Bob Johansen

Bob Johansen Speaker Biography

Bob Johansen, Ph.D., has worked for more than 35 years as a ten-year forecaster. He now works mainly with senior leaders across a wide range of industries. He has rich experience in presenting Institute For The Future's (IFTF) foresight to provoke insight and draw out potential action steps.

Dr. Johansen served as IFTF's president and CEO from 1996 to 2004. Though still on IFTF's Board, he now invests most of his time with IFTF sponsors, writing, and speaking.

Since joining the IFTF staff in the 1970's, Dr. Johansen has explored many varied social and organizational impacts of new technologies--beginning when the Internet was still called the ARPANET. Before his role as president, he created and led IFTF's program on emerging information technologies--now called the Technology Horizons Program. He also is working on a new book on faith in the future--including the potential impact of religion on business, society, and individuals.

Dr. Johansen is a frequent keynote speaker, but his focus is on workshops with creative teams. His new book is called Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain Age (published by Berrett-Koehler). What are the leadership skills that will be needed to thrive in the future? Leaders Make the Future builds on his best selling Get There Early: Sensing the Future to Compete in the Present, which was selected as one of the top 30 business books of 2007. He is the author or co-author of six previous books, including Upsizing the Individual in the Downsized Organization, GlobalWork, Leading Business Teams, Groupware, Teleconferencing and Beyond, and Electronic Meetings.

A social scientist with an interdisciplinary background, Bob Johansen holds a BS degree from the University of Illinois, where he also played varsity basketball, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. He also has a Master of Divinity degree, with a focus on world religions.