Shane Smith is the visionary founder and CEO of VICE, a global youth media brand renowned for its innovative approach to storytelling and its ability to captivate a young international audience often overlooked by mainstream media.
As a critically acclaimed journalist and host and executive producer of the Emmy-winning news series VICE on HBO, Smith has made a significant impact on the industry, consistently pushing the boundaries of what is possible in journalism and media.
Under Smith's guidance, VICE has evolved from its humble beginnings as a punk magazine launched in 1994 to become a leading global youth media company, operating a vast 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.
VICE's award-winning video content covers a wide range of topics, including news, culture, music, technology, sports, and fashion, all presented from a unique perspective that resonates with a young and diverse audience.
To further expand VICE's global reach, Smith has established a network of content distribution partnerships with leading platforms, including YouTube, Snapchat, Rogers, HBO, 20th Century Fox, Verizon, and others, allowing the brand to syndicate its content to a vast and engaged audience.
As a result, VICE's network of channels now reaches hundreds of millions of viewers every month, making it one of the most widely viewed and influential media brands in the world.
Throughout his career, Smith has reported from some of the most challenging and isolated locations on earth, including North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Liberia, and Greenland, demonstrating his unwavering commitment to telling the stories that need to be told.
Smith's numerous awards and accolades include the 2014 Knight Innovation Award, two Environmental Media Awards, the Frank Stanton Award for Excellence in Communication, the LA Press Club Award, and many others.
VICE has also won scores of awards for its groundbreaking reporting, including an Emmy Award for Best Information Series or Special, two Peabody Awards for VICE News, the PEN Center 2014 Award of Honor, the Television Academy Honors for socially conscious programming, and many others.
Before joining VICE, Smith graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Political Science.
