The Future Shapers Institute
Advocating Healthier Paradigms of Thought for a Better World
TEMPORARY PRE-LAUNCH HOMEPAGE
PERMANENT WEBSITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION...
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DRAFT TEXT.
The Future Shapers Institute is a think tank being formed to challenge widely-accepted assumptions which underlie common human belief systems that prevent global society from advancing toward a future of environmental sustainability, social justice and global harmony. The Institute’s international network of Fellows will collaborate on research, authorship and publication of documents which propose healthier paradigms of thought to help humanity shape a more desirable future rather than succumbing to predictable outcomes based on current trends.
The Institute's Fellows represent a diversity of nationalities, races, cultures, ages, genders, faiths and disciplines; they include futurists, economists, educators, business executives, professionals, philosophers, scientists, social entrepreneurs and politicians. Each of them is a transformation-oriented visionary who offers a unique perspective.
History: The Institute is the formalization of a community of transformational thinkers representing different disciplines who have been working together in smaller groups informally, some as far back as 1987, co-presenting at conferences and workshops, collaborating on articles, projects and books, discussing new ideas and advancing new thinking on matters involving organizational and/or social transformation. The common interest of the Fellows is the transformation of human systems leading to a sustainable, just and harmonious global future. Formation of the Institute formalizes this international community of interest and provides a structure for collaborative contributions to the betterment of the world and its institutions.
Potential research areas for the Institute will include:
Climate
Commerce/business
Consciousness/thought process
Economics
Education
Energy
Environment/sustainability
Future scenarios
Gender relations
Governance
Human Relations
International Relations
Media and Communications
Social Justice
Systems Dynamics
Youth
Vision of Our Human Nature & Potential
To date, forty-two people from twenty-one countries have accepted invitations to be Fellows of the Institute (listed below alphabetically by last name): LATEST IN BLUE
Rosa Alegria (Brazil) co-chairs the Brazilian Node of the Millennium Project of the World Federation of United Nations Associations, is Research Director of the Futures Group at the Sao Paulo Catholic University, represents Latin America in the IFG International Foresight Group based in Germany and is Latin American research associate of the Kairos Institute based in Sweden.
Mike Anson (Switzerland) is an entrepreneur, owner and CEO of Leading Technologies Group, a consulting company specialized in the knowledge economy, founder and CEO of not-for-profit Life Quality Enhancement Organization, CEO of the Global Life Foundation. In 2006 he was responsible for a collaboration agreement between CBA Business School, Croatia and IMD in Lausanne Switzerland. He is now a visiting professor at CBA.
Simran Bhargava (India) hosts her own weekly television show called “One Life to Love” which airs on India’s leading news channel, NDTV. She has been a writer and editor with the India Today group for several years. She was the first editor of Cosmopolitan in India and has been a frequent and highly-rated resource at events organized by the Young Presidents’ Organization, World Presidents’ Organization and Chief Executives Organization.
Charles Brass (Australia) is the Chair of The Futures Foundation which is both the professional association for practicing futurists in Australia and a home for all Australians with an interest in the future. He is a regular commentator on the future in print, radio and TV and speaks on creating the future; on life-work balance, leadership and people management.
Humayon Dar (Pakistan/U.K.) is amongst the foremost Islamic banking and finance technicians in the world today. He is CEO of BMB Islamic, developed Dar Al Istithmar (a majority-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bank), is one of the world’s key liaison figures in bringing leading Western financial institutions exposure to the world’s most distinguished Sharia scholars, and serves as a catalyst in bridging the gap between Islamic and conventional finance.
André Delbecq (U.S.) is the J. Thomas and Kathleen L. McCarthy University Professor at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California. He served as Dean in the University’s Leavey School of Business from 1979-1989. He presently directs the Institute for Spirituality and Organizational Leadership at Santa Clara.
Drew Dillinger (U.S.) is a spoken word poet, teacher, and activist. He is founder of Poets for Global Justice, and author of the collection of poems, love letter to the milky way. Dellinger has studied cosmology and ecological thought with Thomas Berry since 1990, and has taught at Prescott College, Naropa University-Oakland and Esalen Institute.
Moshe Dror (Israel) is President of the World Network of Religious Futurists. He is recognized throughout Israel and the Jewish Diaspora as a leading futurist and was appointed resident Futurist of the Ministry of Education. His quest "is to be able to generate some significant questions that deal with the congruence between my spiritual quest as a Jew, Israeli and global citizen with the emerging post-post-modern world into the next millennium."
Leif Edvinsson (Sweden) is the world's leading expert on Intellectual Capital. He has been Vice President and the world's first Corporate Director of Intellectual Capital at Skandia and has held the world´s first professorship on Intellectual Capital at Lund University. Edvinsson formerly was senior vice president for training and development of S-E Bank, and president and chairman of Consultus AB, a Stockholm-based consulting company.
Riane Eisler (U.S.), anthropologist, cultural historian and evolutionary theorist, author, The Chalice and the Blade, international keynote speaker, founder, The Center for Partnership Studies, honored in Macrohistory and Macrohistorians as the only woman among twenty great thinkers including Hegel, Spengler, Adam Smith, Marx, and Toynbee.
