Prof. Olaf Groth is a Global Visionary Strategist, Entrepreneurial Executive, Thinktank Founder, Advisor and Author for Disruption Forces & Futures in the Global Economy.
Olaf has 25 years of experience as an executive and adviser building strategies, capabilities, programs and ventures across 35+ countries (including UAE) with multinationals (e.g. AirTouch, Boeing, Chevron, GE, Qualcomm, Q-Cells, Vodafone, Volkswagen, etc.), consultancies, startups, VCs, foundations, governments and academia. He is the founding CEO of advisory thinktank Cambrian Futures and of concept development firm Cambrian Designs. Olaf serves as Professional Faculty for strategy, policy, technology and futures at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and Professor of Practice for global strategy, innovation, economics & futures at Hult International Business School, teaching across the US, Europe, Middle East, Africa and China. He is a member of the Global Expert Network at the World Economic Forum, Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley’s Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE) and Moonshot Adviser at Berkeley Skydeck.
Olaf is lead co-author of the 2018 AI book Solomon’s Code: Humanity in a World of Thinking Machines and its 2021 paperback version The AI Generation: Shaping Our Global Future With Thinking Machines). He is also co-author for the forthcoming 2023 MIT Press book The Great Remobilization: Designing A Smarter Future. He is a frequent commentator on ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, NPR and Bloomberg TV (USA), Deutsche Welle, ARD and ZDF (Germany) and contributor for outlets like WIRED, Financial Times, The Hill, Harvard Business Review (USA, Germany, France, Italia, Spain, Arabia), California Management Review, Quartz, FOCUS, Die Zeit, World Economic Forum, Huffington Post, Peter Drucker Forum, LSE, Today’s CFO, Thunderbird International Business Review, World Financial Review, European Business Review, Roubini EconoMonitor, and Duke CE Dialogue.
Olaf holds PhD & MALD degrees in global affairs with business, economics and technology focus from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, MAIPS & BA degrees with economics focus from the Middlebury Institute at Monterey, studied negotiation at Harvard, economics at Georgetown, finance at Berkeley, and strategic leadership at the Center for Creative Leadership.
Olaf is being represented by Washington Speakers Bureau and Chartwell Speakers.