Sean Hinton

Sean Hinton is a senior advisor to the Mastercard Foundation and principal advisor at Terbish Partners, a consulting and advisory firm he founded in 2007, working in the areas of investment, economic development, ethical business and corporate social responsibility. A Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, Hinton is also a member of the international advisory board of the University of Maryland’s Bahá’í Chair for World Peace and the board of NatureFinance. 

Most recently Hinton was chief executive officer of the Soros Economic Development Fund and director of the Economic Justice Program at the Open Society Foundations (2015–22). Prior to this Hinton lived in Beijing, China for 9 years, where he was a senior advisor to Goldman Sachs Asia and Rio Tinto among other clients in the energy and minerals sector in China, Mongolia and Africa. Other roles included deputy-chair of SouthGobi Resources, special advisor to the CEO of SOHO China and chair of China Networks.  

Born in the U.K., Hinton lived in Mongolia from 1988 to 1995 after receiving his master’s from the University of Cambridge in ethnomusicology; he is also a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Hinton began his career at McKinsey & Company in 1995, where he worked in the media and entertainment practice. In 1997 he was a visiting fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. From 2000 to 2007 Hinton held managing director and principal positions at Ealing Studios and Media and Entertainment Advisors, respectively.