Mary O'Hara Devereaux

Mary O'Hara Devereaux: Profile

Over the last 25 years, Mary has established a global reputation as a steady-eyed forecaster and strategy partner whose legendary trend-spotting and analysis have helped thousands of senior executives around the the world scan, scout, and steer their way towards targets no one else can see.

Mary accurately forecast the period of chaos, disruption, and unrivalled opportunity that will last another decade.

Now—in her famously provocative and pragmatic dispatches from the frontlines of the future—she makes sense of the extraordinary economic and social fault lines that are re-shaping the future of business and reveals the specific implications for any organization that hopes to thrive in turbulent times.

Mary's deep cross-industry, cross-sector experience includes work for a roster of Blue Chip clients in more than 50 countries on seven continents—global corporate clients such as Apple Computer, Oracle, P&G, CITIC-Pacific, Genentech, Royal Canadian Bank, Merck, Ericsson and pre-eminent non-profit leaders including United Way, Kaiser Family Foundation, World Bank, Harvard Kennedy School, Milken Global Institute.

Founder and CEO of San Francisco-based think tank and strategy consulting firm Global Foresight and former Director of the Institute for the Future in Silicon Valley, Mary is renowned for her myth-busting insights that are at once profound, provocative, and pragmatic. Her finger-on-the-pulse forecasting and strategy engagements have fuelled top leaders to propel their companies to long-term sustainable profits.

A China expert, Mary's books China Five-Year Forecast: Creating the New Marketplace and China's Generations: the Transformation of Daily Life are considered the "Bibles" for business leaders wanting to engage successfully in the world's most important emerging market.

Mary's work has been featured on Bloomberg TV, Fox TV, CCTV in China, National Public Radio, AARP Radio and other regional and local radio shows; and in the Wall Street Journal Asia, the Los Angeles Times and other magazines and journals. Mary serves on several corporate and non-profit boards. Recently a professor at Peking University, she has also served as faculty at the University of California. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan, the University of California, and Fielding Graduate University.