David Roberts is considered one of the world’s leading expert on business disruption, exponential technology and exponential leadership. His passion is to help global leaders transform and develop new intentions for global good. He was educated as a Harvard M.B.A. and M.I.T. B.S. in Computer Scientist & Engineering and majored in Artificial Intelligence and Bio-Computer Engineering.
David began his career as a military officer and decorated Special Agent. He was the Distinguished Graduate of the Special Operations Training Course and served in multiple roles as a Career Officer in the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government. He led the development of some of the most complex systems every built to include multi-billion dollar, revolutionary, secret spacecraft and a founder of the U.S. Drone Program where he later served as a Mission Operations Commander. He also served as a senior executive or military officer in 5 National Agencies and as Special Assistant to the Director of the largest information program in the U.S. budget.
David was an Investment Banker in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group at Goldman Sachs Headquarters. David served as Vice President of Singularity University, two-time director of their Graduate Studies Program, Faculty for ten years, and Distinguished Faculty member for five.
His award winning high-tech ventures have received over $100 million dollars in funding from Silicon Valley’s top investors to include Kleiner Perkins, Vinod Khosla, Cisco, Oracle, Accenture, and In-Q-Tel. He is Chairman of the world’s leading Quantum Computing software company, 1QBit. He was the Founder and President of FireDrop and Zaplet which merged with Metric Stream where he also served in all three companies as Board Director.
David is Founder and CEO of GEDI Training a new kind of organization that is transforming education by uniquely training leaders for extraordinary, lifetime, human performance through character training and exhilarating global experiences from elite combat warriors, human performance experts, and renowned physicians. He is the Founder of Exponential Leadership, an organization dedicated to transforming global leadership potential through courage, compassion and integrity.
He is the founder of the Global Inspirational Goals, a proposal made to the United Nations to adopt, in addition to the Sustainable Development Goals, global goals that inspire the best of human potential so that we are not just focused on solving global problems.
Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley’s Business schools have written and taught case studies on David’s leadership, management, and decision-making. Pictured front page Wall Street Journal. USA Today, The New York Times, Business Week, Fortune Magazine, CNN… He has been pictured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal and written about in USA Today, The New York Times, Business Week, Fortune Magazine, CNN and others. His Startups have received multiple awards to include Top 50 Private Companies in the World, Red Herring Top 100 Private Companies in the World, USA Today’s Tech Reviews Best Picks, Internet World’s Net Rising Stars, Red Herring’s Catch, Internet Outlook’s Investors Choice Award, Enterprise Outlook Investors Choice, Best of the Web from PC World.
David’s fascination with technology began in the fourth grade after building a hovercraft (early drone) to carry his sister to the bus stop, powered by what was formerly his mother’s vacuum cleaner, and fortunately limited by the length of an electric power cord.
Sample Topics
Disruption & Global Impact
Understanding technology disruption could be the single most important skill for any leader during exponential times. What exactly is classic disruptive innovation theory and how does our new understanding of modern technology disruption change everything we thought we knew? Most critically how can you tell whether a new technology or business model will be just revolutionary or truly disruptive? What few critical things must global leaders understand to thrive in an exponentially changing world and what must they understand to create global impact.
Disruptive Innovation and Global Impact
Roberts offers a fast-paced, dramatic overview of the impact and opportunities of exponential technology and disruptive innovation. Roberts gives clear lucid examples to help his audience understand difficult concepts in disruptive innovation theory and acquire an exponential, versus linear, mindset. covers breathtaking emerging technology examples from 3D printing, electric and autonomous cars, drones, artificial intelligence, virtualization, exponential medicine, and synthetic biology. He concludes with an inspiring and moving argument for how technology can have global impact and create an abundant world — if the right action is taken.
Investing with Disruption, Longevity and Leadership
Roberts is one of two globally recognized leaders in Business and Technology Disruption. In this talk he provides a framework to answer what he believes is one of the most important business skills for the next twenty years — how to tell if something will be disruptive vs just revolutionary. He then provides major insights into exponential technology’s impact on longevity and what leaders most need for global impact.
Technology Disruption and Exponential Leadership
Understanding the truth of technology disruption could be the single most important skill for any leader during exponential times. What exactly is classic disruptive innovation theory and how does our new understanding of modern technology disruption change what we thought we knew about it? Why do the burgeoning ideas of leadership by “experts” rarely work when we try to apply them to ourselves or our organizations? Why can’t we learn effective leadership from academics? What is true Exponential Leadership? What few critical things must global leaders understand to thrive in an exponentially changing world? What must we do to break the chains of mediocracy, transform our own life and create global impact for others? This one-of-a-kind impactful briefing indelibly imprints new thought patterns into our mind, forever changing how we think and transforming ourself for compassionate courageous action.