Betty Sue Flowers (U.S.), Director of the LBJ Library and Museum in Texas, poet, editor, business consultant, with publications ranging from poetry therapy to the economic myth, television tie-in books in collaboration with Bill Moyers, consultant for NASA, member of the Envisioning Network for General Motors, Visiting Advisor to the Secretary of the Navy, and editor of Global Scenarios for Shell International in London and the World Business Council in Geneva.
Chacho Gonzalez (Bolivia)….
Hazel Henderson (U.S.) is a world renowned futurist, evolutionary economist, syndicated columnist, consultant on sustainable development and author of Beyond Globalization and seven other books. She co-edited the Report the Global Commission to Fund the United Nations. She is a Fellow of the World Business Academy, an Honorary Member of the Club of Rome and a Fellow of Britain’s Royal Society for the Arts.
Sohail Inayatullah (Australia) is a political scientist, Visiting Professor at Tamkang University, Taipei, Visiting Academic at Queensland University of Technology, Adjunct Professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Professor of Futures Studies with the IMCA (International Management Centres Association), Co-editor of the Journal of Futures Studies, Fellow of the World Futures Studies Federation and the World Academy of Art and Science.
Michael Jackson (England) is Chairman of Shaping Tomorrow, advocating the use of continuous intelligence in strategic foresight, planning and change practices and an advisory board member of European Futurists. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and strategic board member of the Customer Service Network, both in the UK. He has a background of senior executive positions in the financial services industry.
Dominique Jaurola (Australia) assists organizations in designing their futures. Her experience allows her to leverage the emergent in technology to business improvements as well as translate the 'human condition' to a pillar of business sustainability. Born in Finland, she has lived all over the world. She and her husband now live in Sydney. She is co-author of Strategic Foresight: The Power of Standing in the Future and a contributor to Thinking about the Future and Future Histories.
Debbe Kennedy (U.S.) is founder and president of the Leadership Solutions Companies and founder of the Global Dialogue Center, a virtual gathering place, using state-of-the-art technology to bring people together from around the world for conversation and debate, encouraging the exchange of ideas and mutual trust, respect and understanding.
Kazunori Kobayashi (Japan) is an ecological entrepreneur and President of EcoNetworks Co. and manager of Japan for Sustainability, an NGO promoting Japanese green initiatives. He pursued environmental studies and economics at State University of New York and University of California at Berkeley.
Ervin Laszlo (Italy) is a Hungarian philosopher of science, systems theorist, integral theorist and classical pianist. He has published about 75 books and over 400 papers and is editor of World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution. He founded the Club of Budapest to advance a shift in planetary consciousness and, recently, the WorldShift Network the Club‘s operational platform.
Graham Leicester (Scotland) is Director of the International Futures Forum which was established in 2001 with a generous grant from BP. IFF is a body that develops ideas and philosophy about how to make sense of today’ s complex world. He is also Director of the Scottish Policy Foundation.
Bill Liao (Switzerland) is an active entrepreneur and CEO. He is also Director and Co-Founder of XING AG, a professional/social network of business contacts, a photographer and philanthropist. He is also active in Brains to Ventures Investor Circle, Institute of Directors London and The Hunger Project.
Bernard Lietaer (Belgium), author of The Future of Money, has been active in the domain of money systems for over 25 years. As head of the Organization and Computer Departments at the Central Bank in Belgium he designed and implemented the single European Currency Unit (ECU, which matured to the Euro).
Bruce Lloyd (England) is Professor of Strategic Management, London South Bank University, has served on the Executive Board of the Strategic Planning Society, a Council Member of the Chartered Management Institute, a member of the latter's Advisory Board for a research project on Leadership: A Challenge for All and a past Chairman of the Association of MBA's.
Augusto Lopez-Claros (Russia) is a former resident representative at the International Monetary Fund in Russia, a senior international economist at Lehman Brothers in London, and Chief Economist and Director of the Global Competitveness Report 2006/2007 at the World Economic Forum. In late 2006, he founded EFD-Global Consulting Network, a consultancy advising governments and private corporations on economic, financial, and development issues.
Wendy Luhabe (South Africa) is a social entrepreneur, chairs the Industrial Development Corporation and the International Marketing Council in a non-executive capacity and is a director of the JSE Securities Exchange. She was a founder member of Women Investment Portfolio Holdings which revolutionized the participation of women in the economy. In 2003 she launched South Africa’s first private equity fund for women owned enterprises.
Bremley Lyngdoh (India/England) is co-founder the Global Youth Action Network, founder and CEO of Worldview Impact - a social enterprise based in London working on mitigating climate change by creating sustainable livelihoods for the poor while reducing poverty to improve living conditions in the developing world. He holds a Master of International Affairs in Energy & Environmental Policy Studies from the School of International & Public Affairs in Columbia University.
