Gerd Leonhard
Gerd Leonhard is a widely-known and top-rated futurist, with over 1500 engagements in 40+ countries since 2005 and an audience of half a million, primarily business leaders. Gerd focusses on near-future, ‘nowist’ observations and actionable foresights in the sectors of humanity, society, business, 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 4 other books. Gerd is also the host of the web-TV series The Future Show and the CEO of The Futures Agency, 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 discovery of digitally-native business models, the opportunities and challenges of an 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, 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.’
Gerd's keynotes, speeches and presentations are renowned for their hardhitting and provocative yet inspiring, often humorous and always personal motivational style. Gerd is highly regarded as a global influencer and has advised many business leaders and government officials around the globe.
His diverse client list of over 200 companies includes UBS, MasterCard, Unilever, Lloyds Bank, WWF, Nokia, The Guardian, Google, Sony, Telkom Indonesia, Siemens, RTL, ITV, BBC, France Telecom, Orange, Deutsche Telekom, MTN, The Financial Times, DDB, Ogilvy, Omnicom, The EU Commission, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, VISA, and many others.
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.