Dr. Morgan Gerard

Senior Fellow

ANTHROPOLOGY, INNOVATION

Collaborating with thoughtful, forward thinking organizations to help them develop better ways of being in the world, Morgan works with leaders in the public and private sectors to develop more socially and financially sustainable tomorrows. That means applying ethnographic research, human-centric design, design thinking, and resilience to his work. Before the establishment of the Human Futures Studio, he served as Chief Resident Anthropologist of Idea Couture, Canada’s first innovation agency, where he spent 10 years cracking big, hairy strategic innovation challenges for global clients such as Burberry, PepsiCo, Diageo, BMO, Kraft, HTC, UCB and AbbVie as well as building a team of anthropologists and foresight strategists. A student of ritual and transformation, Morgan holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Toronto.

Dr. Paul Hartley

Executive Director, Research Lead

ANTHROPOLOGY, ETHNOMUSICOLOGY, FORESIGHT

Once a gigging classical clarinetist, Paul ran away from his orchestra to become a consulting anthropologist and foresight practitioner.

Previously co-Head of Global Insights, Head of Human Futures and Technology and Sr. Resident Anthropologist at the global innovation firm Idea Couture, he has provided his expertise to help an extensive list of clients, including Spotify, KONE, Nikon, Research In Motion, Samsung, HTC, Whirlpool, UCB, Eli Lilly, AbbVie, RBC Royal Bank, CitiBank, GAP, Ford Motors, American Express, Smart Tech and others.

With expertise in Science and Technology Studies (STS), ethnography, applied anthropology, and semiotics, Paul developed an applied methodology that combines anthropological and foresight perspectives and methods to explore the transformation of culture, society, and technology. He has a passion for true immersive participant observation and has presented his work in academic journals, popular magazines, and international conferences.

Awarded a Fulbright-IIE fellowship in 2010 to conduct the research for his doctoral dissertation in ethnomusicology, Paul studied the social impact of new media and technologies in the Turkish film industry in Istanbul, Turkey. He continues to expand on this work and examine the true role of technology in creative, human endeavours. He can occasionally be heard in film soundtracks.

Dr. Daniel Mai

Research Fellow

ORGANIZATIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY, ANTHROPOLOGY

Daniel is a trained business anthropologist and innovation consultant who is passionate about exploring the socio-cultural dynamics between people, technologies, and brands. His PhD research and dissertation was conducted in collaboration with AUDI AG where he helped the German company to understand their own culture and identity.

Daniel previously worked as an innovation consultant and human insights specialist for ReD Associates and Idea Couture, digging deep into the needs, challenges, and desires of various stakeholder groups in the healthcare sector, automotive, and other industries.

When not busy in innovation consulting, Daniel and his jazz combo stir up the Berlin music scene. Daniel is the author of "Organizational Cultures of Remembrance" and holds a PhD in Organizational Culture Studies and Ethnography from Justus-Liebig-University in Germany.

Dr. Ashley Metz

Research Fellow, Assistant Professor at Tilburg University

ORGANIZATION STUDIES, FORESIGHT, STRATEGY

Ashley Metz is an Assistant Professor of Organization Studies at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.  Her research is at the intersection of organizations and society.  One stream of work investigates how organizations and fields with impact goals organize, with a focus on how and what they value and the role of power in that process. She specializes in qualitative methods that aim to help uncover processes, meaning and rich, contextualized insights. She also conducts research on strategic foresight, and has studied change and learning in healthcare organizations. 

Prior to her academic career, Ashley worked in the concept and strategy team and product marketing strategy at HERE, previously of Nokia, served as Chair and Nokia representative for the citizen focus action cluster in the European Commission Smart Cities and Communities programme, which worked on inclusiveness and sustainability in cities.  Previously, she conducted research for the UNDP and European Venture Philanthropy Association and co-founded a technology education nonprofit. 

She studied literature and writing at Northwestern University (BA), received an MBA from IESE Business School and defended her PhD at the Hertie School of Governance, therefore combining humanities and social sciences with an applied and rigorous understanding of business and organizing. 

Karl Schroeder

Research Fellow

FORESIGHT, SCIENCE FICTION

Karl Schroeder is an award-winning author and foresight researcher whose ten novels have been translated into a dozen languages. His Master’s degree is in Strategic Foresight and Innovation. As a futurist, he pioneered a new mode of writing that blends fiction and rigorous futures research. His early short novels Crisis in Zefra (2005) and Crisis in Urlia (2011) are innovative ‘scenario fictions’ commissioned by the Canadian army as study and research tools. This and his numerous short commissions have helped legitimize narrative as an analytical and reporting tool.

Victoria Scrubb

Research Manager, Insights

ANTHROPOLOGY, HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Victoria is an interdisciplinary researcher, scholar, and thinker who had her academic start in Life Science before finding her affinity for ethnography in Anthropology and its application in Human Geography. She has a practiced hand in co-coordinating and running research projects across numerous disciplines in addition to spending time in the field in Asia, Africa and Europe. As a researcher and research manager she has helped some of the world's biggest companies on some wicked problems.

Victoria jumped to corporate research from the academic world where she immersed herself in the commercial perspectives of research. She is passionate about people and understanding the complexity of the world we have built around us.

She has a Bachelor of Science from McMaster University, a Honours Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Toronto and a Masters of Science (with Distinction) in Human Geography and Urban Studies from the London School of Economics. She hopes to round out her degrees with a PhD in Human Behaviour & Design.