Dr. Mark van Rijmenam ·
Futurist and AI keynote speaker
Leadership retreats are where AI strategy gets decided. Mark helps your leaders decide with judgment, not instinct.
Mark works with leadership teams at their retreats and offsites, with a keynote built around your organization, not AI in general. Your leaders leave knowing what’s coming, what it means for your business, and what to decide first.
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A Fortune 200 company brought Mark to its annual leadership retreat, and its senior leaders rated the session 4.6 out of 5. Trusted by leaders at Microsoft, Dell, Nestlé, Mastercard and EY. Named one of the 16 leading AI voices by Salesforce, and ranked the world’s #1 futurist by Global Gurus for 2025.
91% of C-suite executives admit to exaggerating their AI knowledge. The decisions still get made.
Pluralsight, AI Skills Report 2025White paper
Most organizations are meeting AI with fight, flight or freeze
When technology moves faster than anyone can absorb, organizations fall back on instinct. Each instinct has a price.
Fight
Spending before understanding.
64% of CEOs say the fear of falling behind drives them to invest in some technologies before they clearly understand the value, and only a quarter of their AI initiatives have delivered the expected return. IBM CEO Study, 2025
Flight
Waiting it out.
More than four in 10 companies abandoned most of their AI initiatives, more than double the share a year earlier. S&P Global Market Intelligence, 2025
Freeze
Going quiet.
45% of people who use AI at work say it feels safer to stick to current goals than to redesign their work with it. Microsoft Work Trend Index, 2026
The cost isn’t only financial. More than four in 10 US job seekers find an employer that offers AI training more attractive than a similar one that doesn’t, and 14% would take lower pay to get it. iCIMS, 2026
All three instincts share one root cause: leaders deciding without an honest picture of where the organization stands, because people tell leaders what is safe, not what is true.
The Readiness Illusion
Which instinct is your organization running on? Mark’s white paper for C-suite executives and boards sets out the evidence, six questions every board should be able to answer, and a quick check to score your own organization.
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Five questions every leadership team should be able to answer honestly
The first four are the pillars of Mark’s WAVE framework, from his book Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change. The fifth asks whether you are ready for what comes after. Mark helps your leaders answer all five for your business, and decide what to do first.
Built around your organization
Before Mark speaks, he does his homework: briefing calls with your executive team and, if you choose, a confidential read from your own people through the Intelligence Age Scorecard. That is why the keynote is about your business.
How the Scorecard works >>>
Do you see change coming, or does it arrive?
Spot the shifts in technology, markets and regulation that matter while they are still small enough to act on.
Can you move when conditions shift, or do teams wait for permission?
Move money and people when the evidence changes, with a long-term purpose in mind.
Do you know whether what you are being told is true?
Check AI outputs, vendor promises and your own assumptions before decisions rest on them.
Are your people able to act, or only to escalate?
Put decisions close to the work, with the skills and the permission to use new technology.
Ready today is not ready for next year. If software did most of your knowledge work, and robots most of your physical work, who would you employ, who would decide, and where would your revenue come from?
See Mark Live
Keynotes that change how leaders think about technology, risk and the decade ahead, at leadership retreats and at conferences around the world. In person, virtually or live as a .
9.2 out of 10 keynote rating · 200+ events · 32 countries · 80+ client recommendations
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“When intelligence is everywhere,
judgment is everything.”
Three ways
to bring Mark to your leadership retreat
Each option comes at one all-inclusive price, with travel and accommodation included.
The keynote
Clarity on what’s coming
A 45- to 60-minute keynote and 30 minutes of Q&A on what AI and the technologies that follow it mean for your business, written for your industry and strategy after briefing calls with your executive team.
The keynote and the Scorecard
A keynote about your organization, not AI in general
Before the retreat, Mark hears from your own people, in confidence, on how ready the organization really is: we recommend 10 to 20% of your workforce, all included in the price. He uses what they tell him to aim the keynote at what your leaders most need to hear, and you keep a live dashboard of where you stand, by department, region and seniority.
