This section will be updated as speakers confirm participation. It also includes moderators and special guests and resource persons or active members of the APFN or APF who will take a role during the 11th APFN.

Speakers,
Moderators & Resource Persons

Sohail Inayatullah

Professor Sohail Inayatullah is a political scientist and award-winning futurist. He is the inaugural UNESCO Chair of Futures Studies; professor at the Graduate Institute of Futures Studies, Tamkang University, Taiwan; Adjunct professor in the Faculty of Arts and Business, the University of the Sunshine Coast; and Associate with Melbourne Business School, the University of Melbourne. Inayatullah has authored and edited more than 30 books and over 300 journal articles, book chapters, and reviews and worked with organisations and governments around the world to create their own alternative and desired futures. He is a co-founder of the APFN and acts currently as the Chair of the steering committee.

Kuo-Hua Chen

Dr. Kuo-Hua Chen is Dean of College of Education, professor of Department of Education and Futures Design and Director of Center for Futures Intelligence and Research (CFAR), Tamkang University, Taiwan. He was director of Graduate Institute of Futures Studies and the Center for General Education and Core Curriculum and Dean of College of Global Research and Development. Other work-related experiences are: co-editor of Journal of Futures Studies, international editorial board member of World Futures Review, fellow and executive board member of World Futures Studies Federation. He has been teaching futures curses for over 25 years, including social futures, change and development, speculative design, future-oriented policy studies, futures research methodology. His research interests include youth images of the future, evaluation of futures education, measurement of foresight styles and futures consciousness, aging society and health futures.

Karla Congson

Karla Congson is a pioneering technology leader and serial entrepreneur at the forefront of AI innovation. As CEO+CTO of Agentiiv, she architects proprietary AI agent platforms that transform how organizations harness artificial intelligence for enhanced productivity and risk management. A 2025 Women in AI Awards Finalist in the AI Entrepreneur of the Year category, Karla is recognized for her contributions to advancing AI adoption and innovation in enterprise environments.

Nur Anisah

Anisah graduated with a PhD in Operations Research from University of Strathclyde. She is the editor for the Journal of Futures Studies. She teaches Futures Studies and Foresight for Strategy Development for the Graduate Institute of Futures Studies, Tamkang University, in Taipei. Her research focuses on studying learner behaviour with a view to creating learning environments, and examining the futures of identity and diversity.

Jost Wagner

Jost Wagner is one of the most experienced facilitation experts in Asia with a focus on development issues. A former development expert himself he advises and facilitates strategy workshops, multi-stakeholder dialogues and international conferences around the globe on behalf of organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, United Nations, German Development Agency (GIZ) and many more. He is an active promoter for Futures Literacy. He was the conference director for APFN 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022 and Co-Conference Director 2024. He has been the Chief Navigator for the APFN since January 2022.

Zainal Abidin Sanusi

Zainal Abidin Sanusi is currently Director, Sejahtera Centre for Sustainability and Humanity, International Islamic University Malaysia while serving as an Professor at the Department of Political Science, Kuliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Science. Prior to this post, he served as Minister Council (Education) at Malaysian High Commission, London. He had also served as Deputy Director, Centre for Leadership Training at Higher Education Leadership Academy of the Ministry of Education Malaysia.

John A. Sweeney

Dr. John A. Sweeney is an award-winning author, designer, and futurist. As a practitioner, consultant, and educator, John has organized, managed, and facilitated workshops and seminars, multi-stakeholder projects, and foresight gaming systems in over 40 countries on six continents. At present, John is an Assistant Professor of Futures and Foresight at Narxoz University in Almaty, Kazakhstan where he serves as Director of the Qazaq Research Institute for Futures Studies.

