Nicco Mele is a leading expert in the integration of social media and Web 2.0 with politics, business and communications.

As the webmaster for Governor Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential race, Nicco and the campaign team pioneered the use of technology and social media that revolutionized political fundraising and American politics.  Later that year, Nicco founded EchoDitto.  Through EchoDitto, Nicco continues to consult with Fortune 500 companies and nonprofit groups.

Now an adjunct faculty at Harvard’s Kennedy School, Nicco teaches graduate level classes on the internet and politics.  In 2009, Nicco was named the Spring 2009 Visiting Edward R. Murrow Distinguished Lecturer at the Harvard Shorenstein Center for the study of Press, Politics and Public Policy.

Nicco also co-founded GeniusRocket.com, which used the internet to change the advertising concept by soliciting creative online in an open and collaborative process. He also launched ProxyDemocracy.com, an online resource for proxy voting and shareholder resolutions.

Named in 2003 by Esquire Magazine as one of America ‘s “best and brightest,” Nicco was born in West Africa to foreign service parents.  He spent his early years overseas in Asia and Africa before graduating from high school in Malaysia and from the College of William and Mary in Virginia.  Nicco’s wife, Morra Aarons, is also a well-known internet entrepreneur and blogger. They have two sons: Asa "Ace" Mele and Tom Mele.

Nicco serves on the board of BrighterPlanet, Democracy21, the News Literacy Project (Technology Advisory Committee), and he was recently named to the Advisory Board of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. He is the co-founder of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival.