American futurist
Peter Schwartz
(
; born 1946) is an American business executive, futurist, author, and co-founder of the
Global Business Network
(GBN), a corporate strategy firm, specializing in future-think and
scenario planning
. In 2011, Schwartz became an executive at
Salesforce.com
, where his roles include Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning and Chief Futures Officer.
[1]
Personal history
[
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]
Schwartz was born in 1946 to Klara and Benjamin Schwartz,
Hungarian Jews
who had been in concentration camps and were living in a
displaced persons camp
in
Stuttgart, Germany
.
[2]
The family soon moved to
Norway
, where they lived until he was five. At this point, they emigrated to America as stateless aliens on the S/S Stavangarfjord, arriving at the Port of New York in April 1951 and like nearly all displaced persons were taken to Ellis Island. They found a new home in
Haddon Township
in
Camden County, New Jersey
, and Schwartz graduated from
Haddonfield Memorial High School
in 1964, where he won a
National Merit scholarship
, and was able to attend
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
(RPI) on full scholarship.
[3]
[4]
He served as RPI's May commencement speaker for the class of 2009.
[5]
[6]
According to
Stewart Brand
, Schwartz was a member of
Students for a Democratic Society
. After graduating in 1968 with a B.S. in aeronautical engineering, Schwartz taught high school in Philadelphia and worked in the innovative student housing program at
UC Davis
. In 1970 Schwartz married his first wife, Frances Michener (Funtz), a native Berkeleyan, mountaineer and his first “Remarkable Person”. In 1972 he became an employee at the
Stanford Research Institute
(SRI), where he began to develop his unique method of scenario planning, and rose to director of the Strategic Environment Center.
[2]
In 1982, he moved to London to work for
Royal Dutch Shell
as head of scenario planning. In 1985, while giving a speech at the
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
of
UC Berkeley
, he met his future wife, Cathleen Gross. He moved to live with her in Berkeley, California, in 1987. They married and had one child, Benjamin "Books" Schwartz, born in 1990.
He later went on to become a board member of
Center for a New American Security
.
Writings
[
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]
Schwartz has written several books, on a variety of future-oriented topics.
- His first book,
The Art of the Long View
(Doubleday, 1991) is considered by many to be the seminal publication on scenario planning. It was voted the best all time book on the future by the Association of Professional Futurists and is used as a textbook by many business schools.
- Inevitable Surprises
(Gotham, 2003) is a look at the forces at play in today's world, and how they will continue to affect the world.
- He also wrote
The Long Boom
(Perseus, 1999) with co-authors Peter Leyden and Joel Hyatt, which is a book about the future of the global economy.
- His book
When Good Companies Do Bad Things
(Wiley, 1999), is an argument for
corporate responsibility
in an age of corruption.
- China's Futures
(Jossey-Bass, 2001), is a vision of several different potential futures for China.
- He also co-authored with Doug Randall
the Pentagon
's
An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security
.
[7]
He has also worked as a consultant on several movies, including
Minority Report
,
Deep Impact
,
Sneakers
, and
WarGames
. He serves on the board of directors for the
Long Now Foundation
.
[8]
He also serves in the boards of the
Center for a New American Security
(CNAS) and the Asia Internet Coalition In 2007, Schwartz moderated a forum titled "The Impact of Web 2.0 and Emerging Social Network Models" as part of the World Economic Forum in
Davos
. He serves on the Research Innovation and Enterprise Council of
Singapore
and in 2014 was appointed an International Distinguished Fellow of the Prime Minister's Office. He was also voted into the Futurists hall of fame by the
Association of Professional Futurists
in 2012. Additionally, Schwartz is also a member of the
Berggruen Institute
's 21st Century Council.
[9]
Global Business Network
[
edit
]
Schwartz founded the
Global Business Network
(GBN) in 1988 in his Berkeley basement with several close friends including
Napier Collyns
,
Jay Ogilvy
and
Stewart Brand
. Schwartz called GBN an “information hunting and gathering company”, and describes it as a high level networking and corporate research agency.
[2]
In 2001, it was bought by premier strategy consulting firm the
Monitor Group
, although it continued to operate as a distinct entity. The Monitor Group was acquired by Deloitte in 2013 which elected to shut down GBN.
He left the company in October 2011, to work at
Salesforce.com
as Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning. His role there includes the job title "Chief Futures Officer," where he leads a foresight and scenario planning team called Salesforce Futures.
[10]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Salesforce.com, Inc.,
Winter 2021 COVID-19 Scenarios to Inform Your Business Decisions
, accessed 9 February 2021
- ^
a
b
c
Knight, Margaret (December 1999).
"2020 Visionary"
.
Rensselaer Alumni Magazine
.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
. Archived from
the original
on 2014-07-14
. Retrieved
2012-03-04
.
- ^
"Seven South Jersey High School Students Merit Scholarship Winners"
,
courier-Post
, April 23, 1964. Accessed April 3, 2022, via
Newspapers.com
. "Peter Schwartz of 258 Bewley rd., Haddon Township, Haddonfield Memorial High School intends to major in aeronautical engineering at Rensselaer Technical Institute to become an aeronautical engineer."
- ^
"Old Friends"
. Retrieved
August 5,
2018
.
- ^
"2009 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Commencement Honorands Announced"
.
- ^
"Commencement honorands announced"
.
- ^
Peter Schwartz; Doug Randall (2003).
"An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and its Implications for United States National Security"
. dtic.mil.
Archived
from the original on September 25, 2019.
- ^
"Peter Schwartz"
. The Long Now Foundation. Archived from
the original
on 2007-10-15
. Retrieved
2008-09-10
.
- ^
"Berggruen Institute"
. Archived from
the original
on 2017-01-06
. Retrieved
2017-01-06
.
- ^
Salesforce.com, Inc.,
Winter 2021 COVID-19 Scenarios to Inform Your Business Decisions
, accessed 9 February 2021
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