Shermon Cruz

Shermon Cruz is an award-winning futurist and the CEO of the Center for Engaged Foresight, a strategic foresight firm based in Manila with global reach. He is the first UNESCO Chairholder on Anticipatory Governance and Regenerative Cities in the Philippines and the Founder of the Global South Futures Community. He chairs The Millennium Project Philippines and formerly led the Association of Professional Futurists. As an academic, he is Adjunct Faculty and Director of the Futures Thinking Program at the Asian Institute of Management. He has taught foresight across institutions such as the University of the Philippines, Development Academy of the Philippines, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Cruz created the award-winning foresight game Dreams and Disruptions, featured in over 300 workshops worldwide. A recipient of the 2014 World Social Science Forum Award, he specialises in strategic foresight, emerging issues, and risk governance. He is a doctoral candidate at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia.

Seongwon Park

Dr. Seongwon Park received his Ph.D. in Futures Studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He previously served at the Center for Futures Research at the Science and Technology Policy Institute under Korea’s Prime Minister’s Office, and later as a senior researcher at the National Assembly Futures Institute, where he led projects on national foresight and long-term strategic planning. In 2025, Dr. Park founded Future Orange, a foresight consulting firm dedicated to bridging futures thinking with business and civic society. He currently serves as its CEO. He also holds adjunct positions at the KAIST Graduate School of Future Strategy and Kookmin University, where he teaches courses in Futures Studies. From 2025 to 2027, he serves as the 5th President of the Futures Studies Association of Korea, the nation’s leading academic society for futurists.

Mei Mei Song

Dr. Mei-Mei Song, EdD is a futurist and an educator. She is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Institute of Futures Studies as well as the Founder and Director of the Center for Futures Intelligence and Research (C-FAR), Tamkang University, Taiwan. Dr. Song’s recent research centers around newer ways of teaching futures studies such as experiential futures, gamification of futures tools, and integration of futures thinking and design thinking, particularly in engineering education.

Shakil Ahmed

Shakil Ahmed is a futurist, educator and storyteller at Ridiculous Futures, a specialist at the EdTech Hub, a network coordinator of #NextGenEdu and is pursuing his PhD in Foresight in Educational Leadership and Technology Management at Tamkang University, Taiwan. As a futurist, he has explored the futures of financial inclusion in Nigeria, the futures of Chiang Mai and its digital nomad community, and the futures of education with the Prime Minister's Office in Bangladesh. His Bachelor's was in Theoretical Physics at the National University of Singapore and his Master's was in Educational Leadership and School Improvement at BRAC University.

Joseph Press

Dr. Joseph Press is a Futures Advisor and Professor of Innovation, Design and Leadership. He began his career as an architect, designing workplaces in the USA, France, Germany, and Israel. Soon after completing his Master's and Ph.D. in Design Technology at MIT, he pivoted into management consulting. His 16-year career with Deloitte was capped by founding and leading Deloitte Digital Switzerland, an interdisciplinary team to design and deliver digital innovation for global, cross-industry clients. After witnessing the multitude of failed transformation efforts, Joseph pivoted into developing people to make change happen. At the Center for Creative Leadership, he collaborated and advised corporates, start-ups, and academia to help leaders face challenges and co-create solutions requiring innovation and necessitating transformation. To deepen the understanding of leadership, he led the founding of IDeaLs with the Politecnico di Milano. This action-research community of over 10 global corporate partners investigates how to engage people with innovation and design to make transformation happen. Joseph is a co-founder and Futures Architect of MakeOurFuture, a platform cooperative that brings together a global network of seasoned practitioners to empower organizations to accelerate the transition to more sustainable practices. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Politecnico di Milano School of Management and Adjunct Professor at Parsons, The New School for Design.

Ed Niedbalski

Ed Niedbalski is an American Futures researcher, permanent resident in Finland, and currently living in Taiwan. He has a Master’s Degree in Futures Studies at the Department of Education and Futures Design at Tamkang University, Taiwan, and is pursuing a PhD at the same institution. He has a previous master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from NUI Maynooth, Ireland. His Futures MA thesis was based on Ethnographic Futures Research conducted in north India, exploring sustainable food systems in rural communities. He has previous experience in special education and learning facilitation. He has published work in the Journal of Futures Studies on Chinese National Identity and the Hong Kong Protest Movement, featured in Professor Sohail Inyatullah’s CLA 3.0. Ed is the Social Media Manager for The Journal of Futures Studies, as well as Community Manager for the Asia-Pacific Futures Network.

