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Gerd Leonhard

Best known for:

Futurist, Author, Keynote Speaker, Think-Tank Leader & Strategist.

Summary:

Gerd is considered a leading voice on a wide range of topics including digital transformation and the discovery of digitally native business models.

Biography:

Gerd Leonhard is a widely-known and top-rated futurist, with over 1500 engagements in 50+ countries since 2004 and a combined audience of over 1 million people. Gerd focusses on near-future, ‘nowist’ observations and actionable foresights in the sectors of humanity, society, business and commerce, media, technology and communications.

Gerd is also an influential author, a sought-after executive ‘future trainer’ and a trusted strategic advisor. He is the co-author of the best-selling book The Future of Music and the author of 5 other books including ‘The Humanity Challenge’ (June 2016). Gerd is also the host of the web-TV series TheFutureShow and the CEO of TheFuturesAgency, a global network of over 30 leading futurists.

Gerd is considered a leading voice on a wide range of topics including digital transformation and the opportunity-challenges of the coming exponential society, a sustainable business and cultural ecology, social media and communications, TV / film, radio and broadcasting futures, mobile content and commerce, innovation, leadership and entrepreneurship, ‘hard-future’ consumer trends, human-machine futures and AI, cognitive computing, the IoT, big data and automation, next-generation advertising, marketing and branding, as well as sustainability and related ‘green future’ topics. In 2006, The Wall Street Journal called Gerd ‘one of the leading Media Futurists in the World’. In 2015, Wired Magazine listed Gerd as #88 of the top 100 influencers in Europe. He’s #21 on the global list of futurists.

Gerd's background is in the music business; in 1985 he won Berklee College’s 'Quincy Jones Award' and subsequently spent 12 years working as a professional guitarist, composer and producer. He then caught the Internet-bug and became a digital music & media entrepreneur, serving as Founder/CEO of several Internet startups, based in San Francisco. In 2002, following the .com meltdown and the 9/11 crisis, Gerd returned to Europe and discovered his new calling as a futurist.

He now travels around the globe to speak at leading conferences and events, company retreats, seminars and in-house trainings, and offering his unique ‘FutureExperience’ trainings along with his colleagues at The Futures Agency, an international organization that Gerd founded in 2010 to meet client demand for tried-and-tested future-trainers, speakers and personalities.

Gerd is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (London) and a member of the World Future Society. A native German, Gerd resides in Basel, Switzerland, and maintains an office in San Francisco. He presents both in English as well as in German.

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Testimonials:

Gerd is an accomplished presenter who can stimulate any audience interested in media/telco/internet-related issues. He's very engaging and entertaining and can liven up any event, with lots of new stats and creative ways of presenting them.

Simon Torrance, CEO STL Partners/Telco 2.0

I've worked with Gerd on a few occasions now and each time have found it a great experience. His level of knowledge, style of delivery and focus on our particular needs was excellent. Highly recommended.

Bruce Robertson

Gerd is, without doubt, one of the digital media industry's great thinkers and linkers. One can infer a great deal from the fact that Gerd is regularly cited by key figures in the business as justification for their own arguments. Not only does Gerd have an astonishing skill for monitoring all that is happening in the digital space, seemingly ahead of real time, but he manages to distill all that knowledge into a philosophy and wisdom of his own, which is evidenced in his books and on his blog. But the best bit is that it's not all talk: Gerd has been through it, created start-ups, fought through the lean times and come back on top with brand new, cutting-edge, entrepreneurial businesses. All in all, I'm rather jealous.

Toby Lewis