Max Lugavere
Health & Science Journalist | New York Times Bestselling Author of Genius Foods | Host of The Genius Life Podcast | Filmmaker, Little Empty Boxes
Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia Co-Founder | Founder, Wikimedia Foundation | Author, The Seven Rules of Trust | TIME 100 Honoree | Expert on Trust, Open Collaboration & AI
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Jimmy Wales co-founded Wikipedia and proved that millions of strangers, guided by shared rules, could build the most widely used reference work in history. His focus today is trust: how institutions, companies, and platforms earn it, lose it, and rebuild it in an era of misinformation and AI. Drawing on his bestselling book The Seven Rules of Trust, he gives senior audiences a practical framework for building organizations that last.
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Jimmy Wales biography
Jimmy Wales is the co-founder of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that changed how the world finds and shares knowledge. Few internet founders can point to a creation used by hundreds of millions of people every month, and speaker Jimmy Wales brings that experience to stages around the world with a message built on trust, openness, and collaboration at scale.
Born in Huntsville, Alabama, Wales studied finance at Auburn University and pursued graduate work at the University of Alabama and Indiana University before working as a futures and options trader in Chicago. He launched Wikipedia in 2001 with Larry Sanger, building on the earlier Nupedia project, and in 2003 established the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation to support it. Wikipedia now offers more than 60 million articles in over 300 languages, written and edited by volunteers and funded by donations rather than advertising. Wales remains a member of the foundation’s board of trustees.
Trust as a Blueprint for Lasting Institutions
Wales has spent his career testing a simple idea: that strangers, given clear rules and a shared purpose, can build something reliable together. In 2004 he co-founded the wiki hosting platform Fandom, originally known as Wikia. In 2019 he launched WT.Social, an ad-free social network now known as Trust Café, designed to reward thoughtful discussion over outrage.
His national bestseller The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last, written with Dan Gardner, distills the principles behind Wikipedia’s credibility into practical lessons for leaders, companies, and communities facing a widespread crisis of confidence. Time has named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and the World Economic Forum has recognized him among its top global leaders. He lives in London with his family.
As a speaker, Jimmy Wales gives executives, policymakers, and innovators a grounded view of how open systems earn trust and keep it. His keynotes cover collective intelligence, platform governance, misinformation, and what artificial intelligence means for the future of knowledge, all drawn from more than two decades at the center of one of the internet’s most closely watched communities. Among technology speakers, few combine founder credibility with such a clear, practical philosophy of how people work together.
Jimmy Wales Speaking Videos
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales - Making data free for developing countries
Jimmy Wales Speaking Topics
Wales tells the story of how millions of volunteers, most of them strangers to one another, built the world's largest encyclopedia without central control or financial reward. He draws out what leaders can apply in their own organizations: how to design systems that correct their own mistakes, how to invite contribution without coercion, and why openness often proves more durable than control.
Artificial intelligence is changing how information is produced, filtered, and consumed, and with it the question of what people can believe. Wales examines what AI-generated content means for knowledge systems, institutional credibility, and digital trust, and outlines how organizations can build cultures that reward accuracy over virality.
Drawing on more than two decades at the heart of one of the internet's most complex communities, Wales explains what good governance of digital spaces requires. He addresses moderation, neutrality, misinformation, and platform design, offering practical guidance for leaders building teams, communities, or platforms where trust is the core asset.
Based on his bestselling book, Wales shares the principles that helped Wikipedia earn the confidence of strangers and shows how they apply to companies and institutions. He challenges audiences to look past short-term growth metrics toward the kind of purposeful leadership, transparency, and reciprocity that builds organizations with lasting impact.
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FAQs on Booking Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales brings one of the internet's true architects to your stage. As the co-founder of Wikipedia, he showed that a global community guided by shared values could produce a resource more widely used and trusted than many traditional institutions. His insights on trust, open collaboration, digital governance, and the future of knowledge in the AI era translate directly to the challenges leaders face today, and his book The Seven Rules of Trust gives audiences a clear framework to act on. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to book Jimmy Wales for your next conference or corporate event.
Wikipedia was launched in January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. It grew out of Nupedia, an earlier expert-written online encyclopedia that Wales had started. Sanger left the project in 2002, while Wales went on to establish the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation in 2003 and guided Wikipedia's growth into the world's largest free online encyclopedia.
WT.Social, the ad-free social network Jimmy Wales launched in 2019, evolved into a new platform called Trust Café. Funded by members rather than advertising, Trust Café organizes discussion into community-run spaces and is designed to reward thoughtful conversation instead of engagement-driven outrage. The project reflects Wales's long-standing belief that online platforms work best when governed by their users.
Jimmy Wales speaks about trust, open collaboration, collective intelligence, platform governance, misinformation, and the future of knowledge in an age of artificial intelligence. Many of his keynotes draw on The Seven Rules of Trust, his bestselling book on how individuals and organizations earn and keep confidence. His talks suit audiences in technology, media, education, finance, and public policy. To check his availability for your event, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau.
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Jimmy Wales as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Jimmy Wales's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Jimmy Wales or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
Jimmy Wales speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Jimmy Wales to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Jimmy Wales.
We only work with Jimmy Wales on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking Jimmy Wales and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having Jimmy Wales speak at your event. We will be your sole point of contact throughout the process. Get in touch with Aurum Speakers Bureau today, and we will reach out to any motivational speaker or celebrity you want to enquire about speaking at your event. If you wish to contact Jimmy Wales for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Yes, Jimmy Wales is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Jimmy Wales for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
