Peter Hirshberg

Gray Area Art and Technology Center

Peter Hirshberg is chairman of Re:imagine Group, where he shapes strategies at the confluence of people, places, brands and cities. He spearheaded the development of Urban Prototyping, a global movement that engages citizens in the co-creation and co-planning of their cities, and he has led emerging media and technology companies at the center of disruptive change for more than 25 years.

Mr. Hirshberg’s other affiliations include serving as chairman of the City Innovate foundation, an organization formed with The San Francisco mayor’s office, University of California, Berkeley, and the MIT Media Lab to promote a network of global civic innovation centers. He is co-founder and chairman of San Francisco’s Gray Area Art and Technology Theater, a center for digital media education, incubation, performance and exhibition; an advisor to United Nations Global Pulse, an initiative that uses real-time data and new technologies to protect vulnerable populations; and editor of the publication “Taking the Global Pulse.” Mr. Hirshberg has worked with executive teams at Time Warner, Best Buy, Hertz, Sony, Unilever, Thomson Reuters, IBM, Verizon, GE, Estee Lauder, Telefonica and many others on digital and growth strategies. He is former chairman of Technorati, the pioneering social media search engine and ad network, and former head of enterprise marketing for Apple Computer. Mr. Hirshberg is a frequent technology and media industry speaker, and along with Maker Fair founder Dale Dougherty is co-author of the forthcoming “Maker City Playbook,” a project of the Kauffman Foundation.