Edward Saatchi


Edward Saatchi is a British businessman and filmmaker. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of artificial intelligence-powered virtual being company Fable. He was formerly a producer at Oculus Story Studio and the CEO and co-founder of political technology company, NationalField.

Early life and education

Edward Saatchi is the son of Maurice Saatchi and Josephine Hart. His father was an Iraqi Jew born in Baghdad while his mother was Irish. He was educated at London's Westminster School and Wadham College in Oxford, where he took a double first in English. He attended the Sorbonne for graduate studies in philosophy and economics before leaving for the US to volunteer for Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign.

Career

Saatchi was initially rejected in his efforts to join the Obama campaign because of his alien status, but eventually permitted to participate after personally presenting himself at a campaign office in Iowa. During his tenure with the campaign, he met Aharon Wasserman and Justin Lewis. The three developed an "internal social network" to more easily keep track of campaign data and coordinate communications between managers, staff, and volunteers. The network was rapidly adopted across multiple branches of the campaign and eventually commercialised in its present form as NationalField. He currently serves as the company's CEO. In 2011, Saatchi, along with his co-founders, was named in Forbes's 30 Under 30.
In 2014, he was part of the founding team of Oculus Story Studio, the virtual-reality filmmaking division of Oculus VR.
In January 2018, Fable Studio, which Saatchi co-founded with Pete Billington, launched, with Wolves in the Walls as its premiere title. The property was based on the Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean children's book of the same name. In August 2019, Wolves in the Walls won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding innovation in interactive media.

Personal life

Saatchi told Forbes in 2014 that he practises Transcendental Meditation, rises before dawn, exercises daily and enjoys films and painting.