Amy Webb

As organizations look to navigate today’s disruption while preparing for the complexities of the future, world-renowned quantitative futurist and tech leader Amy Webb provides the strategic foresight and forecasting that is crucial to businesses adapting and positioning themselves for sustained success in this era of unprecedented transformation. Believing that the global challenges faced by business and society are interconnected across disciplines, Webb possesses expert-level knowledge of the industries critical to keeping the world moving and draws from her work and research to share insights on emerging trends and technologies that will revolutionize the ways we work and live. She is the founder and CEO of the Future Today Institute, a leading foresight and strategy firm that helps leaders and organizations prepare for complex futures.

Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau, Webb leads an extraordinary exploration into the emerging trends and technologies that will turn industries on their heads and reshape every aspect of our lives — from synthetic biology and metaverses to artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and more. Thought-provoking and visibly enthusiastic about the possibilities that lie ahead for businesses, Webb prepares organizations for what’s next in and outside of their fields, and shares actionable strategies for thinking like a futurist, getting out ahead of disruption, managing the present while innovating for the future, and enhancing purpose-driven decision-making.

In her work with the Future Today Institute, Webb is a trusted advisor to the world’s most admired companies, three-star admirals and generals, and the senior leadership of central banks and intergovernmental organizations. She has pioneered a data-driven, technology-led foresight methodology that has been implemented by hundreds of organizations to power their growth. Webb is a professor of strategic foresight at New York University’s Stern School of Business, where she developed and teaches future-focused MBA-level courses, and is also a visiting fellow at Oxford University’s Säid School of Business. She has been recognized by Poets & Quants as “one of the most impactful business professors in the world.” Webb’s influence can be felt in policy, government, and even the entertainment industry. She collaborates closely with Hollywood’s leading writers and producers to ensure the most accurate depiction of science, technology, and the future in blockbuster films and widely recognized TV shows and commercials. Prior to founding the Future Today Institute in 2005, Webb began her career as a journalist, first covering technology and economics for The Wall Street Journal while based in Hong Kong and later relocating to Tokyo to report on emerging technologies for Newsweek.

A powerful voice on all things tech- and future-related, Webb is the author of several bestselling books, including the critically acclaimed The Genesis Machine, which examines the future of synthetic biology — which she predicts will be the most important technology of our lifetime. She has provided thought leadership as a columnist on the future and big data for Slate and a contributing editor and tech columnist for Inc, and her insights into the future are featured frequently in today’s top publications, including the Harvard Business Review, New York Times, Wired, Fortune, and several others. In addition to being elected a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Webb serves as a Steward and Steering Committee member of the World Economic Forum’s Future of Media, Entertainment, and Sport Board, as well as its Global Futures Council. She is also a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, a fellow in the United States-Japan Leadership Program and a Foresight Fellow in the U.S. Government Accountability Office Center for Strategic Foresight. Previously, she served as a visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, as well as a U.S. Department of State delegate for the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, where she worked on the future of technology, media, and international diplomacy.

A visionary with extraordinary insight into what the future of business and society might look like, Webb is a winner of the Thinkers50 RADAR Award, and has been named to the BBC 100 Women list and the Thinkers50 Radar list of influential management thinkers shaping the future of how organizations are managed and led.