I’m pleased to introduce our next guestblogger, Marina Gorbis. Marina is executive director of Institute for the Future, a 40-year-old non-profit thinktank in Palo Alto where I’m a research director. IFTF helps companies, governments, foundations, and other organizations think about longterm future trends to make better decisions in the present. Marina a terrific thinker, an effective administrator, a generous person, and a humble soul. She’s also very funny, a tad cynical, and a hardcore bluegrass fan — all traits I appreciate in a friend and mentor. I’m delighted that Marina’s agreed to spend some time with us. From Marina’s bio:
A native of Odessa, Ukraine, Marina is particularly suited to see things from a global perspective. She has directed international programs and led international development projects for SRI (formerly Stanford Research Institute) in China, Japan, Vietnam, India, and Eastern Europe. Marina has also authored publications on international business and economics, with an emphasis on regional innovation and competitiveness.
In addition to serving as IFTF’s Executive Director, Marina led the Technology Horizons Program for several years, focusing on the innovation at the intersection of new technologies and social organization. She has initiated a Global Ethnographic Network (GEN), a multi-year ethnographic research program which tries to develop an understanding of daily lives of people in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Silicon Valley, in an attempt to integrate their voices into IFTF’s forecasts. She has also led several major private client engagements at IFTF, the most recent being a global Science & Technology Forecast for the UK Government’s Department of Science & Technology. She holds an M.P.P. from the University of California, Berkeley, a certificate in international business from the University of London, and a B.A. in industrial psychology, also from the University of California, Berkeley. California, Berkeley.
