Olaf Groth

Olaf Groth is Global Professor of Management, Strategy, Innovation & Economics at Hult International Business School.

Prof. Groth is a global management, innovation and strategy professor, adviser and executive with 20 years of experience in corporations, advisory firms and academia. He advises senior executives internationally on global innovation trends, strategy, ecosystems and commercial diplomacy, primarily in the digital, energy, transportation and infrastructure domains. He has experience in executive and advisory roles with Q.Cells North America, Monitor Group, Qualcomm, Boeing, Vodafone, AirTouch and a transportation data start-up.

Dr. Olaf Groth is a futures & strategy adviser, capacity builder and new ventures executive for disruption through DeepTech and the 4th Industrial Revolution toward a Society 5.0. He is a speaker on tech, disruption, AI, big data, cybersecurity and the future of work.

From a home base of San Francisco and Silicon Valley Dr. Groth serves as a Professor of Global Strategic Management, Innovation & Economics and Program Director for Disruption Futures at Hult International Business School, teaching across a global campus network in San Francisco, Boston, New York, London, Dubai and Shanghai.

As CEO of think-tank network Cambrian.ai Dr. Groth advises on reconceiving futures, strategies, networks and organizations for clients seeking to initiate or adjust to disruption globally. He has served on advisory boards of Fortune 100 companies as well as startups, having held managerial roles at or consulted with the likes of Bechtel, Boeing, Caruma Technologies, Chevron, Ferrari, GE ecomagination, GKN, Monitor, NASA, Phillips 66, Qualcomm, Q-Cells, Siemens, VCs, Vodafone, VW and YIT.

Dr. Groth is a member of the Global Expert Network for the 4th Industrial Revolution at the World Economic Forum, a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley’s Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE) and its program Working in the Era of Intelligent Tools & Systems (WITS). He has served as a Sr. Fellow at the Center for Competitiveness at Grenoble École de Management and the Institute for Business in the Global Context at Tufts University’s Fletcher School.

Dr. Groth speaks and testifies frequently on disruptive technology trends in the global economy, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Fully Autonomous Vehicles, the Internet of Things and the 4th Industrial Revolution. He has published in Financial Times, HBR, Harvard Business Manager Deutschland, HBR France, HBR Italia, WIRED, Quartz (The Atlantic), World Economic Forum, Huffington Post, Peter Drucker Forum, LSE, Decision Lab, Today’s CFO, Thunderbird International Business Review, World Financial Review, European Business Review, Roubini EconoMonitor, Hult Publishing and The Case Center. He is co-author of the book “Solomon’s Code: Humanity in a World of Thinking Machines” (2018) , which has received media attention on Deutsche Welle’s global DW News and elsewhere.

Dr. Groth holds PhD and MALD degrees in international affairs with business, economics and technology focus from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, MAIPS and BA degrees with economics focus from Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, in addition to studies at Harvard, Georgetown and Berkeley.

Listen to Olaf discuss artificial intelligence and human-centered design on the WorldAffairs Podcast.