The Global Foresight Advisory Council supports TFSX’s mission of ethically democratizing the future around the world. In addition to offering mentorship and guidance, the Council also serves as the accrediting body for The Futures School Professional Foresight Certification.
This international group of visionaries are redefining their industries, intrinsically guided by an innate futurist mindset. As multidisciplinary luminaries they are uniquely positioned to guide and expand this movement into the future with the right balance of practical experience and provocative thinking.
Guided by the framework of the competency domains and supported by the foundation of the core beliefs, the Global Foresight Advisory Council organizes its ongoing efforts in terms of the following three areas of focus:
Associate Professor- Engineering Technology and Science, Higher Colleges of Technology – UAE
Dr. Al-Wedyan has over 20 years of experience in teaching as well as a researcher with more than 20 journal and conference articles in the field of Fuzzy Logic Systems and Applied Mechanical Vibrations. He began his Futures journey with Kedge in 2017 and became a Certified Future Foresight Trainer over the course of two years. His background includes extensive experience in the creation of partnerships and alliances between public/private and university organizations to promote higher education and vocational training. He continues to incorporate Futures Thinking as a way of life in his professional life.
Head of Digital Strategy & Customer Transformation, IBM – Argentina
Julian is a senior executive specialized in Business Strategy, Marketing Consumer Experience and Digital Transformation. He also acts as an international speaker represented by the agency Thinking Heads, as a professor at Universidad de San Andres and is an active Foresight Ambassador within the Latin America region. Previously, he has held multiple positions and has been responsible for various businesses and geographic regions at The Walt Disney Company, IBM and WPP Group. Additionally, he has solid experience advising startups and the Argentinian government. Julian holds an MBA from the Universidad de San Andrés. Also has specialized studies in Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and in Positive Psychology at Yale University.
Independent Consultant – Philippines
Shiela is a social development professional, foresight practitioner, and climate advocate with 20 years of experience in the Philippines and Cambodia. She is an Associate of United Edge, a justice-based social enterprise. One of the co-founders of the Philippine Futures Thinking Society (PhilFutures), she is an Emerging Fellow of the Association of Professional Futurists (2021-2023). In 2017, she was awarded the Climate Reality Luntiang Dahon (Green Leaf) Award for Climate Leadership. A passionate environmentalist and animal rights activist, she also has eponymous blog on Medium where she writes about the futures of justice.
Senior Foresight Analyst, Policy Horizons Canada – Canada
Zan is a Senior Foresight Analyst with Policy Horizons Canada, the Government of Canada’s centre of expertise in Foresight. She has worked at the intersection of futures, systems and design thinking for the last decade on projects that have spanned arts and culture, post-secondary education, transportation, retail, the military, non-profit, and all levels of government. Committed to bringing foresight to new audiences, Zan complements her practice by teaching Foresight and Futures Thinking in both OCAD University’s Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation program and the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Whether working on behalf of employers, clients or communities of interest, her approach is grounded in empathy and justice.
Co-Owner and President, MacKenzie – USA
Jenny dreams in possibilites and is a passionate advocate and leader in the Family Business community. Jenny is the Co-Owner and President of MacKenzie Corporation, a second-generation family-owned business specializing in the Customer Insights space. Jenny and her twin sister also recently launched Next Gen Collaborative focused on empowering next generation family business leaders to find their voice and write their sequel. Being introduced to the Foresight community back in 2019, Jenny has now incorporated this into all her work to ensure that we are building better futures together.
General Manager Safety, People and Sustainability, Whitestone Contracting – New Zealand
Diane’s career spans roles in a diverse range of positions including teaching, management, accounting, business reengineering, IT, L&D, HR, and change management. She has worked within multiple sectors and has overseas experience in the UK, USA, Australia, India and Tanzania. She is the recipient of multiple national and international awards in NZ and Australia. Her particular futures interest area is taking foresight to those with minimal access to education or formal training and leveraging indigenous thinking to enhance traditional futures practice.
Partner & Chief Foresight Officer, Memética – Chile
Bárbara operates in the integration between anticipatory thinking, strategy, psychology, systems thinking, and eco-social regeneration. She has a bachelor’s degree in Business Engineering and a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology from Adolfo Ibáñez University (Chile), also studied Ontological Coaching. Currently works as Foresight Director in Memética and host the podcast “Exploradores de Futuros”, which has the purpose of democratizing and spreading futures conversations in Spanish. She has worked as a consultant in corporations, ventures and NGOs based in Latin America and Europe on issues of foresight, strategy, strategic communication, and cultural transformation.
Director of Innovation, All Star Teams – Italy
Gianluca is a consultant working alongside people and organizations engaged in complex challenges. He earned a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering and has gained experience in the fields of Facility Management and Manufacturing. His work is mainly focused on collaboration dynamics, strategy and futures. He is Partner of All Star Teams, a People Empowerment System that helps individuals, teams, and organizations play to their strengths. He is the co-author of a future method – Horizons Bricks® – in partnership with -skopìa, the startup led by the UNESCO Chair in Anticipatory Systems. Firestarter of several projects focused on complexity, experiential futures and facilitation.
Managing Director, StrateDelta Nigeria Limited – Nigeria
Timothy has over nineteen (19) years of experience in the oil and gas industry and is currently the Managing Director of StrateDelta Nigeria Limited, a strategy and foresight consulting firm, with the aim of “Using Strategy to Improve Business Value”. He believes in “The Future of Human Potential, People and Organizational Transformation” using Strategic Foresight as the Operating System (worldview). He is an advocate of democratizing strategic foresight as the dominant paradigm and mindset, changing our perspective and perception for a resilient, adaptive, and transformative sustainable enterprise in the areas of social (people), environmental (planet), and economic (profit).
Design Manager, Data and AI, IBM – USA
John has explored the intersection of design, technology, and education for more than two decades. He currently leads the development of enterprise-level digital experiences for IBM’s Data Fabric and AI division. Prior to IBM, he directed the development of Advanced Concepts for Branch Technology, a large-scale additive manufacturing company envisioning and producing solutions for off-world exploration. During the past 20 years, John has been recognized with 35 international awards for his contributions to university partnerships, research ventures, and multidisciplinary product development with BMW, NASA, IBM, Reebok, Disney, US DoD, Dell, Google, and many others.
Senior Design Lead, Edward Jones – USA
Kelsey Volkmann collaborates with teams to build more equitable futures through design innovation and foresight at Edward Jones, a Fortune 350 financial services firm. As a Senior Design Lead, she works to make financial services accessible to more people. She’s pursuing her Master’s in Design Management at Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). She previously led a team in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and introduced new collaboration and insights tools as a User Experience (UX) researcher. Before joining Edward Jones as a news editor in 2011, she worked as a newspaper reporter and editor in St. Louis, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. She lives with her partner Pesach in Chicago, where they love dancing and watching movies.
GFAC Live! is an open-access webinar held seasonally that features thought leaders who are democratizing the future from around the globe. We are all doing our part to Discover the Future and Create it Today, and GFAC Live! showcases the diversity of talent that exists on the spectrum of futures thinking.
