ComplexChaos

Earlier this December, Tomy and I brought the Enlightenment Movement to Geneva—with the fabulous Sabrina Cohen Dumani, Founder and CEO of Nomads Foundation #SystemThinking superstar. We dove into this juicy question: How do we make large-scale cooperation as personal as a handshake? Sharing our #CollectiveCognition in the below short video, and here’s the TL;DR: ✨ Purpose Matters – In a world of constant scrolling, staying grounded in why keeps things real. 🤝 Break Silos – Arts, finance, food, tech—magic happens when these worlds collide. 🌍 Human > Tech – AI can be a tool for connection, not just another buzzword. 🚀 Dare to Lead – Bold ideas. Big risks. (And yes, plenty of snacks.) Huge thanks to our stellar attendees - here are some of them: Adrian Monck: Senior Advisor, MBZUAI (Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence), who reminded us that AI leadership needs crisp and engaging storytelling to inspire action. Anne Headon: CEO and Founder, @InnovationHub UNIL, championing the next wave of innovation and inclusion. Catarina Amon: CEO and Founder, Classeek, reshaping the arts world with bold digital transformation. Charles Pictet: Architect with a purpose - designing spaces that foster genuine human connection. Clea Kaske-Kuck: Director and Board Member, WBCSD – World Business Council for Sustainable Development, advocating for sustainable and collaborative leadership across industries. Connie Kuang: Lead, Generative AI & Metaverse Value Creation, World Economic Forum (WEF), connecting the multi-dimensional and cross-sectoral application of ai by building diverse cognition knowledge maps. Jean-Luc Favre: President of the Board, Nomads Foundation, pushing the boundaries of what community innovation can achieve. Jonathan Eckart: Senior Manager, Breakthrough Energy , on a mission to solve humanity's energy challenges, aligning market giants elephants with disruptive innovators. Kenneth L. White: Institutional Governance, World Economic Forum, guiding accountability and responsibility in how we govern global and local institutions. Oliver Yorke: Investor Community Lead, World Economic Forum, weaving partnerships to drive impact across philanthropies, VCs, Family Offices, and LPs. Risto Väyrynen: Founder, The Impact Office (TIO), propelling intentionality and collaboration into next gen capital mobilization. Stanislas Lubomirski: COO, Climate Capital, leading climate finance with precision and purpose. 🙌 #AI #Leadership #SystemThinking #GenevaVibes #BigIdeas

🚀🚀 Today we are humbled to announce that thanks to Maya Ben Dror, PhD's leadership with support of Carlos Gershenson we have formed ComplexChaos's Multidisciplinary Scientific Advisory Committee: a group of distinguished researchers, intellectuals, and systems thinkers from some of the world’s leading institutions, including Princeton, Harvard, and MIT, Germany's Max Planck Institute, etc. 🌍 How can we align stakeholders in a multipolar political world to create an inclusive, regenerative, and nature-centric economic and social system—one where the intricate interdependence of nations, peoples, and bioregions thrives in peace? 🌱 How do we reimagine progress while ensuring that human-centric, ethical AI enhances our collective cognition, cooperation, and action to meet the urgent demands of future generations? Hard questions often have many answers and finding actionable, evidence-based, and research-backed solutions is crucial. Meet the Committee that will help shape our product: • Allison Stanger: Co-director of GETTING Plurality at the Harvard Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, explores diverse perspectives and societal plurality in the digital age. • Carlos Gershenson: SUNY Empire Innovation Professor at Binghamton University decodes the mysteries of complex systems, focusing on how self-organizing phenomena shape our world. • Cesar A. Hidalgo: heads the Center for Collective Learning at ANITI Toulouse at the Toulouse School of Economics, exploring how societies evolve knowledge. • Evangelos Pournaras: specializes in distributed intelligence, designing AI systems that uphold trust, ethics, and privacy as Professor of Trustworthy Intelligence at the University of Leeds. • Gianni Giacomelli: leads Design Innovation at MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, shaping how people and AI collaborate, as well as a Senior Advisor to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Goldman Sachs. • Iain Couzin: leads the Collective Behavior Department at the Max Planck Institute, uncovering the rules that govern group dynamics across species. • Karin Frick: Principal Researcher at GDI Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, where she deciphers business and societal trends, guiding us toward the future. • Mirta Galesic: Professor at Santa Fe Institute, where she studies how individual cognition and social structures shape complex societal patterns. • Otto Scharmer: Senior Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lecturer and Founding Chair of the Presencing Institute, author of Theory U and member of the United Nations Learning Advisory Council. • Uri Hertz: Lecturer at the University of Haifa, where he delves into the intricacies of cognitive sciences, exploring how our minds perceive and interact with the world. At ComplexChaos, we believe that collaboration—across disciplines, geographies, and species—is key to navigating the complexities of our time.

