Tuesday, January 8, 2013

NAF Chairman Visits North Korea


Eric Schmidt, Chairman of New America Foundation's (NAF) Board of Directors, and Google, Inc. Executive Chairman, is traveling to North Korea.

He is also traveling with Jared Cohen, a former State Department official who founded Google's think tank, Google Ideas.  Mr. Cohen used to work at the Office of Policy and Planning, the State Department's internal think tank.  Mr. Cohen is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

The Schmidt-Cohen think tank duo have traveled together before and have also co-authored several op-eds, including this and this.

NAF Fellow Emily Parker comments about the North Korea trip in Slate.

Fast Company notes that Schmidt may be visiting North Korea in part due to his role at NAF:
Schmidt also has a reason to visit North Korea that has little to do with Google. Apart from serving as Google's executive chairman, Schmidt chairs the New America Foundation, a prominent thinktank which publishes extensively on technology through their Open Technology Initiative.
Schmidt was appointed as Chairman of NAF's Board of Directors on February 7, 2008.

Here is a recent article that criticizing Shmidt's "role" in a recent NAF report on broadband caps.