Dr. Helia Jalili is the Director of Research-Science and Technology at BCC Research. She received her Ph.D. in Material Physics and Nanotechnology from the University of Waterloo (Canada) and continued her research at MIT. She has over 15 years of R&D experience with functional materials for energy applications, spintronics, superconductivity, and additive manufacturing. At BCC Research, she initiates and oversees over 300 market intelligence reports covering advanced materials, life science, and information and communication technology.
An Attorney-at-law (state and bar examination) with a Master in Business Administration (Rochester (NY)/ Berne). Former CEO of a RegTech company and now advisor to companies in the financial sector especially regarding distributed ledger technologies. Involved in topics related to history, economics, politics and new technologies.
Experience in testing and evaluation of military systems (aircraft, army intel systems, Navy replenishment systems), and with automotive components (Delphi). Overseas experience in Africa, Indonesia, and Germany, with the Peace Corps, Habitat for Humanity, and U.S. Africa Command, respectively. PhD in Higher Education Leadership and Policy. MS in Aerospace Engineering and in Administration. Several languages spoken.
My experience includes human/machine interface design for leveraging computers for personal growth, see U.S. Patent #7574415, cybersecurity and cyber-physical security and safety. Also, sustainability, agriculture, teaching, coaching and mentoring. For much of my career I focused on, and engaged in, strategy (development and implementation), systems thinking, conscious innovation and how to create and sustain a learning organization. In business in the USA, I had the fortune of working at some great companies. At Apple, I led business development for Apple International, created the Apple/San Jose State University MBA program and launched Apple in China at the West China Medical Center of Sichuan University, as it is now called. At Nokia I was a Diversity Champion and ran business development for the Internet Communications business unit. I have also worked at a wide range of smaller companies and start ups. I hold a JD from Santa Clara University Law School, California and a BA in Political Science from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
A recognized architect and urban design professional, Nir Buras is among a handful of architects and planners that have both classical knowledge and the experience in large, complex projects. He visited 100 cities to write the book.
Nir Buras is an architect and planner based in Washington, DC, with over 30 years of specialized experience in large, complex, and sensitive projects, strategic planning, architecture and transportation design, as well as teaching and lecturing. Projects include East Side Access at Grand Central Terminal, New York; International Terminal D, Dallas-Fort-Worth; the Washington DC Dulles Metro line; work on the US Capitol and the Senate and House Office Buildings in Washington.
Buras learned his first lesson in urbanism while planning in the Negev Desert in Israel – that modernist planning didn’t work. Mid-career he had the opportunity to study “why things look the way they do,” and while writing a PhD on modernism, he came out a classicist. Engaged in numerous projects since then, he has researched first-hand how architecture impacts urban planning.
Working in the 2000s on large urban projects, Buras’s breakthrough came in 2005 when he directed the Anacostia Plan at the open studio of the Washington Mid Atlantic Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Arts which he founded. After ten years of applying in practice what he learned, he now presents the urban design and planning method of Classic Planning with the hope of reintroducing beauty to cities.
Dr. Nir Buras brings to the table diverse expertise in civic, aviation, rail, and commercial architecture and planning. Buras has the proven ability to quickly analyze key project issues, develop strategies to grow designs, and to work well within institutional, stakeholder and industry dynamics. His goal is to continue serving the cities of the world by helping their residents to understand better their cities and to help them overcome the challenges of the 21st Century by helping them develop consensual, 100-year classic plans.
Dr. John Freedman is a retired physician and lifelong polymath with a broad range of experience worldwide. He is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Medical School, and former President of Medical Exchange International, a non-profit charity. He is a Global Studies Scholar & Lecturer who has been a featured speaker at numerous symposia as well as a guest lecturer for many educational travel programs including National Geographic Expeditions, Smithsonian Journeys and several luxury cruise lines. His analytic work and presentations take an interdisciplinary approach drawing from history, geography, anthropology, the sciences, and current affairs in order to better understand lessons of the past, dynamics of the present, and probabilities of the future.
