Jeremy Rifkin

Jeremy Rifkin is an American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker, political advisor, and activist. Rifkin is the author of 21 bestselling books about the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment.

His most recent books include the international bestsellers, "The Age of Resilience" (2022), "The Green New Deal" (2019), "The Zero Marginal Cost Society" (2014), "The Third Industrial Revolution" (2011), "The Empathic Civilization" (2010), and many others.

Rifkin has been an advisor to the leadership of the European Union since 2000. He has advised three past presidents of the European Commission – Romano Prodi, Jose Manuel Barroso, and Jean-Claude Juncker – and is advising the current European Commission under the presidency of Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the former president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli. Rifkin has also advised numerous EU heads of state over the past twenty years, including Germany’s Angela Merkel, on the ushering in of a smart green Third Industrial Revolution economy.

Rifkin’s New York Times bestselling book, "The Third Industrial Revolution," provided the blueprint for the economic transition to a post-carbon ecological society across the European Union. According to The European Energy Review, “perhaps no other author or thinker has had more influence on the EU’s ambitious climate and energy policy than the famous American ‘visionary’ Jeremy Rifkin.” In the words of Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, Jeremy Rifkin “is the economic and ecological worldwide ambassador of the energy transition… Rifkin presents a grand scenario for the future: a visionary approach unlike anyone has dared to put forward in the last fifty years that will boost our thinking and help with our orientation.”

Rifkin is a principal architect of the European Union’s long term Third Industrial Revolution economic vision and development plan to usher in an Internet of Things digital infrastructure across the European Union and its partnership regions to create a smart post-carbon economy, ecological society, and the world’s largest single integrated economic marketplace. The plan is called “Smart Europe.” Additionally, Rifkin has lectured at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program at the University of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2016, offering insights into transitioning business operations into sustainable economies. His advisory role has expanded globally, influencing not only the EU but also the People's Republic of China, where he advises on the Internet Plus Third Industrial Revolution infrastructure, integral to China’s thirteenth Five-Year Plan.