Last week our Enlightenment Movement in an AI-Powered Era made its Zurich debut. 🌟 What an evening! Generously hosted at the beautiful, art-rich home of Bilge Ogut and Haro Cumbusyan, co-hosted by Tomy and I ComplexChaos and our amazing ellipsis investors, an extraordinary group of visionaries and changemakers gave our prompt a go: How do we make large-scale cooperation feel as personal as a handshake? ✨ Purpose drives action: In a rapidly evolving digital age, intention and purpose shape how we lead and leverage technology, countering the numbness and disorientation around us. 🤝 Cross-disciplinary cross-pollination: From food systems to finance, manufacturing to the arts, breaking silos is essential for a much-needed re-enlightenment. 🌍 Bridging the socio-technological delta: Leaders who recognize and act on these shifts shape the industries and ecosystems of tomorrow. 🚀 Bold leadership: Transforming challenges into opportunities demands fearless, collaborative, and forward-thinking leadership—grounded in clear problem articulation and an awareness of cognitive and behavioral limits. In #numbers: #22 people, #12 nationalities, #6 sectors, #4 courses, #3 hours, and #1 conversation we somehow seamlessly roamed the fields of trust, history, purpose, rejection, failure and leadership in ways that inspired more doing, and more humanBEING — from the boardroom to the startup. This unforgettable evening was a fabric of personal stories and insights from exceptional humans: Adrian Zwingli: Chairman, Peak Product and Tech Leadership Summit THE AI ANDY FITZE 🧠⛵: Co-founder, SwissCognitive Bilge Ogut: Board Member, VC Partner DALITH Steiger-Gablinger💃🏻🎗️ Steiger: Co-founder, SwissCognitive Erika Marthins: Artistic Collaborator, Ra&D HES, ETH Goekhan Bakir: Engineering Fellow and Investor, ComplexChaos Grace Kwak Danciu: Chair of the Board, HURIDOCS Haro Cumbusyan: Social Entrepreneur Hilda N. Liswani: CEO, WeBloom Iain Couzin: Director, Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour Jurg Haller: Chairman of the Board, Safra Bank Jürgen Galler: Founding Partner, Ellipsis Ventures Karin Frick: Head of Research, Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute Raya Volinsky: Global Partner Solutions, Microsoft Simona Scarpaleggia: Board Member, Ex-CEO IKEA Switzerland Stefan Brock: Head of AI Excellence Center, HPE Tessy Antony-de Nassau: Princess Tessy of Luxembourg, Angel Investor Thomas Dübendorfer: President and Co-founder, SICTIC Thomas Hofmann: Founding Partner, Ellipsis Ventures Thomas Stämpfli: Founder & CEO, Tom Capital AG Yariv Adan: Founding Partner, Ellipsis Ventures This evening was not just a celebration of collaboration but a call to action for distilling, connecting, and co-shaping the future. 🌍 #Collaboration #AI #Leadership #Innovation #FutureFocused #Zurich #ComplexChaos #Ellipsis

👇🏽🇨🇭🌍 our ComplexChaos community keeps growing across the world!

Great insights from our meetings with Maya's former colleagues at the World Economic Forum in Geneva today. We were lucky to have a chat with Klaus Schwab and to learn about the tech leadership of Olivier Schwab in ComplexChaos's domain. It was a pleasure to see the great work Connie Kuang is generating in #DiverseCognition on the convergence of #C4IR technologies, and the opportunities this presents for public-private innovative collaboration around the world. And the impactful work of Pedro G Gomez Pensado, Head of Net-Zero/Climate, Laia Barbarà and their team. Run into Uxio Malvido who has been taking cultural organizational change to the next level, and Julia (Bouron) Devos who so skillfully shares new champions insight and nudges for engaging leadership at growth stage companies.

We are delighted to announce that Zachary Bookman has joined us as our new angel investor and member of the Board of Advisors. Zac is the Co-founder and CEO of OpenGov Inc., a leader in GovTech cloud software with a mission to empower more effective and accountable governments. OpenGov is trusted by over 1900 cities, counties, state agencies, school districts, and special districts across the U.S. OpenGov announced recently its acquisition by Cox Enterprises for $1.8 billion. Before co-founding OpenGov, Zac advised U.S. Army General H.R. McMaster on the Anti-Corruption Task Force at ISAF headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. His legal background includes practicing trial litigation at Keker, Van Nest & Peters in San Francisco and clerking for the Honorable Sandra S. Ikuta on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Zac's academic achievements are noteworthy. He was a Fulbright Fellow studying transparency and corruption in Mexico, holds a JD from Yale Law School, an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School, and was the valedictorian at the University of Maryland. He also serves on the board of Mt. Tamalpais College, the Board of Overseers at the Hoover Institution, and is involved with the Young Presidents’ Organization and the Council on Foreign Relations. Zac is actively involved in advising various technology companies and funds. His accolades include being named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, one of Goldman Sachs' 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs, and recognized in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley Business Journal's 40 under 40. We are excited to have Zac on board and look forward to his valuable contributions.

