| Institute for Alternative Futures

CLEMENT BEZOLD, PH.D. Founder and Chairman of the Board Clement Bezold is founder and chairman of the Institute for Alternative Futures. Dr. Bezold established IAF in 1977 and in 1982 he started IAF’s for-profit subsidiary, Alternative Futures Associates, to assist corporations in their strategic planning using futures methods. He has been a major developer of foresight techniques, applying futures research and strategic planning methods in both the public and private sectors. As a consultant, Dr. Bezold has worked with many Fortune 500 companies along with major organizations, including the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, the Rockefeller Foundation, AARP and the American Cancer Society. Dr. Bezold has published numerous books and reports on the future of government, the courts and healthcare. He is a consulting editor of the Journal of Futures Studies and is on the editorial or advisory boards of Technology Forecasting and Social Change, foresight, and World Future Review. Dr. Bezold received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Florida. He has been assistant director of the Center for Governmental Responsibility at the University of Florida Law School and a Visiting Scholar at the Brookings Institution. Full Bio >>	JONATHAN PECK President and Senior Futurist Jonathan Peck provides a wide range of research, consulting, speaking, meeting design and facilitation services. A certified Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) practitioner, Mr. Peck has integrated psychological patterns and insights into his facilitation of vision, mission, and strategic processes for corporations, organizations and government agencies. He led IAF’s 2019: Health Care That Works for All project, which has sketched out a visionary outcome of ten years of U.S. healthcare reform. His work on the future of health spans scientific, economic, political and social changes that can be addressed with an understanding of complex systems dynamics. Mr. Peck has co-authored two books and written numerous articles which have been published in Business and Health, Pharmaceutical Executive, Food & Drug Law Review, Clinical Cancer Research, The Monitor, Futures Research Quarterly and many other publications. Mr. Peck received his Master’s degree at the Futures Studies Program in the Political Science Department of the University of Hawaii. Full Bio >>
ERIC MEADE Vice President and Senior Futurist Eric Meade's recent work includes developing scenarios of primary care in 2025 for the Kresge Foundation and of vulnerability in the U.S. in 2030 for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. His work in the future of poverty and development includes a recent article in World Future Review entitled "What if we loved the poor?", developing a "pro-poor scenario toolkit" for the Rockefeller Foundation, and meeting with Grameen Bank founder and Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus to discuss how futures methods can be used to identify emerging opportunities to promote international development. Mr. Meade has worked previously as a business executive in Asia, where he set up the China sourcing operation of U.S. toy company Melissa & Doug, Inc., and as a nuclear submarine officer in the U.S. Navy. Mr. Meade has an MBA from INSEAD and a Bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Virginia. He is also a certified practitioner of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). He serves on the Board of Directors of Counterpart International, a non-profit dedicated to sustainable global develompent, and is a member of the World Future Society and the Association of Professional Futurists. Full Bio >>	BEN SHEPPARD, PH.D. Senior Associate Ben Sheppard, Ph.D. designs and runs war game simulations using IAF’s futures tools. These scenario planning exercises, which are based on war gamingk and customized for corporations, NGO's, and governments, examine the robustness of current and alternative decision making and of organizational structures under various internal and external environments. Dr. Sheppard also consults on resilience planning on man-made and natural disasters, with a particular focus on terrorism and pandemic flu strategies. His work examines how the public responds to terrorist attacks and what authorities can do in such situations, combining international relations and risk analysis techniques (risk communication and risk perception) to enhance homeland security policy development and decision making. Sheppard is the author of The Psychology of Strategic Terrorism: Public and Government Responses to Attack (published by Routledge, 2009). He received his Ph.D. from the War Studies Department at King's College London in the U.K. and is also an Adjunct Fellow of the Potomac Institute, in Washington DC. Sheppard regularly publishes articles on terrorism including for Jane's Defence Weekly. He is also a Professorial Lecturer at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Relations where he teaches the graduate course Political Risk Analysis. Full Bio >>
ROBERT OLSON Senior Fellow Robert L. Olson is a Senior Fellow at IAF and was the Institute’s Director of Research for fifteen years, working as a consultant to leaders in a wide range of government agencies, corporations, and non-profit organizations. Much of his recent work has focused on environmental and energy futures, including projects with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to bring greater foresight into the Agency’s planning. He is a member of the National Advisory Council for Environmental Technology and Policy (NACEPT) and the primary author of the NACEPT report The Environmental Future: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities for EPA. He is the author of Exploring The Future, editor of Mending The Earth, and co-editor with David Rejeski of Environmentalism and the Technologies of Tomorrow. Formerly he served as a consultant to the Director and a project director at the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress. He was for several years a Fellow of the Center for Cooperative Global Development at the American University and has been a Resident Fellow at the University of Illinois Center for Advanced Study. Full Bio >>	WILLIAM ROWLEY, MD Senior Fellow Dr. Bill Rowley is a subject matter expert and frequent keynote speaker on possible futures for a full range of health care issues. He has analyzed trends and developed forecasts and scenarios for specific diseases, advances in biotechnology, the evolution of health systems, and the future of various health professions. He has written articles for numerous publications including U.S. Medicine, Surgery, Stroke, Managed Care, foresight, and Naval Institute Proceedings. His extensive leadership experience includes being chief operating officer of one academic medical center and executive officer of two others. He led the start-up of a managed care organization with 900,000 members. At one medical center he oversaw half a billion dollars of new construction and renovations while making the transition into a regional managed care system. He achieved the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy. Dr. Rowley received a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of Minnesota. He has attended courses of study at the University of Southern California, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, George Washington University and Webster University. Full Bio >>