Meet the new Quartz Pros team

The Quartz Pros are some of the top people that contribute their takes on the news with their intellectual thinking and “doing business” sense. The new Quartz Pros team features individuals from various industries with different perspectives and experiences that they bring to the company.

Amar Lalvani, CEO Standard International is revisioning modern hospitality. He also has his hands in a whole bunch of other ventures, including booking apps like One Night.

Anjali Kumar, author and attorney advises luminaries such as IDEO.org and the Malala Fund and has been the general counsel at Cheddar, Warby Parker, and Acumen. She has also been senior counsel at Google. Currently, Kumar is a founding advisor at the women-led The Justice Dept, and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and Fordham University.

Futurist, Ben Hammersley has worked for WIRED UK, the BBC, the European Commission, the UK government, and The Guardian, and everywhere from Afghanistan to Beirut, Brussels to Milan. Currently, he runs Hammersley Futures, a strategic-foresight agency.

Bertrand Piccard, explorer has made history by completing two round-the-world flights: non-stop in a hot-air balloon (his most recent one being in a solar-powered airplane without any fuel). As of now, he is is the chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation, which aims to find profitable solutions to combat climate change.

Colleen DeCourcy, CEO at Wieden + Kennedy has had a hand in many of the advertising firm’s most memorable campaigns, including with clients like Nike, Airbnb, IKEA, and Samsung. She also heads up the Lodge, which is the firm’s inbuilt innovation lab.

Darnell Moore, director of inclusion strategy at Netflix and winning author of No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America is known for his writing on race, social justice, and politics.

Elif Shafak, novelist is one of the most respected thinkers on the topics of gender and human rights. The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love, and Three Daughters of Eve are some of her well-known books.

Howard Bloom, scientist, author, and publicist ran the music industry in the 1970s. His PR firm built the careers of everyone from Michael Jackson to Prince, Bob Marley, and Bette Midler. As of now, he is the founder of the Space Development Steering Committee.

Justin Kan, co-founder at Atrium and video-game streaming platform Twitch, which Amazon acquired for nearly $1 billion in 2014.

Kathy Gong, co-founder at WafaGames also created ai.Law, a legal robotic start-up that makes legal services more affordable. Gong spent many years championing young talent in her home country through positions at the World Economic Forum and the APEC Women Leadership Forum.

Linda Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator at the NASA Psyche mission is the second-ever woman to lead a NASA mission. She’s also the managing director at Arizona State University’s Interplanetary Initiative, co-founder of Beagle Learning and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Neil Parikh, co-founder at Casper has also designed bacteria and worked on robotics at NASA, where he co-authored three patents.

Parag Khanna, globalization expert, best-selling author and leading voice in US-China relations has had his work cut out for him. Additionally, Khanna is a managing partner at FutureMap.

Rana el Kaliouby, co-founder at Affectiva is one of the world’s leading experts in artificial emotional intelligence.

Sarah Rabia, global director of cultural strategy at TBWA was first a journalist and stylist who worked for publications such as Vogue, Nylon, Wallpaper, and The Face. She’s also the co-founder of Backslash, the firm’s internal trend-forecasting editorial outfit.

Sofia Dominguez, co-founder at Svrf was the first person to travel the globe with Google Glass and document how people reacted to seeing and experiencing it for the first time.

Valerie B. Jarrett, senior advisor at the Obama Foundation chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls. She is also the co-chair of the United State of Women, a senior distinguished fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, and president of the board of When We All Vote.