Guest blogger: Marina Gorbis

I'm pleased to introduce our next guestblogger, Marina Gorbis. Marina is executive director of Institute for the Future, a 40-year-old non-profit thinktank in Palo Alto where I'm a research director. IFTF helps companies, governments, foundations, and other organizations think about longterm future trends to make better decisions in the present. Marina a terrific thinker, an effective administrator, a generous person, and a humble soul. She's also very funny, a tad cynical, and a hardcore bluegrass fan -- all traits I appreciate in a friend and mentor. I'm delighted that Marina's agreed to spend some time with us. From Marina's bio:

A native of Odessa, Ukraine, Marina is particularly suited to see things from a global perspective. She has directed international programs and led international development projects for SRI (formerly Stanford Research Institute) in China, Japan, Vietnam, India, and Eastern Europe. Marina has also authored publications on international business and economics, with an emphasis on regional innovation and competitiveness.

In addition to serving as IFTF's Executive Director, Marina led the Technology Horizons Program for several years, focusing on the innovation at the intersection of new technologies and social organization. She has initiated a Global Ethnographic Network (GEN), a multi-year ethnographic research program which tries to develop an understanding of daily lives of people in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Silicon Valley, in an attempt to integrate their voices into IFTF's forecasts. She has also led several major private client engagements at IFTF, the most recent being a global Science & Technology Forecast for the UK Government's Department of Science & Technology. She holds an M.P.P. from the University of California, Berkeley, a certificate in international business from the University of London, and a B.A. in industrial psychology, also from the University of California, Berkeley. California, Berkeley.

Marina Gorbis at IFTF

• [Anonymous]

  welcome!

• [Anonymous]

  An ex-Ukrainian futurist who’s fond of Bluegrass?
  What a great combination! Welcome indeed…

• [tyrsalvia]

  Hi!

  Would you tell us how one might get a job like yours? What you do seems really awesome, and yet I would have no idea how to find a career path that would lead me somewhere like IFTF.

  I see that you worked for SRI. My dad worked there for 35 years, and I’ve always been interested in research organizations like this. I’m more of a sociology type than a scientist, and it’s never been very clear to me what sort of qualifications research organizations look for in job candidates.

  I’d love to hear more about how you came to your position at IFTF, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

  Thanks for guest blogging!