Chris co-founded and co-leads Giga, a joint effort by UNICEF and ITU to connect every school in the world to the internet. Giga has located more than 2.5 million schools, and uses applied machine learning, cryptography, and financial engineering to help governments connect every child to a safe and useful internet. Giga is hosted by the Governments of Spain and Switzerland.
Previously, he established UNICEF's Innovation Unit alongside Erica Kochi and developed UNICEF Venture and Crypto Funds with Sunita Grote. The funds were the first of their kind in the public sector, leading investments in early-stage companies working with drones, data science, machine learning, blockchain, 3D printing, and nanosatellites. This hybrid of venture capital and international development allows for the commercialization of open source frontier technology from developing economies, and has created a network of startups from Azerbaijain to Zimbabwe that Chris continues to mentor and support.
Chris was listed among TIME Magazine's "100 Most Influential People" in 2013, and recognized by Wired as one of the “25 People Changing the World” in 2019.
