Don Tapscott

Don Tapscott (born 1947) is a Canadian author, business thinker, and adviser whose work examines how digital technologies reshape economic life, institutions, and social relationships. His writing has helped bring ideas about networked business, collaboration, and the social consequences of information technology into management and public-policy discussion.

Tapscott’s books include Paradigm Shift, The Digital Economy, and Wikinomics, the last written with Anthony D. Williams. In Grown Up Digital, he considers the experiences and expectations of people who have grown up with networked media, continuing his earlier work on the “Net Generation” and the digital divide. His books connect technological change to questions of business organization, education, participation, and communication.

He served as Trent University’s eleventh chancellor from 2013 to 2019 and co-founded the Blockchain Research Institute, where he has served as executive chairman. In 2015, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada for leadership in business innovation and research on the economic and social impact of information technology. His public talks, including two TED presentations, have further brought his arguments about openness and blockchain technology to broad audiences.