Paul D. Roberts is a Partner at Be Courageous Innovation. As an Exponential Guide he has earned a reputation as a highly respected thinker blending his professional careers as faculty at Singularity University, many years as an Innovation Consultant, Economic Forecaster, Film professional and Life Science major to bring systems level thinking to our collective future.
Paul is a sought-after speaker, having delivered 260+ talks and 80 programs to global audiences across the evolving fields of exponential technologies and their impacts. Topics include multiple Exponential Technologies (Computing and Network Effects, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Biology, Industry 4.0) and their broader implications to society. He also provides guidance on the practical implications of these technologies and their application through the Power of Platforms and Network Effects, Digital Transformation, building Exponential Organizations, Exponential Innovation, and Exponential Leadership, and Navigating Change.
At Be Courageous Innovation, he helps organizations see the future and find their place in it. He leads both in-person and virtual strategy sessions with Sr. Leadership Teams and Board members to both imagine and outline their companies’ optimal paths forward.
Paul is also an Economist with a Masters Degree in Economics from Queen’s University Canada, where he focused on Development Economics and the Secondary Market buy-back of Sovereign Debt. He worked as an economic consultant for several years at IHS Global Insights in Washington D.C. and Toronto (formerly Standard & Poor’s DRI) synthesizing emerging trends across multiple sectors to produce Economic Impact Studies and Forecasts for a client base across various industries, governments and quasi-government entities.
Paul spent eight years as a professional actor, host, screenwriter, and filmmaker in Hollywood where he realized rapid success, receiving 50+ professional acting credits, landing in the top 10% of earners in the 90,000 strong Screen Actors Guild, and earning a coveted recurring network (NBC) television role after just one year of profession acting.
Sample Topics
Reinventing Leadership for a New World
We are wandering into a very different world, one where many of the rules of the past will not get us where we need to be. The pace of technological change is accelerating at an accelerating rate, evolving what is possible. The COVID crisis has thrust the adoption of technology forward, bringing relief to a burdened health sector, and connecting socially distanced people. It has also shed light on the power of organizations to move forward when aligned against an enormous, immediate, and obvious threat. For leaders it is a moment to reflect on how the barriers to change can melt away under a shared direction. A time to see that the system itself has power, and that the role of a leader shifts from command-and-control to a guiding ethos that empowers the active problem seekers within their organizations. It is, and will continue to be a complex time. The experience of this pandemic’s enormous existential threat, not only to our lives, but the viability of our organizations, has brought into reality the concept of “Black Swans” risks, and opened our eyes to the urgency of solving the Sustainable Development Goals. We are seeing the rise of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) evaluations in the investing sector, especially with institutional investors looking for long term rewards. As Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of Blackrock expressed in regards to climate change “In the near future – and sooner than most anticipate – there will be a significant reallocation of capital (by investors)”. The leaders of today and tomorrow need new mindsets and tools to navigate in this increasingly complex world. Some of the tools of yesterday must be unlearned, and leadership must be reinvented.
Convergence, Emergence, and Exponential Technologies: Our collective Future
The Existential Race – All is possible, All is at risk
Exponential Innovation – Mindsets, Energy, and Actions
Thriving in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous World
Future of Food