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Ruben Nelson (Canada) is a futurist who served as a Governor of the Calgary Economic Development Authority and is a fellow of the World Business Academy, the World Academy of Art and Science and the Meridian International Institute for Leadership, Governance, Change and the Future and serves as a board member of The Enviros Wilderness School Association.
Marcello Palazzi (Sweden) is a serial business and social entrepreneur operating as a generator, developer and engineer of new ventures with progressive partners in and across the domains of business, finance, civil society, philanthropy, government and leadership development. He is the founder of the Progressio Foundation, which has completed some 120 projects in 17 countries under his stewardship. He also serves on the Board of the Tällberg Foundation.
Jagdish Parikh (India) is Chairman of A.L. Movers Pvt. Ltd., Director of the Lemuir Group of Companies, DHL Danzas Lemuir, Technova Group of Companies and Noema Inc., Co-founder of the World Business Academy, Member, Board of Governors of the Asian Institute of Management, Founder President of the Centre for Executive Renewal and Managing Trustee of the Education Foundation of India.
Gunter Pauli (Japan) is a Belgium-born social entrepreneur and founder of Zero Waste and Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) which has demonstrated around the world since 1994 how we can do so much more with what nature provides, applying a systems approach to solving problems. Projects include rainforest reforestation of 250,000 acres in Colombia and growing biomimicry companies into mainstream businesses in Japan.
Michael Ray (U.S.) is Professor Emeritus at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. His books include Creativity in Business (named as one of the nine "Greatest Business Books Ever Written" by Inc. magazine), The Path of the Everyday Hero and The Highest Goal. He is the founder and Chief Creative Officer for Insight/Out Collaborations, Inc. which offers courses for use in corporations based upon the Personal Creativity in Business course he taught at Stanford.
John Renesch (U.S.) is a maverick futurist with a business background and a global perspective, social innovator and thought leader. He’s become a pioneer in the field of organizational and social transformation and published a dozen books including Getting to the Better Future, New Traditions in Business and Learning Organizations.
Peter Russell (U.S./England) is the author of The Global Brain, From Science to God, The Consciousness Revolution, Waking Up In Time and The Brain Book among others. In 1993 the environmental magazine Buzzworm voted him "Eco-Philosopher Extraordinaire." He is a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and the World Business Academy.
Elisabet Sahtouris (Spain) is an evolution biologist and futurist, as well as author of several books including EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution and A Walk Through Time: From Stardust to Us. She has taught at MIT and the University of Massachusetts and has been a science writer for the TV program NOVA/HORIZON.
Maria Sipka (Spain) is the founder of the online social network World Business Women which has over 10,000 members globally. A young entrepreneur, she has become a specialist in social networks. In 2007 she founded Linqia - the world's first meta search engine listing all online communities and groups – and serves as Director of Community Building for XING, the largest social network in the world.
George Starcher (France) is President of the European Baha’i Business Forum, a community of people passionate about bringing ethical values, personal virtues and moral leadership into their workplaces, whose membership is diverse and crosses generations, borders, sectors and beliefs, with members is sixty countries. He is also a former Director of the international consultancy, McKinsey & Co. in both Paris and Milan.
Yehuda Stolov (Israel) founded the Interfaith Encounter Association which brings together Christian, Jewish and Muslim Israelis and Palestinians for dialogue sessions and weekend seminars about each other's religions. His work facilitates interaction between communities and encourages individuals to confront their own prejudices and fears of the other side. He deems what he calls the "human infrastructure" as the core of any successful peace process.
John Vasconcellos (U.S.) is a retired politician from California and member of the Democratic Party. He represented the Silicon Valley as a member of the California State Assembly for 30 years and a California State Senator for 8 years. He is the father of the self-esteem movement in California politics. Since retiring as the “Dean of the California Legislature” he founded the Politics of Trust Network as part of his legacy project and now lives in Hawaii.
Zhihe Wang (China) is a professor at the School of Philosophy and the Social Sciences Center for the Study of Science and Faith at Beijing Normal University; he has a background in philosophy and interdisciplinary studies, published numerous books and articles, helped establish several research institutes in China, is primary liaison between Chinese and foreign researchers for a project on how to overcome the conflict between science and spirituality.
Elizabeth Yang (China) is a two-time Emmy award nominated producer and lives in Los Angeles and Beijing, two master degrees in Liberal Arts and Mass Communications from the States. She helps foreign and Chinese media entities to gain efficient market entrance in each other's markets. Her clients include LEADERS magazine, a New York-based publication aiming at 36,000 government and business leaders around the world. She is in charge of a special issue featuring "China, After WTO."
Eun Joo Yi (Russia) is a Corporate Sustainability Consultant and Contractor, manages the EPA Partner Project at the International Science and Technology Center in Moscow, promotingthe nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction through the use of economic mechanisms. Currently a PhD candidate at Rotterdam University, she is primarily interested in including social and environmental costs in evaluating goods and services.
Invitations are still being extended and a permanent website is under construction.
The permanent website will host archives of the work of individual Fellows as well as works on which Fellows are collaborating.