The keynote, the Scorecard and the publication
Your leadership’s thinking, on the record
Everything above, plus a report on how your top leaders see the future, in one version for your board and one for the market. A former Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg journalist interviews eight to 10 of your C-suite or board members, with Mark as editor-in-chief.
The retreat is where it starts. When employees get strong support from their leaders on AI, the share who feel positive about it rises from 15% to 55% (BCG, 2025). So every attendee takes home Now What? with a personal message from your CEO, every Scorecard participant gets a personal report and a 90-day action plan, and you can add the rights to share the keynote recording across your organization, or a guided session for your board.
What leaders say
At a Fortune 200 company’s annual leadership retreat, with the Scorecard across its senior leadership, this is how the leaders described the session, in their own words:
“Thought provoking and makes me think I need to adapt.”
“Interesting and terrifying at the same time.”
Senior leaders, Fortune 200 company
Chief of Staff to the CEO, RGA
“Exceptional.”
Global CTO, Dell Technologies
“It’s also worth noting his dedication to tailoring the content, from his keynote to the fireside chat and live Q&A, ensuring a truly relevant and engaging experience for everyone involved.”
Editor-chefe,
HSM Management
(SEST SENAT Summit)
“Mark stayed with us throughout the two-day event, bringing insights from other speakers, delivering the final presentation, and enriching the discussion far beyond just showcasing his years of work. He stayed on stage for 1.5 hours, and the transportation industry audience was amazed. If you’re looking for a sure bet in innovation, professionalism, and flawless execution, Mark is the right person.”
The Book
Behind the Framework
Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change is the operating manual for the Intelligence Age. It introduces the WAVE framework, maps the ten technologies reshaping every industry, and provides the decision architecture leaders need when playbooks expire faster than committees can update them. Whether you’ve seen Mark on stage or you’re discovering his work for the first time, this is where the thinking lives. When Mark speaks at your leadership retreat, every attendee receives a copy, with a personal message from your CEO.
“The future isn’t on the horizon. It’s crashing down on us like a tsunami. The question isn’t if change will impact you. It’s how you will navigate it.”
Also by Dr. van Rijmenam: Future Visions · Step into the Metaverse · The Organisation of Tomorrow · Blockchain · Think Bigger
Synthetic Minds · On Substack
Thinking Out Loud
Short notes as the thinking happens, and one longer synthesis every Tuesday pulling the week together.
Weekly meta-analysis
Synthetic Minds | Your Next Customer Is a Machine That Barely Spends
A hundred AI agents ran a town economy and changed three tenths of one percent of the prices. A rail for agent payments has gone live across 1.5 billion accounts. Mark van Rijmenam on how to read a faint signal: do not change course, and do not ignore it, because exploring it is never wasted effort.
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New notes appear here as they are posted. The latest synthesis is up now.
Follow on Substack →As of · latest on Substack
The Annual Outlook
Each year, Mark publishes a comprehensive analysis of the 10 technology forces that will define the next 12 months, structured through the WAVE framework. Now in its 14th edition.
Dr.
Mark
van Rijmenam
is The Architect of Tomorrow: a strategic futurist who has worked with Fortune 500 companies and governments across five continents. He is the author of six books, most recently Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change, holds a PhD from the University of Technology Sydney, and is a Certified Speaking Professional and Global Speaking Fellow. Salesforce recognized him as one of 16 global voices shaping the future of AI.
He has published peer-reviewed research on strategy under uncertainty, gave the world’s first TEDx talk in virtual reality, and built a digital twin of himself that speaks 29 languages. But the credential that matters most is this: when leaders face a decision about technology that will outlast the next quarter, they call Mark. Not for predictions, for judgment.
In 2011, he cycled 14,122 kilometers around Australia in 100 days to raise money for children’s cancer research. He approaches the future the same way: one deliberate pedal stroke at a time.
Read Full Bio
Bring Mark to
your leadership retreat
If your leaders know they have to act on AI but don’t yet agree on how, that is the moment to talk. Tell us about your leadership team and when they meet, and we will come back within 24 hours with one proposal and one price.
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