The RIWI Corporation (RIWI) has appointed The Rt. Hon. Lord St John, of the UK Parliament, to be Chairman of the RIWI Advisory Board. Lord St John, a crossbencher, technology leader and solicitor, will help guide RIWI’s leadership in geopolitical risk.
“We are delighted that Lord St John and RIWI have joined forces to work with sectors around the world that care deeply about the social, security and financial ramifications of instability and geopolitical threat,” said Neil Seeman, RIWI CEO and Founder. RIWI’s technology is focused, from Albania to Zimbabwe, on measuring and forecasting threat and changing sentiment through the eyes of Web-enabled ‘netizens’ in all geographies who do not typically, or ever, answer surveys on the phone, on online panels or who do not participate in social media.
An authority on foreign affairs, financial services and information technology, Lord St John worked as an analyst at County NatWest Securities and then Smith New Court Plc and served as a consultant to Merrill Lynch until 2008. He built up the Internet Datacentre business of Globix Corporation in the UK and was President of Global Sales and Marketing for the International Group. Between 2004 and 2012, he was Non-Executive Chairman of Spiritel Plc, and served as a Non-Executive Director at Regal Petroleum, Sharp Interpak, WMRC and Pecaso. He has been on the Advisory Board of Infinity SDC, Chayton Capital and Ariya Capital with a focus on business opportunities in Africa. He is a Non-Executive Director of Albion Ventures LLP and Chairman of the Governing Board of Certification International. He is Chairman of Alexandra Rose Charities.
Lord St John is also an extra Lord-in-Waiting to HM The Queen. He is a Member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications and the Lords Information Committee. He is Vice Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary South Africa Group, an Executive Committee Member of the All Party Africa Group and a Council Member of the Parliamentary Information Technology Committee. He served as Chairman of the charity, Citizens Online, from 2001 to 2008.
“RIWI engages the unengaged, and gives voice to the voiceless online,” said Mr. Seeman, RIWI CEO, who is also a Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College. “In Lord St John is a man whose global leadership in African affairs, charitable endeavours and information technology symbolizes the vision of RIWI, which is to measure and track attitudes and concerns of netizens everywhere so global organizations can make critical decisions, such as whether or not to invest or divest capital, or to prevent citizens from exposure to emergent threats.”
Image from Alexandra Rose Charities, http://goo.gl/gUznFU