Christopher Wylie

Christopher Wylie is the whistleblower who changed the conversation about data, democracy, and the ethics of artificial intelligence — permanently. A British-Canadian data scientist born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1989, Wylie became one of the most consequential figures in the history of digital privacy when, in March 2018, he delivered a cache of internal documents to The Guardian and The New York Times exposing Cambridge Analytica’s unauthorized harvesting and psychographic weaponization of the personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users. The scandal brought down Cambridge Analytica, triggered the largest financial sanction ever levied against a tech company — a $5.1 billion penalty against Facebook from the FTC and SEC — and forced governments on three continents to confront the fragility of democratic institutions in the digital age.

Cybersecurity speaker Christopher Wylie is one of the most credentialed voices alive on the intersection of data, power, and accountability. Named to Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2018, Forbes 30 Under 30, Politico’s 50 Most Influential People in Politics, and Business Insider’s 100 Most Influential People in Tech, he has testified before the US Congress five times and before the parliaments of the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada. He holds a PhD in fashion trend forecasting from the University of the Arts London — a credential that, improbable as it sounds, connects directly to where his career has gone since: the applied science of how culture evolves, how data can map it, and how AI can either serve or distort it.

From Whistleblower to Architect of Ethical AI

Before Cambridge Analytica, Wylie worked as a political strategist — becoming the youngest full-time advisor to any party leader in the Canadian Parliament at 17 — and later joined SCL Group, a British defence contractor, working on NATO counter-extremism operations across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. What he helped build at SCL became Cambridge Analytica. What he saw it become drove him to blow the whistle. In the years since, Wylie has reinvented himself as one of the most clear-eyed practitioners in the field of ethical data and AI. He currently serves as Head of Insight and Emerging Technologies at H&M, where he leads the development of generative AI tools for trend forecasting, demand prediction, and sustainability — building the kind of data infrastructure that amplifies consumer agency rather than manipulating it. He is also the co-host of Captured, a narrative podcast for Audible by Coda Story, examining Silicon Valley’s capture of journalism, labour, and creativity. His book Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America remains one of the definitive accounts of how data can be weaponized against democracy.

As a speaker, Christopher Wylie is unlike anyone else on the circuit. He was inside the room where the architecture of modern disinformation was designed — and he chose to walk out and tell the world. His talks move between the visceral and the structural: from the personal story of whistleblowing to the mechanics of psychographic profiling, from the failures of platform regulation to the concrete steps organizations can take to build AI systems they can defend. Audiences leave not just alarmed, but oriented — with a framework for navigating the digital ethics questions that every boardroom now faces.