Woodstock honours Chris Anderson '74

Woodstock School awarded its distinguished alumnus and curator of the TED (TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design) Conferences Mr. Chris Anderson (Class of 1974) during a special assembly at the Parker Hall on Wednesday, October 28th. Anderson is a dedicated promoter of global citizenship, whose work helps spread innovative ideas around the world.

Anderson addressed the students on how the eight years he spent in Woodstock gave him a global perspective from a young age. "Certainly, the Woodstock-inspired global soul instinct has been very good to me," he said, "When my life in England started feeling too small and I felt America calling... that was Woodstock. When I took over the TED conference and decided the content was so good it had to be shared freely with the world. That was Woodstock. And when just this year we started giving permission to anyone in the world to organize their own TED event (in year one 40,000 people in 50 countries have been to a local TED event)... that was Woodstock."

He added: "The world is getting ever more inter-connected. Telecommunication in the 21st century doesn't know any borders. Neither does trade. Neither does terrorism. Neither does climate change. It's becoming ever more obvious that all of our main problems ... and also all of our opportunities. can only be tackled by people taking a global perspective. People like you."

Anderson was handed over the distinguished alumnus certificate by Rev. TZ Kundan, the vice-president of the Woodstock Board.

Anderson, who is British, was born in Pakistan and spent most of his childhood in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. In 2001 Anderson acquired TED through his private non-profit foundation, The Sapling Foundation. He re-defined TED's mission as "ideas worth spreading" and encouraged the release of its content online to a broader, global audience. He also introduced the TED Prize, which grants three individuals annually $100,000 plus "one wish to change the world". TED will be holding a major conference in Mysore from November 4-7 which will feature speakers from varying fields including management, water-harvesting, art, biology, social activism, cricket, education, spirituality, film, economy, and others.

In the past, speakers in the TED Talks speakers have included former US President Bill Clinton, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former US Vice-President Al Gore, Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates, and pop-star/social activist Bono.

Click here for a more detailed biography of Chris Anderson.

Official TED Website

In 2003, the school's Board of Directors established the Woodstock School Distinguished Alumni Roll as a means of enabling the school to publicly celebrate meritorious alumni for exemplary and recognized lifelong achievement in their given fields or in voluntary philanthropic activities or service, in ways which represent the values that Woodstock School strives to engender in its students.

Up to three alumni are presented with this award every year. The past recipients of this award are listed here.