Chris Anderson runs the nonprofit organization TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) which produces the super popular annual conference and TED talks. TED talks have been compared to a modern campfire “where stories get told, knowledge is spread and lives can change.” Anderson chooses the speakers, he hosts the conferences, and he decides which talks go online. “There are numerous brilliant people out there and they’ve come up with something really important,” Anderson tells Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes. “So part of the way we see our role is to help them make their knowledge accessible.”
Of course Chris Anderson has an interesting story of his own. He’s a Brit who was born in a remote village in Pakistan in 1957. He later graduated from Oxford University and got hooked on computing in the mid 1980s. He launched his own magazine, Business 2.0, which he later sold. Through his foundation, he acquired TED. Anderson tells a story about pitching Jeff Bezos his magazine at TED in 1999. “He listened, scratched his head, and said: ‘Why don’t you just call it Business 2.0?” Anderson’s interview with Charlie Rose will air on 60 Minutes on April 19 at 7pm on CBS.
