Syed Nazakat

Syed Nazakat works at the intersection of innovation, open data and media. He founded and directs the DataLEADS, where he works with news organizations, media innovators and think tanks across Asia. His innovative product and collaborative work – from watchdog reporting to data visualization to data boot camps to building India’s first data-driven platform for health reporting – has dramatically altered how open data collaboration works in Asia. He has over 17 years of experience as a journalist, open data strategist and entrepreneur. He has reported from over 30 countries and has worked at senior editorial positions in various media organizations, winning international recognition and many awards including India’s prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence Award, Christiane Amanpour Award and British Medical Journal Award, the medical world’s equivalent to an Oscar. He also leads CIJ, a non-profit organization he founded to promote the cause of watchdog journalism in India. He is Member of Board of Directors at GIJN (USA) and Pulitzer-prize winning global media watchdog, ICIJ (USA). He holds masters degree in journalism from Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism, Manila.