We are excited to announce that the Founding Designer of WhatsApp Anton Borzov is joining us as an angel investor and member of our Board of Advisors. Anton is a highly experienced product designer with over two decades of expertise, having played a key role in developing globally renowned products such as WhatsApp and Neeva. Throughout his illustrious career, he has partnered with founders and teams, focusing on recruiting and mentoring design and product professionals. His passion revolves around creating innovative products that enhance human connections and curiosity. Currently, Anton is a partner at StratMinds a venture capital firm based in San Francisco that specializes in applied artificial intelligence. He is eager to work with startup founders who are dedicated to crafting exceptional user experiences, offering his valuable expertise and insights. In addition to his professional endeavors, Anton is an active contributor to the Ukrainian startup and design communities. Anton laid the groundwork for his future achievements by studying Specialist in Physics at Dnipropetrovs'kij Nacional'nij Universitet. His professional journey boasts roles such as Partner at STRATMINDS, Founding Product Designer and Head of Design at Neeva Product Designer at WhatsApp Founder and Creative Director at Tokyo.in.ua, Founder and Designer at Invisible Presence, and various design roles at ELRO, New Damage, and PayPlay.

Our co-founder Maya Ben Dror, PhD is today in Madrid participating of an exciting discussion on the multi-stakeholder complexity of "Sustainable Mobility: lessons learned in Europe and future perspectives". She will participate on the main stage along with: • Lars Hoffmann with Todos Eléctricos • Pierre-Yves Sachet. Executive Vice President Mobility & New Commerce, Moeve • Roger Atkins, Founder Electric Vehicles Outlook Ltd • Sampo Hietanen, Owner Aspectu Oy

A letter from Yvon Chouinard, founder of 1% for the Planet "Every advancement in this society has been done through activism: It’s grassroots movements. It’s nongovernmental organizations operating where there’s no market, no shareholders, no bullshit. It’s businesses being courageous and doing their part. I founded 1% for the Planet in 2002 to create a movement for moments like this. Businesses can and must make a collective difference in this fight moving forward. It’s simple: every business should be committed to people and the planet, above all else—for future generations and any future economy. The time is now to commit and join a powerful community of activists. In 2020, Patagonia urged everyone to vote the assholes out. In 2024, don’t be an asshole: commit your business to 1% for the Planet" Yvon Chouinard, Founder of Patagonia and 1% for the Planet In 2002, Yvon Chouinard founded 1% for the Planet and Patagonia became the first business to commit 1% of annual sales to the environment. Today, the 1% for the Planet network consists of over 4,700 businesses and individuals that contribute to environmental nonprofits in over 110 countries. To date, 1% for the Planet has directed over $672 million to these grassroots organizations working toward a better world. https://lnkd.in/gYKgiXrR

We are thrilled to announce Christopher Ategeka as our new Board Advisor! Chris Ategeka is an engineer, entrepreneur, and an accomplished author of eight fiction and non-fiction books. Before becoming a prolific writer, he founded and led multiple companies, building a career rooted in innovation and impact. He also serves on the board of YES Uganda, a non-profit dedicated to empowering orphaned and vulnerable youth to become self-reliant and thriving members of their communities—an initiative from which Chris himself once benefited. As a mentor, Chris has guided countless startups through prestigious programs like the Techstars Incubator and the Unreasonable Institute, both of which equip mission-driven entrepreneurs with the skills and resources needed to create large-scale impact. Chris’s efforts have earned him numerous international accolades. He was named to Forbes magazine's “30 Under 30” list and recognized as a TED Fellow, Ashoka Fellow, Echoing Green Fellow, and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2021, his alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley, honored him with the Mark Bingham Award for excellence in achievement by a young alumnus within the past decade, presented by Chancellor Carol Christ and the UC Berkeley Foundation Board of Trustees. Chris holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley, cementing his deep-rooted passion for problem-solving and social change through education and entrepreneurship. With his wealth of experience and dedication to social entrepreneurship, we are confident that Chris Ategeka will be an invaluable asset to our board.