Technology Leaders Initiative
A two-year program for senior technology leaders shaping not just products or companies, but the broader digital world we all live in.
Selected for their commitment to long-view leadership and potential to drive impact, Fellows engage in a process of deep reflection, cross-sector dialogue, and enduring peer connection. The initiative challenges leaders to think beyond innovation — to reckon with power, responsibility, and the future they’re helping to build.
Who We Are
We are at a crossroads that calls for the leaders of today’s technological landscape to reckon with decisions that will shape the future of humanity. Beyond the narratives of technology as either salvation or catastrophe lies a pressing question: What kind of leadership does this digital era require?
The Technology Leaders Initiative will launch with a cohort of 20 senior leaders in and ascending to positions of significant power in the global technology landscape – from policy shapers to industry pioneers. Over two years, they will undergo a thought-provoking journey of personal exploration moving beyond success to a place of growing impact.
Why Now?
Leadership Gap
Most global alliances in frontier technology focus on products and policy, but not always on building the type of networks necessary to counter the global distrust in the technology landscape. We must give senior leaders the protected space to wrestle with the deep ethical questions of our time.
Points of Power
The emerging concentration of power in new technology landscapes requires working directly with leaders of today’s most critical platforms to effect change.
Potential for Global Collaboration
The global race for dominance is eclipsing the global potential for collaboration. Forming cross-border bonds of trust will be critical to identifying areas where major breakthroughs may occur.
“A century ago, the revelations of quantum mechanics compelled leaders to radically reconsider reality, observation, and the nature of certainty itself. Today, AI, alongside transformative advances in biotech, genetics, materials science, and energy heralds a similar existential pivot. It forces us to confront the profound questions about human agency, truth, and the very fabric of society.”
Jen Zhu Scott, Co-Founder, Technology Leaders Initiative & CEO, Power Dynamics (China Fellowship Program)
ANNOUNCEMENT
Defining a Good Digital Society
As AI becomes the foundation for most human capabilities, we face an urgent challenge: how do we define and evolve what a good digital society looks like? At this year’s Resnick Aspen Action Forum, we will explore what global collaboration looks like when Fellows move from dialogue to action as public ambassadors for humanistic technology leadership.
Ailish Campbell – Finance Leaders Fellow; Founder of the Technology Leaders Initiative
Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt – Principal of Jesus College Oxford; Chairman of Open Data Institute
Jen Zhu Scott – China Fellow; Founder of the Technology Leaders Initiative
Chris Varelas – Co-Founder, Finance Leaders Fellowship and Technology Leaders Initiative
Spring Fu – Managing Director of the Academy at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI)
PARTICIPATION
Becoming a Fellow
Candidates must be nominated by a third party and selected by the Aspen Institute to participate in the program. Fellows come from a variety of industries and sectors in the global technology ecosystem, but all will represent unique nodes of influence in their respective domains.
To nominate a Fellow or if you have any further questions, please contact the program’s Managing Director, Amy Benziger (amy.benziger@aspeninstitute.org).
EXPERIENCE
Structure
This program is modeled after the highly successful Henry Crown Fellowship, launched by the Aspen Institute in 1997. Each class of 20-22 Technology Leaders Fellows is chosen from a wide pool of accomplished entrepreneurial leaders.
The two-year experience comprises a structured series of four seminars (approximately 25 days in total) held in different locations around the globe representing technology power centers, under the guidance of skilled senior moderators of the Aspen Institute.
COSTs
Financial Commitment
Fellows’ participation will be without cost to them or their organizations, with the exception of their travel costs and any incidental expenses incurred. Limited financial assistance may be provided for travel on a case by case basis.
Questions?
Contact the AGLN team.