Yi-Chun Lin

Dr. Yi-Chun Lin is the Director of the Center for Teacher Education at Tamkang University, Taiwan. Her specialty lies in Teacher Education, Counseling and Supervision, and Gender Education. She has participated in the Futures Studies Conference in Malaysia and completed workshop training under the guidance of Dr. Sohail Inayatullah, becoming one of Tamkang University’s seed teachers in futures education. Dr. Lin’s research interests center on applying futures thinking tools to teacher education and professional development.

Adam Sharpe

Adam Sharpe is a youth futurist and facilitator who has delivered educational programming to hundreds of thousands of people. He is Youth Foresight specialist at UNICEF Innocenti and Director of Learning at Metafuture School. He is the winner of the Next Generation Foresight Practitioners award for Intergenerational Fairness, a KFAS-Salzburg Global Fellow, a Next Generation Foresight Practitioners Fellow, and a member of the Association of Professional Futurists.

Trish J Lavery

Dr Trish Lavery is an academic and policy leader. She is passionate about embedding a deeper understanding of human behaviour into the centre of discussions on emerging technologies and trends. Trish has experience in applying futures, foresight and behavioural economics to help facilitate better executive and board decision making, more resilient long-term public policy and more effective corporate strategy. As a Futures Council Member, Trish is leading a large collaborative foresight project on the future of climate cooling technologies in collaboration with the OECD, Leeds University and the Centre for Future Generations, Brussel. She is Senior Fellow of Futures and Human Behaviour at the Sympodium Institute of Strategic Communications, London, where she lectures on the intersection of foresight, behavioural psychology and intelligence tradecraft and Visiting Fellow at the School of Cybernetics, Australian National University where she lectures on anticipatory governance of emerging technologies. Trish was the previous Strategic Foresight Counsellor of the OECD and remains a Member of the OECD Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence Futures. She has a PhD in climate science, and degrees in behavioural science and biological sciences (Hons).

Siân Rolls

Sian Rolls is the Communications Officer for the Pacific Women Lead program at the Pacific Community (SPC), where she supports efforts to advance gender equality and empower women across the Pacific region. With a background in strategic communications, Sian works to amplify the voices of Pacific women and highlight key initiatives focused on women’s leadership, economic development, and social change. Passionate about creating meaningful, community-driven content, she plays a pivotal role in building networks and fostering collaboration for a more inclusive Pacific.

Louis (Keji) Zheng

Louis Zheng is committed to promoting the integration of Futures Studies with community, education, and business. He co-founded FuturistCircle, China’s first futurist and foresight practitioner network. He is also the founding member of FutureMatters, a foresight innovation consultancy based in Shanghai where he provides high-quality trend monitoring and expert network services for corporates. For future literacy education, he guest-lectures at various Chinese and international universities such as Tongji University, New York University, and Management School ESSCA.

Besides, he is the chief editor and contributor of C Futures, a column conveying China's future and innovation stories overseas on Substack, and a regional editor of the Journal of Future Studies, Tamkang University. He previously worked in Silicon Valley, US, and has been a China ambassador of China-America Innovation Networks, a 501c non-profit in California.

Jose Ramos

Dr. José Ramos is founder and co-director of Action Foresight, co-editor for the Journal of Futures Studies, co-founder of the Participatory Futures Global Swarm, and founder of Futures Lab, through which he runs the Mutant Futures program. He has published over 70 articles, chapters and papers on futures studies methods, action research, social innovation, public policy, governance and the commons. He lives in central Victoria, Australia, with his wife De Chantal and his two children Ethan and Rafaela, his dog Nacho, 20 or so chickens and a wide variety of native birds.

