Shane Smith, Founder and CEO, VICE Media

Shane Smith is the founder and CEO of VICE, the global youth media brand. One of the industry’s most respected visionaries, Smith is also a critically acclaimed journalist, and the host and executive producer for the Emmy winning news series, VICE, on HBO.

Under Smith’s guidance, VICE, initially launched in 1994 as a punk magazine, has expanded and diversified to become the world’s leading youth media company; operating an international network of digital channels, a television production studio, a record label, an in-house creative services agency, a book-publishing house and a feature film division. In the fall of 2015, VICE also announced an upcoming 24-hour linear television network in the U.S. and Canada called VICELAND.

VICE's award-winning video content covers news, culture, music, technology, sports and fashion from a unique perspective tailored towards a young international audience often ignored by mainstream media. To syndicate VICE’s content globally, Smith established a network of content distribution partnerships with leading platforms, including YouTube, A&E, Snapchat, Rogers, HBO, 20th Century Fox, Verizon, and others. VICE’s reach has since exploded, with its network of channels reaching hundreds of millions of viewers a month.

Smith has reported from the world's most isolated and difficult places, including North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Liberia and Greenland.

Smith has been awarded numerous journalism and media awards, including the 2014 Knight Innovation Award, two Environmental Media Awards, the Frank Stanton Award for Excellence, and more. VICE has also won scores of awards for its groundbreaking reporting, including an Emmy Award for Best Information Series or Special, two Peabody Awards, the PEN Center 2014 Award of Honor, the Television Academy Honors for socially conscious programming, and more.

Smith graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, with a BA in English Literature and Political Science.