CFR Appoints Vijay Vaitheeswaran to Senior Think Tank Role

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has appointed Indian American Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran to its David Rockefeller Studies Program, the organization’s think tank.

According to a CFR statement, Vaitheeswaran will join the organization on July 13 as the Philip D. Reed Chair in Science and Technology, senior fellow, and director of the Energy Security and Climate Change Program.

“Mr. Vaitheeswaran most recently served as a senior editor at the Economist and has had an extensive career in journalism, covering topics ranging from politics and international affairs to business and innovation,” the statement said. “At CFR, Mr. Vaitheeswaran will lead interdisciplinary work on energy and climate issues.”

At CFR, Vaitheeswaran’s work will examine the intersection of “policy, technology, and markets” as countries pursue “energy abundance and climate resilience” in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).

“I am delighted to welcome Vijay to the Council,” said CFR President Michael Froman. “His journalism experience and in-depth knowledge of energy and climate will bolster CFR’s mission to provide accessible research and analysis to policymakers and the public and inform U.S. engagement with the world.”

CFR noted that, as the Economist’s global energy and climate innovation editor, Vaitheeswaran led coverage of the “fossil fuel industry, the AI-energy nexus, and emerging energy technologies.” He also hosted the publication’s climate change podcast, “To a Lesser Degree.”

Earlier in his career, Vaitheeswaran served as the Economist’s U.S. business editor, overseeing coverage of American business. Before that, as China business editor, he established the magazine’s first Shanghai bureau and reported on business, finance, technology, and innovation across the region. He also launched the publication’s bilingual digital platform, Economist Global Business Review. He began his journalism career by opening the Economist’s first Latin America bureau in Mexico City.

“We are fortunate to have Vijay join the Studies Program,” said Senior Vice President of Studies Shannon K. O’Neil. “His singular expertise that spans politics, business, and technology will help ensure the program addresses critical foreign policy issues at the intersection of those topics and crafts practical policy recommendations.”

Beyond journalism, Vaitheeswaran has served as a visiting fellow at Northwestern University’s Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He was also an executive in residence and adjunct faculty member at New York University’s Stern School of Business, where he developed and taught the school’s first interdisciplinary course on energy, economics, and the environment. He also serves as an expert advisor on energy and innovation to the World Economic Forum and is a life member of CFR.

Vaitheeswaran is the author of three books exploring the future of energy, climate, and innovation: Power to the People: How the Coming Energy Revolution Will Transform an Industry, Change Our Lives, and Maybe Even Save the Planet; Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future, coauthored with Iain Carson; and Need, Speed, and Greed: How the New Rules of Innovation Can Transform Businesses, Propel Nations to Greatness, and Tame the World’s Most Wicked Problems.

His book Zoom was shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award and was also named a Financial Times Book of the Year. According to the statement, Vaitheeswaran received the American Energy Society’s 2025 Energy Writer of the Year Award.

Vaitheeswaran earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was recognized as a Harry S. Truman Presidential Scholar.

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