Jeanne Hoffman

Jeanne Hoffman is a futures educator, researcher, and strategist dedicated to helping individuals and organisations anticipate change and build future-ready mindsets. With a background in economics, international relations, and futures studies, she brings a transdisciplinary approach to capacity building across sectors. Jeanne has taught and led foresight initiatives globally, including as a professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan (2015–2023) and currently as an Adjunct Fellow in Futures Studies at the University of the Sunshine Coast. A published author and award-winning educator, she served as managing editor of the Journal of Futures Studies and now co-edits World Futures Review. Jeanne co-designed and co-hosted the April 2025 inaugural Oceania Futures and Foresight Symposium to strengthen regional foresight capabilities and foster a diverse, inclusive futures community.

Freyja Van Den Boom

Freyja van den Boom is a researcher and advocate specializing in AI governance, international regulation, and disruptive digital technologies. With a decade of experience and a cross-disciplinary background spanning socio-legal, ethical, and policy domains (PhD, LLM, MSc), she critically examines the narrative capture of AI across countries driven by power and profit. Freyja champions the urgent need to integrate non-Western perspectives, the expertise of women, and other unusual or marginalized forms of knowledge into shaping equitable AI futures. Through her work on initiatives like AI Futures and Exploding AI Policy workshops, she utilizes speculative legal design, futures& foresight, performances and artefacts to provoke critical dialogue and co-design desirable AI and data futures that challenge dominant narratives. Her research explores anticipatory governance, open source AI, feminist principles, and regulatory approaches, with deep expertise in law, ethics, and critical design to advocate for inclusive, community-driven AI policy and governance globally.

Po-Ta Chen

Po-Ta is an educator, futurist, and researcher specializing in futures studies and artificial intelligence (AI) in education. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Doctoral Program in Foresight for Educational Leadership and Technology Management, within the Department of Education and Futures Design. Po-Ta holds a Master’s degree in Futures Studies and has applied diverse futures studies methods in both academic and professional contexts. He has also served as a futures studies instructor at the Sci Narrative workshop.

As a futurist, Po-Ta has explored the impact of AI on the future of educational systems, with a particular focus on developing AI literacy and its implications for teaching and learning. His research includes the creation of an AI literacy scale designed to assess and improve learners’ adaptability in future educational environments. His Master’s thesis, investigates innovative strategies for transforming education and provides forward-looking analyses of potential developments.

Lavonne Leong

Dr. Lavonne Leong is an award-winning futurist and former journalist who holds an MSc in Strategic Foresight from the University of Houston and a DPhil in English Language and Literature from the University of Oxford. She is a co-founder of the Journal of Futures Studies Community of Practice, a network that promotes global cross-pollination of futures teaching and access. Lavonne works in adaptive and transformational futures with a broad range of clients, including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the UNDP, and Engineers Canada. She lives in Honolulu and British Columbia with her family.

Edilhynie M. Jambangan

Dr. Edilhynie Jambangan is an educator and researcher specializing in English Language Teaching, instructional design, and leadership, with over a decade of experience in teaching and school administration. She holds a Bachelor's degree in English, a Master’s in Education in English Language Teaching, and a Doctor of Education in Educational Management, completing her dissertation, Post-Pandemic Supervision: A Futuristic Framework. Currently pursuing a PhD in English Language Teaching, she applies Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) to explore AI integration in communication skills education, fostering disruption-ready learning in English classrooms. Based in Davao City, Philippines, she is an active member of educational and research organizations, serving as a peer reviewer for international research journals and contributing to scholarly discourse through research articles and instructional materials. She facilitates seminars and workshops on technology integration, classroom management, research methodologies, educational leadership, and teacher professional development.

Hauson Le

Hauson Le is energized by crystallizing a sense of agency in shared spaces. Hauson leads futures for the Alliance for Innovation, serving over 100 United States local governments to think about the future in new ways through foresight research, capacity-building, and facilitation. He holds a master's degree from the University of Houston's Masters in Foresight program and was the recipient of a Most Signficant Futures Work Award in the category of Inspirational by the Association of Professional Futurists. He also serves as a board member for the Transnormal Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to transcending norms perpetuating global Collapse. He is currently exploring relationship transformation as a means to cultivate the conditions for emergent, cross-system collaboration.

