Peter’s sensibilities around how technology can empower people dates back to his early days at Apple, where he headed up Enterprise Markets under Steve Jobs. He has since led technology-based change initiatives for The White House, The United Nations, The World Economic Forum and multiple Silicon Valley companies.
Currently Hirshberg is:
-Chairman, Board-of-Advisors, of Swytch.io, a company deploying blockchain to create a global market for incentives to reduce atmospheric carbon and accelerate capital for renewable energy investments.
-Chairman and Founder of the Gray Area Art and Technology Center, one of San Francisco’s most vibrant and civic-minded arts organizations and a pioneer in digital media education, incubation, performance and exhibition
-Chairman of the Maker City Project, which works with private sector companies and cities to explore new models of economic and civic development in an era of disruotive change. Hirshberg’s research on the Maker City is available in the best-selling book, Maker City: A practical guide to reinventing our cities. Published in late 2016, the book was funded by the Kauffman Foundation and created in collaboration with the Obama White House.
-Advisor to Transloc, a provider of on-demand mobility services for public transit agencies, sold to Ford where he continues as advisor.
Previously Hirshberg served as CEO of Elemental Software (sold to Adobe), Gloss.com (Estee Lauder), and Chairman of Technorati, the pioneering social media search engine and advertising network with over 100M monthly uniques.
He is a Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy and a Henry Crown fellow of the Aspen Institute and an author for the Brookings Institution. As an advisor to the United Nations, he’s addressed the General Assembly on the use of real-time data for international development and served as editor of Taking the Global Pulse. In addition to the Maker City, Hirshberg is co-author of “From Bitcoin to Burning Man and Beyond” with the MIT Media lab. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he received his MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.