RESEARCH PARTNERS OF THE GDI

Venkatesh Rao

Author of “Tempo”, a book on decision-making, and the widely read “Ribbonfarm” blog. As a researcher he focuses on long-term historical trends in technology and social evolution. Rao is also a consultant for organization development. He has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering.

Nathan Gardels

Co-founder of and senior advisor to the Berggruen Institute, editor-in-chief of "The WorldPost" and author of, inter alia, "Intelligent Governance" and "The Changing Global Order".

Nicolas Berggruen

German-American investor. Founder and owner of Berggruen Holdings for long-term projects. Founder of the Nicolas Berggruen Institute on Governance (NBI) for political consulting. Berggruen became known in 2010 with the purchase of the Karstadt department store chain.

Parag Khanna

Global strategy advisor and best-selling author. Khanna is founder and managing partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario based strategic advisory firm. His latest book, “Move: The Forces Uprooting Us”, previews how climate change-driven migration will change the world map.  

Douglas Rushkoff

Author; documentarist; professor for Media Theory and Digital Economics, City University of New York. Rushkoff is named one of the “world’s ten most influential intellectuals" by MIT. The media theorist is a multiple bestselling author (including "Team Human") and works as a tech commentator for various media (including "CNN"). Rushkoff has received several awards for his work.

Paco Underhill

Founder and CEO of Envirosell, management consultants for market research and consumer-friendly shop and product design. Author of best-selling books "Why we Buy" and "Call of the Mall".

Wendy Liebmann

Founder and CEO of WSL Strategic Retail, a firm well known for studying and predicting consumer shopping behaviour. WSL combines astute observations of retail with consumer research to predict where shoppers will be shopping in the next few years.

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Ernst Fehr

Professor of Microeconomics and Experimental Economics. Fehr is director of the Department of Economics at the University of Zurich and a member of the board of directors of FehrAdvice & Partners. The “most influential Swiss economist” (NZZ) was recipient of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize in 2013.

Lionel Tiger

Dr. Lionel Tiger is the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology. His title reflects his pioneering role in introducing biosocial data into the social sciences. Consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense. He has been an influential figure in broadening our knowledge about why we do what we do. 

Chris Sanderson

Co-founder of trend consultancy The Future Laboratory. Chris is a SuperBoard member of The British Fashion Council’s Fashion Trust.

Peter Gloor

Lecturer at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston and at the universities of Cologne and Helsinki. In his research he investigates the so-called "swarm creativity".

Susie Ellis

Susie Ellis is chairman and CEO of the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), and heads up the organization’s annual Global Wellness Summit and Global Wellness Tourism Congress.