Robert Muggah is a globally recognized specialist in smart cities, public safety, cyber security and the digital economy. He is co-founder and principal of the SecDev Group – a digital risk firm that offers data science on demand and intelligence as a service. He also co-founded the Igarapé Institute – ranked the top social policy think tank in the world by Prospect in 2019 – and focused on citizen, digital and climate security. Robert advises organizations ranging from Facebook, Google, McKinseys, TikTok and Uber to the EU, OECD, OSCE, UN and the World Bank. He advises several technology start-ups and builds data visualization tools for a range of clients.
Over the past two decades Robert has advised national and municipal governments, tech companies and international organizations in over 50 countries on issues ranging from crime prevention and urban resilience to mitigating cyber threats and building digital inclusion. He is a fellow at Princeton University, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Bosche Academy, and faculty at Singularity University. He also serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Future Council on Cities, the advisory council of the annual Global Risk Report and co-chairs the advisory council of the Global Parliament of Mayors. He is routinely invited by the UN Secretary General to contribute to high-level panels and reports.
Robert has authored eight books and over 100 articles in peer-review journals – including most recently Terra Incognita: 100 Maps to Survive the Next 100 Years (Penguin/Random House, available in 6 languages in 2021). He has also taught at several universities including the Graduate Institute in Geneva, the University of San Diego, the University of British Columbia and has lectured at others including Columbia, Harvard and Science-Po. He is a regular contributor to the Atlantic, Financial Times, Guardian, Economist, Financial Times, Folha de São Paulo, Foreign Affairs, New York Times, and Wired and is a columnist with El Pais and Foreign Policy. He delivered TED talks in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021. Robert received his DPhil from the University of Oxford.