Anil Dash

Anil Dash is a technologist, writer and activist recognized as a leading advocate for making innovative technology that is ethical and inclusive. A Webby Awards lifetime achievement honoree, he has been CEO or founder of several groundbreaking startups including Glitch, the beloved creative community for developers which was acquired by Fastly in 2022.

Dash is well-known as a leading voice in the tech industry, uniquely serving as both an analyst of cutting-edge innovations and a critical perspective on the risks and harms that can happen without accountability. As a writer, Dash was a monthly columnist and contributing editor for Wired, and has written for publications ranging from The Atlantic to Rolling Stone to Businessweek, while his venerable personal blog has been cited over the last 25 years by everyone from sitting U.S. Senators to hundreds of academic papers to TMZ.

Today, Dash also serves as a board member for vital social organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the indispensable nonprofit organization defending digital human rights and free expression, and is chair of the board of the Lower East Side Girls Club, which serves girls and families in need in New York City. Previously, Dash was a technology advisor to the Obama White House's Office of Digital Strategy (and later the Obama Foundation), and served for a decade on the board of Stack Overflow, the world's largest community for coders. Previously, he founded and led a MacArthur-backed research project conducting pioneering research on social media’s impact on public policy making. While CEO of Glitch, the company became the first tech startup ever to voluntarily recognize its workers' union.