Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran is global energy and climate innovation editor of ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econ ...

''. Previously he served as ''The Economist's'' U.S. business editor and its first China bureau chief. His editorial expertise includes climate change, energy and the environment, business, corporate governance, finance, international trade, geopolitics and economics, science, technology and innovation. Vaitheeswaran was born in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

and grew up in Cheshire, Connecticut. He graduated from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering and was named a Harry S. Truman Presidential Scholar by the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...

. He started working at ''The Economist'' as an intern. After a year as a correspondent, he opened the publication's first office in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

, in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley ...

. From 1998 to 2006 he was the Environment and Energy Correspondent for The Economist and from 2007 to 2011 he covered innovation and health issues. Vijay is a life member at the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York City ...

. He is an advisor on sustainability and innovation to the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

, and a regular speaker at the

Clinton Global Initiative The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was e ...

. He teaches at

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, t ...

's Stern Business School. He served previously as chairman of ''The'' ''Economist's'' provocative series of conferences on innovation known as the Ideas Economy. In 2003 he published ''Power to the People, How the Coming Energy Revolution will Change our Lives, and maybe even Save the Planet''. The book pays particular attention to

alternative fuel Alternative fuel, known as non-conventional and advanced fuels, are any materials or substances that can be used as fuels, other than conventional fuels like; ''fossil fuels'' (petroleum (oil), coal, and natural gas), as well as nuclear materi ...

sources, such as those used in the

Tesla Roadster (2008) The Tesla Roadster is a battery electric vehicle (BEV) sports car, based on the Lotus Elise chassis, that was produced by the electric car firm Tesla Motors (now Tesla, Inc.) in California from 2008 to 2012. The Roadster was the first highway ...

and

plug-in hybrid A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid electric vehicle whose battery pack can be recharged by plugging a charging cable into an external electric power source, in addition to internally by its on-board internal combustion engine ...

s. The book also examines the benefits of distributed power and

smart grid A smart grid is an electrical grid which includes a variety of operation and energy measures including: * Advanced metering infrastructure (of which smart meters are a generic name for any utility side device even if it is more capable e.g. a ...

s. The book was reviewed by Nobel Prize winner (and former Chief Science Advisor to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 180 ...

)

John Holdren John Paul Holdren (born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1944) is an American scientist who served as the senior advisor to President Barack Obama on science and technology issues through his roles as Assistant to the President for Science and ...

in ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...

'' as "by far the most helpful, entertaining, up-to-date and accessible treatment of the energy-economy-environment problematique available." In 2007, he co-authored ''ZOOM": The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future'', with Iain Carson. ''ZOOM'' was nominated as a finalist for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year. His 2012

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

book on the future of global innovation, ''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 was called "the perfect primer for the postindustrial age." As a speaker, Vijay Vaitheeswaran is exclusively represented by Keppler Speakers.

References

External links

Power to the People
''official website''
Profile
at ''

''
Author profile
at ''

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publ ...

''
Speaking Agent - The Insight Bureau
at The Lavin Agency * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaitheeswaran, Vijay V. Living people Indian emigrants to the United States MIT School of Engineering alumni The Economist people American male journalists American writers of Indian descent Hybrid electric vehicle advocates Year of birth missing (living people) People from Cheshire, Connecticut