Christina Hazelman

Christina Hazelman is an accomplished knowledge-sharing professional with over a decade of experience working in the Pacific region. Her journey with Strategic Foresight and Futures began in 2020 during the development of The Pacific Community (SPC) strategic plan 2022 - 2031. Since then, she has cultivated a deep interest in the field, providing guidance in various sectors such as education, gender, youth and maritime transportation. Christina was recently part of a team that was awarded the APFN award for Most Significant Institutional Contribution to the Asia Pacific Futures network in 2023. She was also part of the team that was awarded the Indigenous Award from the Association of Professional Futurists for the development of the Pacific Pathfinder toolkit. Christina holds a bachelors degree in environmental studies from the University of the South Pacific.

Khai Seng Hong

Khai Seng's deep interest in futures and foresight is embedded in Studio Dojo's transdisciplinary approach that also integrates Design Thinking, Organisation Development and Leadership Development. His projects and coaching engagements span people, private and public sector clients, tackling the futures of education, HR and other wicked problems. Khai Seng was selected as an Emerging Fellow for the Association for Professional Futurists in 2023. He is forever grateful to the warm and welcoming APFN community, when he attended it as part of his first foray into futures.

Kristel Griffiths

Kristel Griffiths serves as the Strategy and Foresight Advisor at the Pacific Community (SPC). In her role, she focuses on enhancing Pacific capabilities in futures thinking and strategic foresight, while promoting foresight tools that help bring diverse Pacific voices, values, and worldviews to the forefront of discussions shaping Pacific futures. Kristel has presented at three APFN Conferences and was part of the SPC team that won the 2023 Association of Professional Futurists (APF) award for Most Significant Futures Work in the indigenous category for the Pacific Pathfinder toolkit. Currently, she is working on developing a practitioner’s guide to the Pacific Pathfinder. This guide aims to share the experience of Pacific futures practitioners on how they have used and adapted the strategic foresight tools in the Pacific Pathfinder, to support better practice. Kristel is passionate about the power of futures thinking to inspire participation, unleash creativity, and include diverse voices in strategic processes.

Shiela R. Castillo

Shiela R. Castillo is a social development professional with over 20 years of experience handling various projects. Her areas of interest are the futures of justice, climate change and the environment, disaster management and humanitarian service, leadership and strategy, and engagement and accountability. She is interested in the transformative power of cultural creatives and civil society. She is currently engaged with United Edge, a justice based social enterprise, as Foresight and Engagement Director. She is also a Council Member of the TFSX (formerly The Futures School) Global Foresight Advisory Council (GFAC).

Ricardo Schnug

Ricardo Schnug is a futurist and PhD Candidate at Tamkang University’s Department for Education and Futures Design. His career in futures has work led him to working in foresight and create futures strategies for medium and larger-sized enterprises in Europe, working there for Future Management Group. Having returned to Taiwan for his PhD Degree, Ricardo has been teaching Futures and Sociology Courses to Undergraduate Students at Tamkang. Ricardo’s research focus in recent years is on utilizing knowledge from the field of Psychology in order to improve futures thinking and decision-making, particularly for individual futures.

Bernadett Szél

Dr. Bernadett Szél is an economist, sociologist, and futurist with a background in both academic research and public service. Her current research focuses on democratic resilience under autocratic pressures, with a special emphasis on Europe—particularly Central and Eastern Europe—and Taiwan. In 2025, she was awarded the George Soros Practitioner Chair at Central European University (CEU) and received the Taiwan Fellowship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan. From 2012 to 2022, she served as a Member of the Hungarian Parliament, where she held several senior positions. She is currently affiliated with the Department of Public Policy at CEU and is a Member of the Public Body of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Jezreel Larry Caunca

Jezreel Larry R. Caunca is a Futures Education Specialist at the UNESCO Chair on Anticipatory Governance and Regenerative Cities and the NWU PhilForesight Institute at Northwestern University, where he also serves as Assistant Department Head of the Social Sciences and Humanities Department. He has taught over 1,500 students in SS107 Futures Thinking, a general education course that brings foresight into political science and other disciplines. Caunca is the founder of Y-FOREST (Youth for Foresight and Regenerative Sustainable Tomorrows), a nationally recognized youth foresight organization in the Philippines. His work advances futures literacy, anticipatory governance, and youth futures in education and public policy.

