Laurent Elder leads IDRC’s Information and Networks program, investigating the myriad ways cellphones and the Internet promote openness, inclusiveness, and human rights for societies of the Global South. In 2013, he co-authored and co-edited two books, Information Lives of the Poor with IDRC, and Connecting ICTs to Development: the IDRC experience in cooperation with Anthem Press. He has published articles on the use of technology in health and education, Open Development, and communications policy.

From 1999 to 2004, Elder worked in Senegal at IDRC’s office for West and Central Africa. There, he led the Acacia initiative, a research program exploring the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) in Africa. Before that, Elder worked at Canada’s Department of Finance on equalization, and began his career in France, conducting primary research at the National Archives.

Elder holds an international master’s degree in business administration and a master’s in history. He has done research on the interplay between business and global affairs, and on the rise of the nation state in France.