Peter Fingar, independent analyst, internationally acclaimed author, management advisor, former college professor and CIO, has been providing leadership at the intersection of business and technology for over 50 years. Peter is widely known for helping to launch business process management (BPM) with his book, Business Process Management: The Third Wave. He has taught graduate and undergraduate computing studies in the U.S. and abroad, and held management, technical, consulting and advisory positions with GTE Data Services, American Software and Computer Services, Saudi Aramco, EC Cubed (for clients including GE TPN, American Express, Master Card and GE Capital), Noor Advanced Technologies in Egypt, the University of Tampa, the Technical Resource Connection division of Perot Systems and IBM Global Services. He is a sought-after keynote speaker and his latest of 26 books include: Cognitive Computing, and The Cognitive Internet of Everything (short book with 50 descriptive graphics) to bring understanding to your non-tech colleagues.
Peter von Stackelberg is a futurist, writer, story architect and worldbuilder, and university lecturer. He has more than four decades of experience as a writer and award-winning journalist and almost 30 years of experience as a consultant and professional futurist.
For the past decade, Peter has focused on emerging information and media technologies and is an expert with multiple publications on transmedia storytelling and constructing storyworlds. He has also worked on technology, innovation, and strategic foresight projects for companies like Honda R&D North America, General Motors, Shell Oil Company, Lockheed Martin, Texaco, Hasbro, and many others.
His book Technology & the Future: Managing Change and Innovation in the 21st Century was a best seller in its category for five weeks when released on Amazon in 2014.
Peter has taught at wide range of university and college courses in English, communications and business, including Transmedia & Digital Storytelling; Technology, Innovation, and the Future; Environmental Journalism; Systems Thinking; Strategic Management; and Business Communications. He currently teaches in the Communication Studies department at Alfred University.
Peter has a B.A. in Journalism from Ryerson University, a M.S. in Studies of the Future from University of Houston-Clear Lake, and a M.S. in Information Design & Technology from SUNY Polytechnic University.
International PhD in Sociology, Degree in Communication and Master’s degree in Business Management. He developed his doctoral work in Finland and Spain, studying the Finnish Innovation System and focusing on the potential of Social Networks to develop Open Innovation Ecosystems.
Associate Professor of Participatory Foresight and Social Innovation (Department of Sociology – University of Alicante, Spain). Researcher at FUTURLAB – The Foresight Laboratory at University of Alicante (UA) and CMO at OGPI – The International Cooperation Project Office at UA. Since 2007 has been working as expert in Foresight, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer in more than 30 international cooperation and consultancy projects in 5 different continents.
Visiting professor in Aalto University, Haaga Helia University of Applied Science, Arcada University and University of Turku (Finland), Leuphana University (Germany), Deusto University (Spain), Pontifical Catholic University (Peru), Instituto del Bosque at Simón Bolívar University (Venezuela) and Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), teaching postgraduate courses and workshops on foresight methodologies, innovation strategies and communication tools. He is author and editor of different scientific articles and books on Foresight, Innovation and Strategic Communication Issues (in Spanish and English language), and founding member of The Millenium Project Spanish Chapter.
PhD (Hons) in Sociology . Full Professor of Social Foresight and Innovation at the University of Alicante (UA-Spain) since 2001. Visiting Professor/Researcher in universities worldwide.Director of FUTURLAB-The Foresight Laboratory at UA. FUTURLAB is part of three international major projects concerning Social Innovation: LASIN (Latin American Social Innovation Network) and SEASIN (Sout East Social Innovation Network) –both financed by the European Commission- and Red CYTED de Prospectiva e Innovación (financed by the intergovernmental science and technology program for Latin America and the Caribbean area).
Editorial Board Member of multiple scientific journals / book collections (European Journal of Futures Research, Journal of Futures Studies, Springer-Nature, Plaza & Valdés, etc…). Former member of the WFSF-World Futures Studies Federation Executive Board (2000-2005) and the European Futurists Conference Lucerne-Switzerland (2005-2012). Member of the SFRI-Strategic Foresight for Research and Innovation experts group of the European Commission (since 2005), and Coordinator of the WG3: Design of an effective Foresight-for-Innovation Network in Europe.
Recent outstanding publications would be “FLUX-3D, Participatory Foresight for Social Innovation” (Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2013) or “The Future Internet” (Springer, 2015). Late research (EC project “OpenDoors”) has been oriented to the future of Shared & Collaborative Economy, and the regulatory role within the dialectics state/market (to be published in FUTURES journal). Currently working on UX-Design, Participatory Foresight, Complexity Management and Social Innovation. More recent area of interest: Climate Change, Social Change (Lifestyles) and Circular Economy business models (shared and collaborative economy).
