Edward Saatchi (born 19 February 1985) is a British businessman and filmmaker. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

-powered virtual being company Fable. He was formerly a producer at

Oculus Story Studio Oculus Story Studio was an original animated virtual reality film studio that was a division of Oculus VR. The studio was started by Oculus VR to pioneer animated virtual reality filmmaking and educate, inspire, and foster community for filmmaker ...

and the CEO and co-founder of political technology company, NationalField.

Early life and education

Edward Saatchi is the son of

Maurice Saatchi Maurice Nathan Saatchi, Baron Saatchi ( ar, موريس ساعتجي ; born 21 June 1946) is a British-Iraqi businessman, and with his brother, Charles, co-founder of the advertising agencies Saatchi & Saatchi and M&C Saatchi. Early life Mauric ...

and

Josephine Hart Josephine Hart, Baroness Saatchi (1 March 1942 – 2 June 2011

. His father was an Iraqi Jew born in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

while his mother was Irish. He was educated at London's

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

and

Wadham College Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

in Oxford, where he took a double first in English Studies. He attended the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

for graduate studies in philosophy and economics, before leaving for the US to volunteer for Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign.

Career

Saatchi was initially rejected in his efforts to join the Obama campaign because of his alien status, but eventually permitted to participate after personally presenting himself at a campaign office in Iowa. During his tenure with the campaign, he met Aharon Wasserman and Justin Lewis. The three developed an "internal social network" to more easily keep track of campaign data and coordinate communications between managers, staff, and volunteers. The network was rapidly adopted across multiple branches of the campaign and eventually commercialised in its present form as NationalField. He is the company's CEO. In 2011, Saatchi, along with his co-founders, was named in a ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'''s 30 Under 30 list. In 2014, he was part of the founding team of

, the virtual-reality filmmaking division of

Oculus VR Reality Labs is a business of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as Quest, and online platforms such as Horizon W ...

. In January 2018, Fable Studio, which Saatchi co-founded with Pete Billington, launched, with ''Wolves in the Walls'' as its premiere title. The property was based on the

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

and

Dave McKean David McKean (born 29 December 1963) is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician. His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art, and sculpt ...

children's book of the same name. In August 2019, Wolves in the Walls won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding innovation in interactive media.

Personal life

Saatchi told ''Forbes'' in 2014 that he practises

Transcendental Meditation Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a form of silent mantra meditation advocated by the Transcendental Meditation movement. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created the technique in India in the mid-1950s. Advocates of TM claim that the technique promotes a ...

, rises before dawn, exercises daily and enjoys films and painting.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saatchi, Edward 1985 births Living people Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign British chief executives British computer scientists British expatriates in the United States British software engineers English people of Iraqi-Jewish descent English people of Irish descent

Edward Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...

Sons of life peers