Joi Ito is an accomplished entrepreneur, venture capitalist, scholar, and activist with a focus on the ethics and governance of technology. He co-founded the venture capital firm Neoteny and has invested in many startups, including Twitter and Kickstarter. Ito was also the director of the MIT Media Lab and served on the boards of several non-profit organizations and companies, including Creative Commons, Sony Corporation, and The New York Times Company. His activism focuses on addressing complex societal problems such as climate change and societal inequity while redesigning the systems of scholarship and science. Ito's work has earned him many accolades, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oxford Internet Institute in 2011 and induction into the SxSW Interactive Hall of Fame in 2013.