Joi Ito

Board Member

Joichi "Joi" Ito is CEO of the Gelephu Investment Development Corporation (GIDC). He works with Bhutanese and international peers to facilitate investment, economic growth and development for enterprises in the City, and other areas of Bhutan and globally. As a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, writer and scholar focusing on the ethics and governance of technology, Joi has extensive technology sector experience in Japan and worldwide. Joi is currently President of the Chiba Institute of Technology (CIT) in Japan. Prior to this, he served as Director of the MIT Media Lab from 2011 to 2019, driving research & development at the forefront of green energy, AI, web3, Blockchain and other areas. Joi is the Chief Architect, Co-Founder and Board Member of Digital Garage as well as Associate Director of the Health Data Architecture Center, and Visiting Professor at the Fujita Medical University. He is also an Advisory Board Member of METI's Demonstration Project for the Construction of Digital Public Goods Using Web 3.0 and Blockchain. Joi is also the Co-Founder of Neurodiversity School in Tokyo and has served on the boards of numerous for-profit and non-profit entities, including The New York Times Company, Sony Corporation, The MacArthur Foundation, the Knight Foundation, ICANN, The Mozilla Foundation and the Open Source Initiative. In 2011, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oxford Internet Institute for his work as one of the world's leading Internet activists. In 2017, he received the IRI Medal and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Joi holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Keio University Graduate School of Media and Governance.