Roger Spitz,
Pioneering Futurist
Roger Spitz is a visionary futurist and venture capitalist. Before founding the influential Disruptive Futures Institute in San Francisco, he served as Global Head of Technology M&A at a major investment bank, advising on transactions totaling over $25 billion.
As President of Techistential, the preeminent foresight practice, Roger advises CEOs and boards on strategy under uncertainty, the future of leadership, and sustainable value creation. A top-ranked futurist speaker, Roger is an award-winning author of five bestselling books and his frameworks are widely adopted by leading organizations worldwide.
Building on his bestselling books and global recognition as the leading authority on systemic disruption and uncertainty, Roger Spitz is famous for his unique keynotes drawn from his extensive real-world boardroom experience.
At the heart of Roger's transformative keynotes is the power of agency and informed optimism in shaping our futures, even in the face of unpredictability. Watch his exclusive showreel below and discover why the world’s leading organizations trust Roger as their go-to futurist speaker.
Learn more about our talks by visiting Roger’s dedicated speaking hub, or by reaching out at speaking@disruptivefutures.org
About Roger Spitz
Roger Spitz has given hundreds of keynotes globally, frequently contributes across leading media, and guest lectured at many of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions
Roger Spitz (B.Sc. Econ, M.Sc., FCA, APF) is an international bestselling author, a celebrated futurist, the president of Techistential (Climate & Foresight Strategy), and the chair of the influential Disruptive Futures Institute, based in San Francisco.
As former Global Head of Technology M&A with BNP Paribas, Spitz advised on over 50 transactions with a combined deal value of $25 billion. He launched the bank’s US Mergers & Acquisitions practice in San Francisco and built its European Technology & Digital Investment Banking franchises in London & Paris.
Bilingual in English & French, Spitz has lived in 10 different cities across six nations and three continents.
He has established longstanding connections across a multitude of fields and organizations in Silicon Valley, throughout North America, the UK, Europe, Asia, South Africa, and around the world.
Professional Affiliations, Boards & Anticipatory Governance
After a Masters in Finance (M.Sc.) from the University of Durham (UK), Roger Spitz qualified as a Chartered Accountant (ACA, Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales).
Spitz trained as a non-executive director (NED), was bestowed ICAEW’s prestigious Fellowship title (FCA), and has been advising boardrooms for the past two decades. He presides over Techistential’s dedicated Board, Anticipatory Governance & Sustainability Foresight Practice, which develops global programs to train Board Directors on Anticipatory Leadership & Foresight Competency with leading institutions such as Institute of Directors (IoD India) & Instituto Brasileiro de Governança Corporativa (Brazil).
Spitz is an expert advisor to the World Economic Forum’s Global Foresight Network, and his professional foresight affiliations also include the Association of Professional Futurists (Washington), Foresight Institute (San Francisco), and World Futures Studies Federation (Paris).
Spitz has two decades of leading investment banking and venture capital businesses. He advises CEOs, founders, boards, and shareholders on their most strategic decisions, evaluating their organizations' competitiveness and identifying disruptions ahead. He sits on several advisory boards of companies, climate councils, VC funds & academic institutions worldwide.
Climate Foresight & Sustainable Futures
Techistential’s renowned Board, Anticipatory Governance & Sustainability foresight practice works with leaders and their organizations globally to rethink sustainable value creation. As the Sustainable Futures Practice Lead at Techistential, Spitz provides foresight-driven advice on systemic change including the global energy transition, which is creating paradigm shifts in value and business models. Spitz founded the DFI Nature & Climate Academy as the Disruptive Futures Institute’s flagship center equipping changemakers worldwide on the energy transition.
Spitz is a sought-after advisor and celebrity speaker on systems innovation, futures intelligence, and sustainable value creation. He was an inaugural member of the Climate Intelligence Council and contributor to the Disclosure, ESG & Sustainability standards group of Planet Positive 2030 (IEEE, in partnership with Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence HAI). Spitz is also a thought leader and author with leading sustainability publication Illuminem.
Spitz is a Climatebase Fellow, board member and Futurist-in-Residence of Lux Carbon Standard (Brazil’s first carbon credit certifier).
Impact Investing & Venture Capital
Roger Spitz is Foresight & Sustainability partner of Vektor Partners (Palo Alto, London, Berlin), a VC firm investing in the future of mobility and next-generation sustainable transport, as well as a member of the Advisory Council and an LP investor in Berkeley SkyDeck fund. As a venture advisor, Spitz focuses on transformative technologies including ClimateTech & AI. The impact funds he advises support green innovative technology in Silicon Valley, Israel, UK, and Europe.
Spitz has a strong interest in social entrepreneurship and the future of education, and is a board adviser of Teach The Future and Qwasar Silicon Valley, the skills-based platform for learning in the 21st century.
