Meet the Press, Fareed Zakaria GPS, The Today Show, and Charlie Rose. He serves on the Board of Directors of Starbucks and FedEx.
“He was BRILLIANT! More than one attendee said he was the best Leader to Leader speaker we've ever had.”
-Pacific Coast Builders Conference