World Summit 2009 Presenters: June Cohen

June Cohen has been responsible for bringing the legendary TED Conference online, and growing its audience from 1000 conference attendees to 100 million viewers worldwide. In 2006, she launched TEDTalks, the groundbreaking podcast series that first made the conference talks available to the world, and in 2007, she led the widely acclaimed redesign of TED.com.

As a result, TEDTalks have now been viewed more than 150 million times worldwide, and have become a powerful new platform for leading thinkers and doers. Cohen also co-produces and co-hosts the annual TED Conference.

In May 2009, Cohen launched the TED Open Translation Project, a ground-breaking initiative that allows volunteers worldwide to translate TEDTalks into any language. In the first three month alone, more than 1500 translators registered, and began work on 4000 translations in 80 languages. TED's online initiatives have been covered in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, Wired, Newsweek, Le Monde, Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung and Italy's Coriere della Sere. They've also won a range of industry awards, including 5 Webbies and the Communication Arts Interactive Annual Competition.

Prior to joining TED, June had been at the leading edge of media and technology for 15  years, producing innovative work oft-cited for its influence on the industry. In 1991, she led the Stanford University team that developed the world's first multimedia magazine. It attracted international news coverage as a harbinger of things to come. Then, in 1994, she helped launch HotWired.com, the pioneering website from Wired Magazine, which introduced many of the conventions now commonplace on the web (from ad banners to comments on news stories to the concept of "membership"). For several years, she wrote "Net Surf," one of the web's first blogs, and documented such historical moments as the launch of Amazon.com. In 1996, she founded Webmonkey.com, the much-loved developers' site still used by millions (and recently re-acquired by Wired Magazine). From 1997-2000, she helped lead HotWired to profitability as VP of Content, overseeing all creative development on sites, from Animation Express to the HotBot search engine. June holds a BA from Stanford, where she was Editor in Chief of The Stanford Daily.