Saleh Fareed

Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH – Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, will be one of keynote speakers at Jeddah Economic Forum 2014 which will be held at Hilton Jeddah from on March 18-20, 2014.



This was announced by Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industrial (JCCI) on Monday as the list of speakers closed with around 42 local and international speakers confirmed their participation during the three-day forum to begin on Tuesday 18 March, 2014.



A social media pioneer, master of disruption, editorial reformist, noted philanthropist – Chris Hughes is the embodiment of today’s brightest young innovators and represents the forward-thinking entrepreneurship and disruptive dogma that is aptly suited for our fast-paced digital world.



Hughes began his career as a developer and new-media entrepreneur in 2004 when he co-founded Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg and other Harvard roommates and served first as the site's spokesman.



After leaving Facebook, Hughes coordinated the online presidential campaign for Barack Obama in 2008, merging the power of social media with politics and redefining the future of political campaigning. Hughes’ unprecedented success in this arena garnered him the title of “The Kid Who Made Obama President” by Fast Company magazine.



Most recently, Hughes purchased the 100-year-old magazine The New Republic, in which he currently serves as publisher and editor-in-chief. Following his trend of disruption among the establishment, Hughes is leading the transition from a magazine into a multi-platform media company at the forefront of political and national affairs coverage. Hughes’ experiments have paid off, fostering an entire new breed of accessible, entertaining journalism and growing the magazine’s once-diminishing readership by a factor of three on the web and 50 percent growth in print in only a year’s time.



Topics which will be focused by Chris Hughes:



• The Changing Media Landscape: How Social Media Is Transforming News & Information

• The Business of News: The Future of News & Information as an Industry

• The Facebook Story & the Rise of Social Media