Angelia Teo

Angelia Teo is a leading futurist and strategist in APAC. She is a storyteller with a speciality in creative “connecting the dots” for Asia. An expert in the Asian consumer, her work spans industries – from FMCG, lifestyle to design-led fashion, beauty, consumer appliances – to introduce disruptive thinking to innovation pipelines.

Sadia Hossain

Sadia Hossain is an international development professional with over 14 years of experience designing and scaling solutions in social entrepreneurship, youth leadership, and education innovation across Bangladesh, East Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Her work sits at the intersection of program design and delivery, organizational development, and cross-sector partnerships—supporting high-impact enterprises to drive meaningful change for marginalized communities. Passionate about gender equity, environmental justice, and inclusive development, Sadia is committed to advancing community-led solutions and systemic transformation.

Candice Chow

Dr. Candice Chow is the Program Director of The Foresight Lab and Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at the DeGroote School of Business. She brings over 25 years of senior management experience across Asia and Canada in strategy, corporate transformation, and innovation. Formerly Senior Director of Corporate Strategy at a leading Canadian transportation company, she now leads foresight-driven applied research and education focused on long-term value creation and sustainable performance.

McMaster University’s Foresight Lab is a learning and networking hub dedicated to empowering professionals to build futures thinking and leadership capabilities that shape positive outcomes for organizations and society. Candice currently leads the Lab’s development of executive programs and industry events that explore the futures of key sectors and global challenges.

Nadya Patel

Dr Nadya Shaznay Patel, an Assistant Professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology, has over twenty years of experience as an educator, researcher and trainer. Dr Patel’s work sits at the crossroads of Critical Design Futures (CDF) thinking, design-driven and futures-oriented entrepreneurship education, and GenAI applications for innovation. Her contributions towards the development of interdisciplinary design innovation and digital media production modules, which integrate hands-on industry briefs with futures-oriented, AI-enabled experimentation to resolve real-world problems, have inspired her students to produce AI-enabled prototypes presented to industry partners. Dr Patel is the Principal Investigator of a Ministry of Education Tertiary Research Fund research project on a conversational AI coach to develop students’ creativity, cultivate entrepreneurial readiness, and future-oriented dispositions. She is also the Principal Consultant of Pagasa Lab, where she spearheads the development of Cogito, an AI “intellectual sparring partner” that prompts users through the CDF framework to surface blind spots, stress-test business models, and imagine alternative futures.

Jawn Lim

Jawn Lim is an Associate Professor of design futures and innovation at the Singapore Institute of Technology. He consults for companies from banking to hospitality. He frequently serves as a judge for awards in branding, design, and technology. Concurrently, he is the Chief Design Officer at the Singapore Productivity Centre, Emerging Fellows Programme Director at the Association of Professional Futurists, Board Member at Teach The Future and Chair of the Advisory Committee at the Singapore Polytechnic’s Media, Art, and Design School. Previously, Jawn was an architectural designer with Arquitectonica, Marmol Radziner, Hetzel Design and Pritzker Laureate, Frank Gehry. He holds an Advanced Certificate for Executives in Management, Innovation, and Technology from MIT and a Doctor of Design from Harvard.

Joey W.K. Chan

Co-founder of future shapers academy, Complexity Consultant, Facilitator and Executive Coach. Joey helps clients to deal with complexity and adaptive challenges. He also facilitates leaders on future thinking, by using current news to probe deeper structural changes, identifying driving-forces on the global and local levels. In the past 20 years, Joey is active in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, experienced in organization development (OD) consulting and training, provided in-depth OD works, introducing consciousness-development framework to Ant Financial (螞蟻金服) and many other frontier enterprises in China, a visiting lecturer at 浙江湖畔創業研學中心.

