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Ed Gillespie

Futurist and transformer
Ed Gillespie

Ed Gillespie is a writer, communications specialist, serial entrepreneur and futurist. His core talent is to take the complex, interconnected, interdependent nature of the many challenges the world faces, from climate change to disruptive innovation, and make common sense of them for non-specialist audiences. He is one half of the Futurenauts.

He is a sought after speaker, event host, lively compere and trusted Chairperson, renowned for his entertaining presentations laced with thoughtful insights, trends and humour. Since 2001, he has presented all over the world, giving dozens of talks a year from Hong Kong to Bratislava, Korea to Auckland. And he’s been heard by every kind of audience, from the UN and national governments, to multi-national corporations and global associations. He’s even dabbled with stand-up comedy to enhance his presentational and engagement skills.

Professionally Ed is known for his own unique brand of authentic ‘insultancy’ – being strategically and playfully cheeky to clients, with judicious wit and wisdom to inspire them to greater heights and aspirations. He is highly adaptable, constructively challenging and pushes audience assumptions of business as usual, opening minds then mapping possible practical solutions and opportunities.

Ed was the co-founder of Futerra, a change agency that specialises in business transformation and creative communications and campaigns. For almost two decades Futerra has become internationally renowned for its influential and award-winning work on some of the biggest corporate sustainability initiatives.

Currently Ed’s focus is using his twenty five years of experience to help organisations rapidly understand the new Covid-19 world. This will involve ‘unlearning’ the mistakes of the past, asking the right (often awkward!) questions, and moving beyond the discomfort of today into being the better, more resilient, responsible and sustainable businesses of tomorrow.

Ed is a facilitator with the Forward Institute where we works on responsible leadership with 25 of the UK’s biggest institutions, a Director of Greenpeace UK and a Trustee of Ecolibrium.

Ed co-presents two leading podcasts, ‘The Great Humbling’ with Dougald Hine, and ‘Jon Richardson and the Futurenauts – How to survive the apocalypse’ with comedian Jon Richardson and fellow reluctant futurist Mark Stevenson.

You can watch one of Ed’s TedX talks here.

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Ed Gillespie

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