Speaker's Profile

James Felton Keith is an award winning engineer, economist and author who defined personal data. He has incubated an industry: As chairman of The Data Union he defined the modern concept of "personal data" through his books and the Personal Data Week conferences. A serial entrepreneur he has built a global ecosystem of Cyber, FinTech, and AdTech firms. His expertise is the ethnography of technology or the study of the culture of tech. He has spent the past 20 years between 4 continents obsessing about economic inclusion, and how to get equity back in the hands of the people who are owed a piece of the productivity of this economy for their input.
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Affectionately known as JFK, he was the first Black member of the LGBT community to run for US Congress. He’d say that it’s necessary to have the mind of a CEO and the heart of a Social Worker to solve real people problems. James has been appointed to the cabinet of Elected Officials, taken over for and advised CEOs, Academics, and Non-profiteers.​

JFK is a frequent keynote at global venues like the United Nations, Future Tech Congress, Data Protection World Forum, Money 20/20, and Hope Global Forums to name a few. Most recently he was honored as one of the UN's International Young Leaders Assembly members, the United Kingdom’s Technology & Investment Financial Technology Delegation, an IBM Global Entrepreneur, the US Department of Homeland Security's Commitment to Diversity, and multiple 40 under 40 notices. He is currently an honorable member of New York County Democratic Committee and on advisory boards at Rutgers University, the Democratic National Committee, and the Black & Latino LGBT Coalition.

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