Peter Schwartz

Futurist and Strategist

Peter Schwartz employs many guises in discerning the complex patterns and forces shaping our world—as a futurist, business strategist, venture capitalist, writer, and speaker. Asked what he does, he responds: “I see myself foremost as someone who helps organizations think deeply, and perhaps in unconventional ways, about the future.”

In 1987, Peter co-founded Global Business Network (GBN), the world’s preeminent member organization focused on scenario thinking and planning. Scenarios are stories that enable us to imagine and plan for different plausible futures, and they serve as powerful tools to help businesses and other organizations develop sustainable strategic visions. As GBN’s Chairman, Peter specializes in building scenarios for leading corporations, governments, and non-profit institutions. His current research and scenario work encompasses energy resources and the environment, technology, life sciences, telecommunications, media and entertainment, aerospace, and national security.

Peter honed his skills at the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies in London, where he headed the scenario team from 1982 to 1986. Before that, he directed the Strategic Environment Center at SRI International. The Center researched the business milieu, lifestyles, and consumer values, and conducted scenario planning for corporate and government clients.

In addition to his work with GBN, Peter is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the boards of the Santa Fe Institute, the Long Now Foundation, the World Affairs Council and Human Rights Watch (Northern California).

Peter moderated a forum titled "The Impact of Web 2.0 and Emerging Social Network Models" in Davos in 2007. The forum included Bill Gates, Caterina Fake, Chad Hurley, Mark G. Parker, Viviane Reding and Dennis Kneale.

A prolific author, Peter’s most recent book, Inevitable Surprises, offers a provocative look at the complex forces at play in the world today and their implications for business and society. His first book, The Art of the Long View, is considered a seminal publication on scenario planning and has been translated into multiple languages. He co-authored The Long Boom, a vision for the world characterized by global openness, prosperity, and discovery; When Good Companies Do Bad Things, an examination of, and argument for, corporate social responsibility; and China's Futures, which describes very different scenarios for China and their international implications. Peter’s recent work includes a widely read GBN white paper that looks at the systems vulnerabilities of global climate change. He is currently active in the media and elsewhere on the topic, appearing on ABC News, NPR’s Science Friday, and the Discover Channel (interviewed in Tom Friedman’s documentary entitled “Green Is the New Red White and Blue”).

He has even found an audience in Hollywood: Peter served as a script consultant on several films including The Minority Report, Deep Impact, Sneakers, and War Games.

Peter received a B.S. in aeronautical engineering and astronautics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.