The Futurist Who Shows Up After the Hype
Dr. Mark van Rijmenam helps leaders decide what AI, and the technologies that follow it, mean for their business when certainty is missing and the stakes are high. He speaks to leadership teams at their retreats and offsites, and to conference audiences around the world.
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Intelligence is no longer scarce
When Intelligence is Everywhere, Judgment is Everything
AI models, data and automation are now available to every organization. What is scarce is the judgment to decide what to build, what to slow down and what to refuse. That is what Mark brings: not forecasts, but a way of deciding, his WAVE framework, that leaders keep using long after he has left the room.
His clients range from Fortune 500 companies such as RGA, Dell, Nestlé and EY to governments on six continents, and he has spoken in 32+ countries.
Between engagements, he writes Synthetic Minds, his newsletter on Substack, and he founded Futurwise, a platform for verified, human-cited insight.
Download the brochureHow a Bicycle Ride Through the Outback Shaped a Futurist
In 2011, Mark and his friend Reinier set out to ride 14,122 kilometers around Australia, without a support crew, to raise money for children’s cancer research. After 100 days, they had raised €25,000.
The road taught him four moves: scan the horizon for what is coming, shift gears when the road climbs, check that the road ahead is passable, and keep each other going, because nobody crosses a continent alone. Those four moves became his WAVE framework. And the lesson behind them stuck: you don’t get around a continent by staring at the finish line, but by making the next decision well.
Credentials
- A PhD from the University of Technology Sydney, and peer-reviewed research on strategy under uncertainty
- Certified Speaking Professional and Global Speaking Fellow, a designation held by fewer than 50 speakers worldwide
- On the Global Gurus list of the world’s top futurists: #1 in 2025, #3 in 2026
- One of Salesforce’s 16 leading AI voices
- LinkedIn Top Voice
- Six books, most recently Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change
The Framework
Behind the Keynote
WAVE is the decision architecture Mark built over 15 years of advising leadership teams, and the backbone of Now What?, his latest book. It turns change into four moves an organization can repeat, in its daily work and in the boardroom.
Watch: See what others miss.
Horizon scanning across technology, regulation and culture, for patterns rather than trends.
Adapt: Turn insight into action.
Scenario planning and strategic pivots: where to experiment, where to partner and where to wait.
Verify: Trust, but stress-test.
AI outputs, assumptions and opportunities, tested against reality, ethics and your own constraints.
Empower: Build capability, not dependency.
Foresight skills inside your own teams, so they stay resilient long after the keynote.
WAVE is a cycle, not a ladder: every turn sharpens the signals, speeds up the corrections and widens the ownership.
Where does your organization stand?
The Intelligence Age Scorecard measures the four pillars across your organization, in confidence, in about 15 minutes per person.
How the Scorecard works >>>
What It Looks Like in the Room
Built for senior audiences: depth, energy on stage, and candor about what is hype and what is not.
9.2 out of 10 keynote rating · 4.83 out of 5 from 500+ attendees · 32+ countries · 100,000+ leaders
In person, virtually or live as a hologram, from 45-minute keynotes for 2,000 people to three-hour workshops for 50, each one written for its audience.
Mark, live as a hologram
Mark practices what he speaks about. He gave the first TEDx talk ever held in virtual reality, and his digital twin speaks 29 languages. Today he can appear live as a life-size hologram, streamed to dozens of locations at the same time: ideal for a global town hall, where every office hears the same keynote at the same moment.
Ways to work with Mark
From one leadership team to a hall of 2,000.
The Intelligence Age Readiness Briefing
For leadership teams deciding what AI means for their business
Mark’s keynote at your retreat or offsite, with the option of a confidential read from your own people beforehand and a published report on how your leaders see the future.
Conferences and events
For audiences that need to see what’s coming
Keynotes for conferences, industry events, company-wide summits and global town halls, in person, virtually or live as a hologram.
X
Futurwise x Synthetic Minds
For leaders who want to stay sharp between events
Futurwise surfaces verified, human-cited insight. Synthetic Minds is Mark’s newsletter on Substack: a note every weekday, and a weekly analysis every Tuesday.
The Playbook
Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change is the operating manual for the Intelligence Age. It introduces the WAVE framework, maps the ten technologies reshaping every industry, and provides the decision architecture leaders need when playbooks expire faster than committees can update them. At every leadership retreat where Mark speaks, each attendee takes home a copy with a message from their CEO.
Available in hardcover, paperback, digital, and audio book.
Let’s Start a
Conversation
Every engagement starts with one question: what should your audience be doing differently three months after Mark leaves the stage?
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