Faculty, Academic Research & Publications
A world-leading authority on foresight, sustainability, and transformative change, Roger Spitz develops and teaches Strategic Foresight & System Innovation programs
Roger Spitz publishes extensively on anticipatory leadership, futures capabilities, and decision-making in complex unpredictable environments.
Spitz is the lead author of the acclaimed four-volume magnum opus, The Definitive Guide to Thriving on Disruption, the compendium published by the Disruptive Futures Institute. The collection became an instant classic and bestseller in Future Studies, Green Business, Sustainable Economic Development, Business Education, Strategic Management & Forecasting.
His fifth book Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World is published by Kogan Page, is also a globally acclaimed and award-nominated bestseller.
Following his seminal paper in the Journal of Futures Studies on the “The Future of Strategic Decision-Making”, Spitz co-authored “An Existential Framework for the Future of Decision-Making” (Leadership for the Future, Cambridge Scholars Publishing).
His frameworks have been adopted by organizations worldwide, and published in multiple books and journals as case studies. He contributed a chapter on his pioneering AAA Framework in Anticipatory Governance: Shaping a Responsible Future, World Scientific Publishing (Singapore, 2025), under the title “The AAA Framework: Responsible Leadership for Sustainable Futures”.
Roger Spitz’s work, frameworks, and research have been published in prestigious publications worldwide including Association for Professional Futurists (APF’s Compass Magazine), Fast Company, Global Peter Drucker Forum, IBM Center for The Business of Government Leadership, INC. Magazine, InfoMoney, Institute of Directors (Directors Today), Instituto Brasileiro de Governança Corporativa (IBGC), Journal of Futures Studies (JFS), MIT Technology Review, World Economic Forum.
Frameworks, Methodologies & Concepts
Roger Spitz developed the Disruptive Futures Institute’s widely adopted frameworks, which are used by organizations globally. A true bridge between boardroom, investor, and management, Spitz is famous for his transdisciplinary contributions to the climate and strategic foresight fields, systems innovation, and technology.
Spitz’s influential frameworks and methodologies, featured in numerous articles and case studies in leading publications, include the AAA Framework (Antifragile, Anticipatory, Agility). This framework has revolutionized how organizations anticipate and leverage systemic disruption for sustainable value creation. He also developed the Disruptive Thinking Canvas.
Other key tools and concepts developed by Spitz include the 6 i’s (Inspiration, Imagination, Intuition, Improvisation, Impossible, Invention), Anticipatory Readiness Level (ARL), Business Models-as-a-System (BMaaS), and Failovation.
In addition to his frameworks, Roger Spitz has introduced new concepts and a unique lexicon that have redefined systemic disruption and futures studies in our complex, unpredictable era, where machines are rapidly advancing. Terms like Disruption 3.0, Info-Ruption, Metaruption, Techistentialism, and UN-VICE have become integral to understanding the updated challenges and opportunities of our times.
Roger Spitz's Frameworks, Methodologies & Concepts are central to his Thriving on Disruption movement, and the Disruptive Futures Institute.
Leading Authority on Artificial Intelligence
Spitz is an industry-recognized writer, speaker, and investor in Artificial Intelligence. From his research and publications, Roger Spitz coined the term Techistentialism which studies the nature of human beings, existence, and decision-making in our technological world. Today, we face both technological and existential conditions that can no longer be separated.
Spitz chairs the Techistential Center for Human & Artificial Intelligence, and serves on the AI Council of Indian Society for Artificial Intelligence (ISAIL). He is also a member of IEEE, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (Palo Alto), and The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence & Simulation of Behaviour (UK). He attended the MIT Sloan School of Management and Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) executive program in AI & Strategy.
With a global influence in artificial intelligence, Spitz is a columnist with MIT Technology Review Brasil, CogX Ambassador & Contributor, and World Economic Forum Agenda contributor.
Awards & Global Acclaim
Roger Spitz is a globally celebrated futurist and thought leader, consistently ranked among Thinkers360’s Top 10 in Management, Education, and Venture Capital, with nominations for his expertise in Innovation, Sustainability, and Climate Change.
His book Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success in an Unpredictable World has garnered international acclaim, and was nominated finalist for the Harvey Chute and Foreword Indies Best Book Awards. It hit #1 on Amazon Bestseller lists across the UK, USA, Brazil, India, France, and Germany, leading categories like Systems & Planning, Entrepreneurship, and Artificial Intelligence.
This global recognition highlights Spitz’s unmatched ability to decode complexity, cementing his ranking as a top futurist keynote speaker for thriving in an unpredictable world.
Learn more about our talks by visiting Roger’s dedicated speaking hub, or by reaching out at speaking@disruptivefutures.org