Swarming over and under the currents
The Global Swarm
Board of Directors
You can find us all across the globe, from Nairobi to Mexico City and Taipei. We work in academia, civil society, and local communities to support people-led futures.
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As a co-operartive and a community platform, we focus on doing good work and having a strong community. As members join the co-op they will be featured here (if they wish). For now, we’re showing the folks who are putting the work to initiating and sustaining the community. We hope you will join us in our efforts.
Steven Lichty has over 25 years’ experience with strategic foresight, international development, research, evaluation, consulting, and humanitarian response across Africa, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Americas. Steven completed his doctoral studies in African studies, anthropology, and political theory; with a graduate degrees in futures studies, international relations, development, and political science; and an undergraduate education in business, economics, and communications.
– Co-founder and Managing Partner of REAL Consulting Group
– Social architect and founder of The Frontline Group
– Founder/Director of REAL Studio
– Founder/Director of Frontline Futures
– Global experience in over 80 countries
Pupul Bisht is a a multidisciplinary strategist, designer, and globally recognized thought leader advocating for the power of storytelling in shaping just, inclusive, and equitable futures. Pupul has experience working closely with policy-makers, non-profit organizations, and local communities around the world to challenge hegemonic ideas and re-imagine narratives of our collective futures.
As the Winner of the Next Generation Foresight Practitioners Award 2018, Pupul founded the Decolonizing Futures Initiative, which aims to engage marginalized communities in imagining their preferred futures. She also hosts panels on the Future of Storytelling at the NABShow, hosted annually in Las Vegas by the National Association of Broadcasting, USA, discussing the latest innovations in the field of media & entertainment and their impact on the world.
Pupul has been invited as a keynote speaker at prestigious global platforms such as the 76th United Nations General Assembly, Bavarian Film Centre (Munich), ESPAS Conference (Brussels), Publicis Groupe (New York), SDNow Conference (Australia). She has also spoken at UNESCO Global Futures Literacy Design Forum (Paris), PRIMER Conference (NYC), and the Global Foresight Summit among many others.
Jose Ramos is a social innovator, researcher, advocate for the commons and a mutant futurist. He has 20 years as a futures thinker / advocate, writer and organiser. He has a great passion for exploring who we are as planetary beings, which includes ethnographic study of alternative globalizations, writings on planetary stigmergy / collaboration, and research on cosmo-localization. This line of work connects him to the truth that we are all brothers and sisters on a planet that we mutually depend on for our survival and wellbeing – our shared commons.
He is originally from California of Mexican ancestry. Born in Oakland, he grew up in a very multi-cultural suburb of Los Angeles. After living in Japan and Taiwan, where he studied Japanese and Mandarin, he moved to Melbourne Australia to be with his wife, De Chantal. They have two children, son Ethan and daughter Rafaela.
Esmee Wilcox helps organisations find clarity in the reality and messiness of behavioural transitions. She works with organisations who know they need to change their approach to behaviour change, but aren’t sure how, where, when, or with whom. They know the ‘future of work’ means rethinking how we connect, how we produce, how we keep well and how we live. But how does that inform decisions in the here and now?
Esmee have 20+ years experience leading complex change initiatives, from a first career in policy and political engagement across central government, a second career in health and care in local government, and now working with businesses, social impact organisations and public sector institutions where multiple actors need to collaborate to form more fit for purpose operating models.
Donna Dupont is a Foresight and Design Strategist with a focus in disaster risk management. She explores emerging and potential future risk. I use strategic foresight and design methods to identify opportunities for preparedness, recovery, adaptation and transformation, to enhance the future well-being and resiliency of communities.
After years of working in health care and emergency management and dealing with complex systems, Donna became interested in learning about design methods that support a holistic approach, help navigate complexity and engage with uncertainty in order to support innovative and sustainable solutions.
Member: Association of Professional Futurists (APF), International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), Canadian Risks & Hazards Network (CRHNet); Archipelago of Design / Innovation Methodologies for Defence Challenges (IMDC) DND MINDS collaborative network; Special Operation Forces (SOF) Hive Minds Project
Daniel Riveong is an academically trained futurist and was a 2018 Emerging Fellow for the Association of Professional Futurists on Global South issues. Daniel’s foresight work includes use of gaming for participatory foresight, workshop facilitation, foresight tools development, futures-related research, and report development. In his previous career, Daniel was the Asian region GM for a digital consultancy in Kuala Lumpur. He co-led digital transformation workshops for Yves Saint Laurent to Fitness First. He has also co-presented papers with the Indonesian Statistics Agency.
- Diverse foresight experience – from foresight toolkits for innovation teams to futures-focused reports on complex multi-domain systems
- Led foresight and digital transformation workshops in Asia, Europe, US
- Researched Global South economies with APF & Indonesian Government
Abril Chimal is a curious mind who found a perfect playground for exploration between creative design and academic knowledge within futures. She has a graphic design background and a specialization in Design of Tomorrow at CENTRO in Mexico City. At present, she is the Chief Pollinator for the Participatory Futures Global Swarm. In her position, she creates an intersectional space to foster Participatory Futures projects around the globe. Abril has been a speaker, facilitator, collaborator, and mentor with UNDP Panama, UNDP RBAS, and UNDP Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is also professor of Futures Thinking & Creativity at CENTRO in Mexico City and also serves as the Technical Editor for the Journal of Futures Studies. To catch a glimpse of the past, presents and future of Mexico City, check out her Instagram: @abrilchimal
Nur Anisah PhD graduated with a PhD (Operations Research) from Strathclyde University and is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists. She helps organisations plan strategically, and to design and develop performance measurement systems for organisational improvement. She uses foresight and scenario planning to help organisations go beyond just forecasting to the generation of preferred futures. Her portfolio of strategy development workshops includes UNDP Georgia and Innovative Service Lab Georgia, Employee Provident Fund Malaysia, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, National Higher Education Research Institute Malaysia and International Islamic University Malaysia. Her teaching and research work now extends to Foresight and higher education. She also leads the JFS Community of Practice.
- Facilitating futures of higher education – ministerial, country and university leadership; public engagement
- Facilitating & teaching foresight at the MBA Strathclyde Business School
- 4+ years in advancing Futures Literacy; Futures Sandbox – Global Futures Festival 2017