Chris Mahony
Chris Mahony is CEO and co-founder of Peloria, which employs social science-informed artificial intelligence methods that predict and explain social phenomena. A lawyer and political economist, Chris has worked on the utility of emergent data sources and methods at the World Bank. During his 17-year career, he has also served as strategic policy and rule of law adviser and global focal point on transitional Justice at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York, and as founding Deputy Director of the New Zealand Centre for Human Rights at Auckland University Law School.
He has taught courses in law and international relations at Peking, Oxford and Auckland universities. In 2008, he directed the design of Sierra Leone’s domestic witness protection program. He was admitted to the bar of the High Court of New Zealand in 2006, where he appeared for the Crown in criminal and refugee matters. In 2003, at the age of 21, he worked in Sierra Leone and Liberia, where, among other work, he helped draft the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations on governance and corruption, and its “Historical antecedents to the conflict” chapter. Chris holds a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) degree and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from the University of Otago in New Zealand, as well as a Master’s in African Studies (M.Sc.) and a D.Phil. in Politics from Oxford. While studying, he played rugby professionally in New Zealand and the UK.