Nicolas Berggruen is co-founder of the Berggruen Institute, an organization dedicated to working with thinkers across cultures and disciplines to address some of the biggest political and cultural questions in our rapidly changing world. Through the Berggruen Institute, he is the publisher of Noema, a digital and print magazine dedicated to exploring global issues.

It was as young a teenager growing up in Paris that Nicolas became interested in politics and philosophy. He was particularly drawn to the writings of Western philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as great political leaders of history. Fascinated by the complexities and potential of governance as a determinant factor in shaping lives, he even went as far as to write his own constitution for an utopian country at the age of 15.

Referring to this time in his life, Berggruen has said “I was curious about things beyond my years. There was no television, no phones, no distractions…Ideas were all I had. In my case, it was a blessing. It gave me the desire to speculate.”

This inquisitive nature however often got him into trouble - he was expelled from boarding school for sedition. Of this time, Nicolas recalls “I was challenging the teachers with intellectual stuff. I would argue with them. It was a mess.” This experience, however, taught him that if he wanted to enter the world of ideas and truly explore beyond rhetoric, then he must first engage with the real world. This led him down a long detour in business, which enabled him to travel the world and experience diverse cultures and people. It would be several decades later that Nicolas would eventually return to his true passion, the world of ideas. This time, he found his inspiration not only from existentialist’s of the 20th century, but from farther and more ancient places; Confucious, Lao Tzu and the Buddha. Notably, Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha helped shape a new outlook on life, one that married his Western roots with the wisdom of the East. He came to an understanding that life is change in a succession of chapters and that living is its experiences.

He spent time with philosophy and political science teachers learning Eastern and Western traditions. He became a meticulous note taker -  documenting his thoughts and conversations as he read, traveled, and searched for his own way to meaningfully contribute in a rapidly changing world. After decades of living out of suitcases, he settled in LA where he co-founded the Berggruen Institute. The Institute works on forging new frameworks of thought in democracy, capitalism, planetary politics, science and technology, and philosophy and culture.

With centers in Los Angeles, Beijing and Venice, the Institute aims to address the great issues and transformations of our time on a global scale by serving as a hub for East-West research and cross-cultural exchange.

He is also founder of the soon to be unveiled Berggruen Arts & Culture. Based in the historic Palazzo Diedo, the center will encourage the work of today’s artists, deepen the connection between contemporary art and the past, and make art more widely accessible to the public. Following restoration of the palazzo, Berggruen Arts & Culture will host an array of exhibitions—some drawn from Nicolas Berggruen’s personal collection—as well as installations, symposia, and an artist-in-residence program that will foster the creation of art in Venice.

‍In 2012, Nicolas and Institute co-founder Nathan Gardels published Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century: A Middle Way Between West and East. The book’s central argument is that populism and short-term thinking have hindered the progress of Western democracies, while many authoritarian Eastern nations, China in particular, would benefit from strengthening their meritocratic systems with the popular legitimacy that is typical of Western governments. In 2019, they published Renovating Democracy: Governing in the Age of Globalization and Digital Capitalism, expanding on their alternate framework for governance with three novel ideas: participation without populism, universal basic capital and positive nationalism.