Chief Futures Advisor

Rob Nail

Rob is a technologist, engineer, serial entrepreneur, coach, advisor and the Associate Founder and former CEO of Singularity University (SU), which he grew to become a global leader for understanding exponential technologies and transformation. His mission is to build bridges to an amazing future.

Rob is a husband and proud father of two small kids who remind him daily that his past is mostly irrelevant to their future. He is equally excited and terrified by this future and is passionate about ways to engineer our dreams through creating experiments, tools, content, and networks that can shape an equitable and inclusive future of abundance for all.

He is currently a Strategic Advisor, Mentor, and Coach, facilitating programs on technology, innovation, and intrapreneurship at the Nomura-SRI-Innovation Center and a think tank on the Future of Learning for CompTIA.

At the same time, he is developing experiments on future opportunities and implications of the Metaverse and actively experimenting with artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies for the future of work, education, and leadership, while learning from some of the greatest leadership and executive coaches today as an original member of 100 Coaches (Marshall Goldsmith’s leadership cohort).

Rob has been a director on several boards including a public director at Harman (HAR) to assist with their tech transformation, ultimately resulting in the ~$8 Billion acquisition by Samsung in 2016.

He co-founded Velocity11 in 1999, building automation and robotics for cancer research and drug discovery to later be acquired by Agilent Technologies in 2007, where he traded the CEO role for a General Manager role attempting to be a catalyst for change at a big company. He gave up in 2009 to go surfing. He holds degrees in Mechanical, Materials Science and Manufacturing Systems Engineering from UC Davis and Stanford University.

Rob advises on all matters relating to future-proofing Earth 300 and he is also co-designer of the Earth 300 sustainability awareness programme.

NATIONALITY

RESIDENCE

BACKGROUND

American
Connecticut
Technology, Education, Coaching