Rahaf Harfoush

Rahaf Harfoush is a digital anthropologist and author whose work on digital culture reached AI governance at the United Nations. Born in Syria and raised mostly in Toronto, she joined Barack Obama's digital media team in 2008, wrote Yes We Did in 2009, co-authored The Decoded Company in 2014 and published Hustle & Float in 2019. In 2021, she joined France's National Digital Council and became a Visiting Policy Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. A member of the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence from 2023, she briefed the UN Security Council on AI and disinformation in December 2023 and sat on the body that released Governing AI for Humanity in 2024. Thinkers50 ranked her in 2025, and she is Executive Director of the Red Thread Institute of Digital Culture.

Now at: Red Thread Institute of Digital Culture

Timeline

2008–2009

Obama's digital media team

Born in Syria, she leaves with her family at age five and spends most of her life in Toronto. She studies for an HBA at Western's Ivey School of Business, joins Barack Obama's digital media team during the 2008 presidential election, and publishes her first book, Yes We Did, in 2009.
2014–2015

The Decoded Company

In 2014, she co-authors The Decoded Company: Know Your Talent Better Than You Know Your Customers with Leerom Segal, Aaron Goldstein and Jay Goldman. The book reaches the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists and wins a 2015 Gold Axiom Award for Best Business Technology Book.
2019

Hustle & Float

Diversion Books publishes her third book, Hustle & Float: Reclaim Your Creativity and Thrive in a World Obsessed with Work, in 2019. Les Napoleons also names her one of the most innovative women in France in 2019.
2021

Policy roles in France and Oxford

In February 2021, she is among the 21 members of the new National Digital Council that Cédric O, France's secretary of state for digital transition, installs. In April 2021, she joins the Oxford Internet Institute as a Visiting Policy Fellow, with research interests that include artificial intelligence. In September 2021, she is among the experts President Macron charges, under sociologist Gérald Bronner, with the commission "Les Lumières à l'ère numérique" on the internet's effects on information and democracy.
October 2023–December 2023

UN advisory body on AI

UN Secretary-General António Guterres announces the High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence in October 2023, and she is named among its members as a digital anthropologist from France. In December 2023, she briefs the UN Security Council at an Arria-formula meeting on the impact of AI on hate speech, disinformation and misinformation.
September 2024

Governing AI for Humanity

The Advisory Body, whose members include her, presents its final report, Governing AI for Humanity, in September 2024. Its seven recommendations include an international scientific panel on AI, a policy dialogue on AI governance and a global fund for AI.
2025

Ranked by Thinkers50

Thinkers50 ranks her among its management thinkers in 2025, listing her as a strategist and digital anthropologist focusing on emerging technology, innovation and future of work. Its Innovation Award shortlist includes her in 2021.
As of October 2026

Red Thread Institute director

She is Executive Director of the Red Thread Institute of Digital Culture. Her 2026 research focus includes building an adaptive knowledge practice for processing information in an era of AI-driven information overload, and she is on the program of Nordic Business Forum 2026 with the session "Rise of the Thinking Class: The Human Advantage in an Exponential World".