Jan Berger is president of the World Futures Studies Federation, the global association for futures studies founded in 1973, and founder and CEO of the think tank Themis Foresight.
Today’s leaders must act, even though no one can reliably predict tomorrow’s conditions. This is precisely where Jan Berger comes in. As a futurist and executive sparring partner, he helps board members and executive teams examine the assumptions behind their decisions, identify interdependencies, and test strategic options against multiple plausible futures.
His keynote speeches bring together technology, economics, geopolitics, and society. Rather than simply extrapolating individual trends, he synthesizes diverse developments into a clear overall picture – and demonstrates the implications for strategy, innovation, and business models.
Jan Berger Lecture Topics
- Europe’s Economy in a New World Order
- Europe and Germany in 2035
- Industrial Renaissance – How Europe Can Grow Again
- When Intelligence Becomes Affordable – AI, Work, and the Skills of the Future
- Futures of the European Capital Market
Jan Berger studied history at Moscow State University after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He has lived and worked on four continents and has held leadership positions at corporations, startups, and a foresight institute. As the author and co-author of numerous foresight studies, he combines his international and entrepreneurial experience with the research conducted by Themis Foresight.
Jan Berger: “Foresight isn’t about being right. It’s about enabling better decisions.”
Jan Berger does not view foresight as a trend show. He uncovers the assumptions behind grand narratives about the future, examines what is actually changing, and highlights opportunities, risks, and interdependencies. Whether it’s artificial intelligence, industrial transformation, capital markets, or Europe’s role in the world: what matters most is what options for action emerge from these developments.
Participants experience his presentations not as an abstract glimpse into the future, but as strategic clarification. They report that afterward, they can more clearly assess their company’s future viability and gain new insight into the value it actually creates. Particularly in the AI debate, his analysis helps distinguish grand promises from real change and regain focus on one’s own capabilities and options for action.
In this way, direction leads to the ability to take action – and the ability to take action leads to confidence. People leave his keynote speeches with the courage to help shape the future of their companies themselves.