Gurus Rank & Categories 2026
Roger Spitz
Top-ranked futurist · Strategic foresight · AI · Author

Roger Spitz

#15Futurist · global 2026#6Americas editionUSSan Francisco, United States
Visible Impact · Verified 2026 · Futurist

“While algorithms can calculate the probable, only humans can invent the impossible.”

500+keynotes on six continents
100,000+leaders in the room
$25Bin technology M&A transactions led
5bestselling books
Visible Impact · the standard

What changed because of this work

Three questions, answered by the guru, checked by the research team. Not what they think. What they changed.

01 · The problem

Strategy built for a future that no longer arrives on schedule

Boards, investors and governments still plan on forecasts and single-point probabilities while disruptions interact, amplify and cascade across sectors and borders. The cost shows up as strategies that break at the first shock and decisions delayed until data exists for a future that has not happened yet.

Field prompt: what was broken, for whom, and what it was costing.
02 · The original method

Foresight as an operating system, with human agency at the centre

A set of proprietary frameworks built from Silicon Valley technology M&A and futures research: AAA (Antifragile, Anticipatory, Agility) for foundations that strengthen through shocks, DECODE for structured foresight and anticipatory decisions, Metaruptions for reading systemic disruption, and Techistentialism for keeping human judgment in charge in the AI era.

Field prompt: the framework in one paragraph, and what makes it yours.
03 · The measurable result

The adoption number is his to give

Roger has delivered more than 500 keynotes to over 100,000 leaders in 40+ countries, and his profile records expanding institutional adoption of his frameworks. Those are reach. Under the Visible Impact standard this card waits for a before and after from his own advisory work: a board that reallocated capital after a foresight programme, a measured change in decision speed or resilience, over a stated period.

Field prompt: the number before, the number after, the period. Volume (“trained 40,000 people”) does not qualify.
VerifiedFigures checked by the Global Gurus research team against Roger Spitz’s submission and public records.
Who he is

From technology M&A to futures intelligence

Roger Spitz is President of Techistential and Chair of the Disruptive Futures Institute in San Francisco, where he advises CEOs, boards, institutional investors and government leaders on anticipating and navigating disruption. As Global Head of Technology M&A at BNP Paribas he led more than 50 transactions worth $25 billion and built the bank’s US M&A platform. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s AI Global Alliance and Global Foresight Network, a Venture Partner at Berkeley SkyDeck and Vektor Partners, on the faculty of Duke Corporate Education, and writes an AI column for MIT Technology Review Brasil. Featured on CNN, Bloomberg and Fast Company.

What he talks about
Systemic disruptionStrategic foresightAI and human agencyAnticipatory governanceSystems innovationBoards and investorsGeopolitics, geoeconomics, geotechnologyResilience and antifragility
Rank history
2026#15Futurist
Earlier years appear as the archive is added.
Visible Impact2026Futurist · Global #15

The badge that says what he changed

Every verified guru gets one: year, category, global rank, and the standard it was earned against. Made for LinkedIn, email signatures and speaker one-sheets.

Proprietary frameworks

A new operating system for unpredictability

Four of the tools Roger’s clients use to reframe disruption, develop foresight and turn insight into action.

Roger Spitz speaking
01

AAA

Antifragile, Anticipatory, Agility: build foundations that strengthen through shocks and bridge present decisions with longer-term vision.

02

DECODE

Define, Explore, Create, Option, Design and Enable: a six-step approach to possible futures and anticipatory decision-making.

03

Metaruptions

Disruption 3.0: a multidimensional view of systemic disruption where forces interact, amplify and cascade across sectors, geographies and time horizons.

04

Techistentialism

A framework connecting technology, existence and decision-making, with human agency at the centre of AI-era resilience.

The book
Disrupt With Impact, book cover

Disrupt With Impact

Achieve business success in an unpredictable world. Winner of the 2024 Chanticleer International Book Awards and 2024 Foreword INDIES, plus the 2025 Readers’ Favorite award. One of five bestselling books, alongside the four-volume The Definitive Guide to Thriving on Disruption.

“There is no data on the future.”

Questions worth asking him
  1. You led $25 billion of technology deals. What did that teach you about how leaders really make decisions under uncertainty?
  2. What is a metaruption, and why is it different from the disruption everyone already talks about?
  3. If there is no data on the future, what should a board actually base a decision on?
  4. Where does human agency survive in an organisation run on AI?
  5. Which of your frameworks do clients resist most, and what changes when they stop resisting?

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