John Sanei comes alive at the intersection of human psychology and futurism and uses his truly unique perspective to discover elegant ways for his global audience to build the clarity and courage needed to approach the future with confidence. Not only is John Africa’s first Singularity University faculty member and a lecturer at Duke Corporate Education, but he is also an Associate Partner at The Copenhagen Institute of Future Studies. His rare ability to combine his fascination with emerging technology and its impact on society with a clear understanding of the way memories and stories influence our reality has seen him share the stage with several world-renowned thought leaders, including Yuval Harari, Nassim Taleb and Robin Sharma, amongst many others. 

Dr. Abedian was a professor of economics at the University of Cape Town, before entering the business sector in 2000. He obtained his BA (Honours) and MA in Economics from the University of Cape Town (UCT). He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Simon Fraser University in Canada in 1993. He has served as a consultant on economic policy issues to public and private sector organizations in South Africa as well as internationally. From September to December 1999, Dr. Abedian was based at the IMF, Washington D.C., working on issues related to fiscal vulnerability assessment. In January 2000 he joined The Standard Bank Group at their head office in Johannesburg as Group Chief Economist. He was appointed Director and Group Economist in April 2000 and was a member of the Standard Bank Group EXCO. 

He is a leading member of the UK’s futurist community. As a consultant he has worked on dozens of scenarios and scanning projects for clients in the private, public and third sectors, using a wide variety of techniques. His clients have included the UK government’s Foresight Programme (see, for example, Intelligent Infrastructure Systems or Powering Our Lives)  and the UK Environment Agency, where a set of 50-year scenarios informed the Agency’s 50-year water strategy. He was also the lead author of the UK Cabinet Office report, Understanding Best Practice In Strategic Futures. Other scenarios projects include ones on economic development, regulation, and sustainability.

He is the Vice Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists. Before joining The Henley Centre in 1999 (which later became part of The Futures Company) he worked as a financial journalist for the BBC and Channel 4 News, as a television producer, and in interactive media.