{"id":39,"name":"Ross O'Brien","url":"","description":"Ross O\u2019Brien writes on digital commerce, customer experience technologies, machine learning and greentech from Hong Kong, where he\u2019s lived for over half his life.  He is a native of New Hampshire (although he is a quarter Vermonter on his mother\u2019s side) where he spent his summers waiting tables at The Lobster Tub and winters poaching Christmas trees. \r\n\r\nWhen pressed for details, Ross describes himself as an analyst of Asia\u2019s digital economy, if only to change the subject.  For a long time, he was a program director for the Economist Corporate Network, where, in his words, \u201ctranslated The Economist newspaper into PowerPoint for busy execs\u201d. \r\n\r\nOver the course of his career, Ross did a stint as a voice-over artist for Vidal Sassoon commercials in Singapore (ironic, considering his hairline), served as a broadcast trade journalist covering satellite launches in French Guiana, and an operational improvement consultant for a telecom company in Bandung, Indonesia. \r\n\r\nIn addition to his writing at The Robin Report, Ross is a partner in an Asian market research consulting firm and is also a senior contributor to the MIT Technology Review\u2019s thought leadership program. He conducts research with regional technology analyst firms, tracking the technology development strategies of Chief Digital Officers in Asia.\r\n\r\nRoss lives in a small fishing village overlooking the mouth of the Pearl River Delta on Hong Kong\u2019s Lantau Island with his wife, a speech therapist who rebufs Ross\u2019 every attempt to get them to move to her native South Africa. They have two children; the eldest lives in Seattle, which is lucky for Ross because it is also the home of his favorite comic book shop and the only standing cribbage game at which he\u2019s ever won money.  The youngest studies at Loughborough in the UK, where Ross doesn\u2019t yet know the local card rooms. \r\n\r\nRoss has a degree in anthropology from Dartmouth College, and an MBA from Berkeley. He speaks a fair bit of Indonesian, even more Mandarin, and enough Cantonese to get himself out of parking disputes in the aforementioned fishing village.","link":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/author\/robrien\/","slug":"robrien","avatar_urls":{"24":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-24x24.png","48":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-48x48.png","96":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-96x96.png"},"meta":[],"simple_local_avatar":{"media_id":34118,"full":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien.png","blog_id":1,"192":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-192x192.png","96":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-96x96.png","64":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-64x64.png","32":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-32x32.png","24":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-24x24.png","48":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-48x48.png","256":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-256x256.png","128":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-128x128.png","44":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-44x44.png","22":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/ROBrien-22x22.png"},"leaky_paywall_meta":{"level_id":"","subscriber_id":"","price":"","plan":"","created":"","expires":"","has_access":false,"payment_gateway":"","payment_status":""},"elementor_introduction":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therobinreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users"}]}}