Hi, I'm Josh.
or Joshua—no preference

I aim to be a humble student to anyone and everyone—I am of the belief that there is always something you can teach me, and I earnestly want to learn.

Passionately dispassionate—I strongly believe in the importance of epistemic humility, reasoning transparency, and looking inwards to overcome the inevitability of our own innately human capacity for self-deception. 

I am increasingly concerned with the degradation of our public sphere, declining ability for collective sensemaking, and the pervasiveness of simulated thinking. Especially given our modern-day information commons is rife with computational propaganda, AI-enabled distortions, mis- & dis-information, fifth-generation warfare, and so on.

It is my existential hope that—amidst this pivotal era of accelerating and compounding global risks—we wake up, answer the call, and do what's required: reinventing new and effective modalities for relating, communing, and coordinating. These civilizational developments will be central to ethically and regeneratively stewarding much-needed scientific discovery, technological innovation, and societal transformation, ensuring these changes improve the flourishing of life on Earth.  

Most earnestly, I am someone who holds the virtue of integrity with deep reverence. To me personally, this means living in harmony with all my values and maintaining a balance between those values—every single day. Likewise, this includes an attempt to will the world I desire into being; to "answer the call", aligning my actions with my existential hope for positive futures. 

Despite my innately-human inescapable fallibility, I aspire to make a positive impact in the world, and in so doing, I hope to also influence those around me to act in accordance with their deepest values, their most human values, and what is most sacred in life. 

I believe change starts within us and with those closest to us.

If these imperatives and philosophies resonate, reach out—I'd love to chat.

Short bio in the third-person (as of November 2023):

Josh (he/him) is a versatile strategist, researcher, writer, creative, mentor, project manager and operational leader. Some know him as the Sensei of Spreadsheets—in other words, he's really-really good at Excel—but everyone knows him as unremittingly tenacious, a first principles thinker, and a dynamic dependable leader. Josh has been fortunate to develop a well-rounded generalizable set of skills and experiences.

He is also an aspiring autodidact in the fields of complexity science, systems thinking, cognitive science, and global catastrophic risk—to name a few. To that end, he volunteers with a US 501(c)3 non-profit think tank focused on advancing our collective understanding of unprecedented global problems as well as supporting critical interventions to them.

Josh's employment experiences have spanned across the functions of business strategy, technology strategy, organization & management science, corporate finance, economics, project management, impact investing, sustainable finance, and international development. During his six-year tenure as a strategy consultant with global technology and consulting leader, Accenture, Josh consulted for SVP, C-Suite, and board-level executives at North American TSX60, F500 and G2000 corporations, as well as international NGOs, development finance institutions (DFIs), and the purpose-driven divisions of multinational for-profit corporations.

From July to October 2023, Josh took a brief career break in order to: recover from a surgery, complete an international relocation to the UK, and engage in further self-study of systems thinking, disaster risk, AI, x-risks, foresight. 

In May 2024, Josh completed researching and leading a first-of-its-kind global report on the market for AI Assurance Technology (AIAT)—i.e., the products and services that will enable AI companies and AI-adopting organizations to better mitigate the risks of automation and machine intelligence. Josh continues to consult policymakers, investors, and founders working in the AIAT ecosystem or the governance of emerging technologies in general. 

🌄 Trekking — Hiked across Vietnam's Sa Pa Valley Trail (2017); traversed Iceland’s Ring Road (2018); summited Peru’s Salkantay trail (2019); next up, Tour du Mont Blanc, the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim, and Mount Kilimanjaro. Click here to see my treks.

🍎 Personal Health Optimization — Following the latest* in hot/cold exposure, lifestyle, fitness, nutrition, supplementation, biohacking, etc. via Dr.’s Andrew Huberman, Peter Attia, Rhonda Patrick, and more.  *with a discerning and sometimes skeptical eye.

📚 Philosophy & Cognitive Science — A philosophical novice, curious about the consilience between Taoism, Zen Buddhism, Stoicism, Neoplatonism, and the Abrahamic religions, as well as their connections to psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, etc.

🎮 Soulsborne Series — Captivated with the mysterious and complex world building, and the extremely challenging yet fulfilling gameplay dynamics that has been consistently delivered by the FromSoftware studio and their game director Hidetaka Miyazaki. And an honourable mention for Kojima's 2019 philosophical sci-fi action game: Death Stranding. 

Ivey Business School at Western University
Honours Bachelor of Arts, Business Administration (HBA) — 2017

• Dean's Honours List; Western Scholar

• Student Executive Roles: Vice President, Finance @ Western Founders Network 

• Extracurricular Activities: Ivey Technology Club; Ivey Entrepreneurship Club; Ivey Consulting Club, HBA Intramural Soccer; HBA Intramural Ultimate Frisbee
  
  

Relevant Continuing Studies:

• edX  |  The Threat of Nuclear Terrorism  [Course]

• edX  |  Nature-based Solutions for Disaster & Climate Resilience  [Course]

• UNSSC  |  Synergizing Disaster Risk Reduction & Climate Change Adaptation  [Course]

• UN CC:Learn  |  Finding the Money - Financing Climate Action  [Course]

• Ord, T. | The Precipice  [Non-Fiction Book]

• Bostrom, N. | Superintelligence  [Non-Fiction Book]

• 3Blue1Brown | Neural Networks  [Educational Videos]

• Robert Miles AI Safety (Various)  [Educational Videos]