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Tamás Gáspár

Dr. Tamás Gáspár is a senior researcher at the Budapest Business School and a research director of the Future Value Chain Centre of Excellence. He has been dealing with futures studies since 1998, published a book – Strategia Sapiens – and several articles. His main interests are the background and the methodology as well as the intergenerational aspects of foresight. For the latter in 2009 he returned to study, became a primary school teacher and has been dealing with children, age 6-12, in various programmes. At the same time he gives courses on research methods and analysis at the university as well as strategic foresight for PhD students.

Tamás is the member of WFSF, and as a member of the Corvinus University futures team he coordinated the organisaiton of the Budapest Futures Courses 1999-2005 and two world conferences in 2005, 2007. He served the Executive Board 2005-2009. Since 2000 he also shares his time with the Association of Somogy People, where he was born. He contributed as an executive board member, an associate president and lately as a president for 16 years. Now he focuses rather on the foresight research questions of the region.

Didi Ananda Devapriya

Didi Ananda Devapriya has been a dedicated meditation teacher since 1996 and the president of AMURTEL Romania since 2005, overseeing various projects including a children’s home, organic farm, kindergarten, and refugee support initiatives. She is an international teacher trainer with the Global Association of Neohumanist Educators, conducting teacher trainings globally, reaching countries such as Romania, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Italy, Australia, the USA, and Haiti. She serves as a professor specializing in Neohumanist Philosophy at the Neohumanist College of Asheville.Didi has co-authored the manual “Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share in Education” for teaching permaculture in educational settings and has published numerous therapeutic children’s stories and make regular contributions to the Gurukul Network journal. In response to the Ukraine refugee crisis in Romania, Didi developed a “Resiliency Workshop” for parents and educators, impacting over 7,500 individuals with mental health services. She is a motivational speaker on the YouTube channel “Meditation Steps” in both English and Romanian. Her extensive experience in yoga and meditation informs her training programs, empowering individuals to build resilience in challenging circumstances.

Iffat Anjum

Iffat Anjum is an Economist and development professional with over ten years of diverse experience in development policy, systems thinking, programme design and innovation across Bangladesh and the Asia region. Iffat is a certified Foresight Trainer by UNDP and the University of Houston’s Foresight Programme and currently serves as the Head of Exploration at the Accelerator Lab of UNDP Bangladesh, a role she has held since 2023. At UNDP, Iffat leads futures thinking and systems innovation workstreams, identifying emerging trends and unlocking innovative solutions to complex development challenges. As part of the UNDP Global Accelerator Lab Network, she has worked at the intersection of policy and experimentation on a wide range of cutting-edge areas- including information integrity, circular economy, artificial intelligence (AI) for development, crowdfunding campaigns, and blockchain solutions.

Sudhir Tiku

Sudhir Tiku has over two decades of diverse global Experience in the AI and Automation Industry. For work, he is Managing Director at KEENFINITY Singapore and has worked for Bosch and GE in the past. His interest is Computer Vision and visual analytics. Sudhir has an engineering degree in Electronics and a Masters in diverse subjects like Finance, Ethics and Philosophy. He is a regular at TEDx circles in Asia Pacific on topics of AI and its impact on humanity. He is also an accomplished writer and can be contacted on LinkedIn where has over 27K followers.

Miranda Meng

Miranda Meng is the founder of Chapter C Co. and a certified Change-Leadership Coach and Organizational Development Consultant. Having lived and worked in the US, Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines, she has partnered with professionals from over 30 countries—from SMEs to Fortune 500 companies—to help leaders and teams innovate and deliver results in uncertainty by expanding influence beyond titles and culture barriers, shifting habitual communication dynamics, and building alignment across differences. She is also building a leadership community to strengthen cross-regional co-creation and amplify Asian voices in shaping regional and global futures. Her work drives sustainable organizational change and people development—grounded in self-awareness, mutual respect, and creating win-win outcomes where both individuals and companies grow.

