“The brain economy is a new economic paradigm that prioritizes brain capital, encompassing brain health and brain skills, as its core asset. Driven by a neuroscience renaissance, it responds to the growing demand for brain skills — cognitive, emotional, and social — in the modern workforce” – World Economic Forum and McKinsey Health Institute
The future of economic growth depends on optimizing brain capital, a form of human capital that encompasses brain health with cognitive, emotional, and social skills that drive innovation, productivity, and resilience. Today, underinvestment in brain health is leaving trillions in economic potential untapped.
Global economies are at a critical inflection point:
- The global economy is losing $2.5 - $8.5 trillion annually due to lost productivity from brain disorders.
- The knowledge economy requires peak cognitive performance to sustain workforce adaptability in the face of technological innovation and AI.
- Aging populations and rising neurodegenerative diseases risk hurting productivity and increasing healthcare and social costs.
- Geopolitical uncertainty and digital misinformation highlight the need for cognitive resilience as a national security asset.
- Business leaders are calling for policies that strengthen workforce resilience, innovation, and sustainable growth, all of which depend on brain capital.
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More about Harris
We are entering a new era shaped by the rise of the brain economy, where brain capital — comprising brain health and brain skills — serves as the cornerstone of sustainable economic growth. According to the McKinsey Health Institute (MHI), prioritizing brain health and fostering brain capital has the potential to unlock $26 trillion in global economic opportunities by enhancing workforce performance, igniting innovation, and reclaiming millions of years of quality life.
Harris was the senior author of the first scientific paper on the brain economy published in 2021 (Molecular Psychiatry), co-led the early OECD Neuroscience-Inspired Economics Initiative which led to the Global Brain Capital Dashboard. The work continues to proliferated. For example, the World Economic Forum 2025 held a Brain Economy Roundtable, the President of Cameroon endorsed The Yaounde Declaration, and multi-national corporations and congresspeople from various nations are engaging.
He is a physician, neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and strategist. He is dedicated to fostering awareness, data, tools, investment, and leadership for the brain transition. To do this, he works across public, non-profit, philanthropic, and private sectors. He is integrating and actioning the disciplines of grand strategy, new economic thinking, transdisciplinary science, and financial engineering.
He leads Neuro-Policy and is a senior fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute, visiting senior fellow at the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, a Senior Advisor with McKinsey and Company, adjunct at UCSF, advisor at MD Anderson's Cancer Neuroscience Program, and the Business Collaborative for Brain Health. He is a member of the Champion's Cabinet of the Davos Alzheimer's Collaborative and a member of IHME's Brain Health Collaborative Policy Working Group.
Eyre is an alumnus of the Forbes 30 Under 30 and the Fulbright Scholar program. He has garnered recognition with the prestigious EB1A Green Card, an honor typically reserved for Nobel and Pulitzer prize winners. He has authored over 200 papers and chapters in journals such as The Lancet Neurology, Neuron, World Psychiatry, The Brookings Institutions, OECD Press and was the lead editor of the book 'Convergence Brain Health' (Oxford Press).
Beyond his professional achievements, Harris has authored a reflective short story titled "My Migraines are a Superpower." In his free time, he enjoys family time and activities such as mountain biking, meditation, and podcasts. He is originally from the Great Barrier Reef region of Australia.