Alec Ross (author)

Ross was born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia.[6] His father was a lawyer and his mother was a paralegal.[7] At age 12 he moved to Italy for a year to live with his grandfather, Ray DePaulo, who was the commercial minister at the U.S. embassy in Rome.[7] Ross attended college at Northwestern University.[8]

After graduating in 1994 from Northwestern University with a B.A. in history,[7] Ross moved to Baltimore to work at Booker T. Washington Middle School as a Teach for America AmeriCorps Member.[7][8][9] Ross taught for two years and then accepted a position as special assistant to the president of the Enterprise Foundation.[10]

In 2000, he co-founded One Economy, a nonprofit.[1]

Ross teaching at Oxford University

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Ross played a role in developing then-Sen. Barack Obama's technology and innovation plan.[11][12]

In April 2009, Ross joined the State Department as Senior Advisor on Innovation.[13] Ross was regarded as a "tech guru" at the State Department.[14]

In addition to concerns over countries increasing surveillance capabilities, Ross highlighted cases where businesses prioritized profit motives over the potential harms of technologies. In 2011, he publicly "criticised the developers of internet surveillance equipment who were willing to sell their services to repressive regimes and allow governments to censor their citizens.”[15]

In April 2017, Ross launched a campaign for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Maryland in 2018.[16][17] In February 2018 he announced as his running mate Julie Verratti, a craft brewery co-owner, former Senior Advisor at the Small Business Administration, and LGBT political activist.[18][19] In June 2018, Ross finished seventh in the nine candidate Democratic primary with 2.4% of the votes.[20]

Ross lives in Baltimore, Maryland and in Italy with his wife, Felicity, and their three children: Colton, Tehle, and Sawyer.[6][21]