Russell Clemens

Russell Clemens is a retired civil servant, with a Bachelor’s degree in Business (IT) Studies (1979), and a Masters of Arts / Futures Studies (2005). His 40-year career spanned computing, corporate planning, and policy development. He just submitted his PhD thesis in Futures Studies at the University of the Sunshine Coast (Queensland). The study focused on the future of the endangered Asian elephant species. The research applied Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) and the genealogy of the Futures Triangle (Inayatullah) to construct a grounded color semiotic triple bottom line ‘Rosetta Stone’ communication model linking South India’s UNESCO Nilgiri Biodiversity Region (NBR) with the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Nature Futures Framework (NFF). Mitigating Asian elephant extinction risk in the 21st century requires transforming human-elephant conflict (HEC) into sustainable human-elephant coexistence (HECx). The thesis is designed as a posthuman geophilosophical AI-heuristic based on color theory and futures cone design. It has application in cross-civilizational translation and GIS hodological mapping to increase stakeholder agency.

Vi Thi Phuong

Vi Thi Phuong is a journalist and lecturer at University of Sciences in Vietnam, specializing in journalism and communication. With extensive experience in teaching courses in social media, online writing, and media organization, she has made contributions to both academia and the media industry. Her work includes publishing scientific articles, co-authoring reference books, and serving on editorial boards of international journals.

Beyond academia and journalism, she actively mentors students and engages in projects promoting digital literacy and communication skills. Recognized with multiple national and institutional awards, Dr. Phuong continues to drive innovation and excellence in journalism, with a strong focus on the future of media in the era of digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI). By integrating AI into journalism education and research, she fosters critical awareness of emerging technologies while nurturing a new generation of media professionals who are prepared to lead in an AI-driven world.

Anna Iles

Anna Iles (nee Simpson) is founder-director of the futures thinking agency Flux Compass and leads the working group Futures for Conflict Transformation, convening peace builders and futurists to adapt methodologies to support dialogue in conflict-affected contexts. She has worked for 15+ years in futures for sustainability, including a decade with Forum for the Future, as editor of ‘Green Futures’ magazine and founding curator of the Futures Centre in Singapore, and oversaw emerging issues at Business for Social Responsibility. Under Flux Compass, she has delivered strategic futures projects for UNICEF, YMCA, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam and Global Green Growth Institute, and led futures courses at many schools and universities in Hong Kong. She has published books and papers exploring ways to thrive in complexity and adversity, including ‘Futures for Dialogue’ (JFS, 2020) and ‘The Innovation-Friendly Organization’ (Springer, 2017). She is also a certified life coach (ICF, CPCC), and offers leadership journeys for women and youth via pioneering schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She lives on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, with her three little boys.

Heba Chehade

Heba Chehade leads Foresight Research at the Dubai Future Foundation where she uses research to explore futures and identify policy and practical initiatives that position Dubai as a leading city of the future. With a background in engineering and the social sciences, Dr Chehade applies bespoke interdisciplinary approaches and blue-sky thinking to translate complex insights and innovation into grounded futures and actionable solutions. Her area of research interests focus on the social impact of innovation and interdisciplinary futures in engineering, business and society.

Luke Tay

Luke leads Cornucopia, a Singapore-based, globally oriented foresight and strategy practice advancing future-readiness, sustainability, and innovation across the public, private, and people domains, with a focus on the food systems, urban systems, and supply chain, transport, and travel sectors. Luke is a board member of the Association of Professional Futurists, and a member of the World Futures Studies Federation, the Asia-Pacific Futures Network, the Smart Cities Network, and the Economic Development Board Society of Singapore. Before founding Cornucopia, Luke worked for two decades in leadership and general management roles in the agrifood and transport spheres of the Singapore public service, including (inter)national policy, planning, and strategy roles in food security and supply chain resilience, and portfolios in foresight, people development, infrastructure, operations, and corporate governance.

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