Noah RAFORDChief Operating Officer - Dubai Future Foundation

Dr. Noah Raford is the Chief of Global Affair, “Futurist-in-Chief” at the Dubai Future Foundation and a former advisor on futures, foresight, and innovation in the UAE Prime Minister’s Office. Noah helped establish the country’s first national foresight unit, helped established the Dubai Future’s Foundation and the Museum of the Future, and is part of a team that identifies emerging opportunities, develops strategic partnerships, and prototypes future initiatives for the Government of Dubai.

Some the projects he has recently been involved with include:

• The Museum of the Future • The Dubai Global Blockchain Council • The UAE Drones for Good Award • The UAE Robotics for Good Award • The Dubai 3D Printing Strategy • The Dubai Self-Driving Vehicle Strategy • The International Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (iCAIR) • The “Office of the Future”; the world’s first fully functional 3D printed building.

Prior to his work in the UAE, Noah was a senior manager at the strategy consultancy Monitor / GBN, CEO of the technology foresight company Futurescaper LLC, the North American Director of Space Syntax Limited, and the Senior Research Advisor to Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment.

Noah completed his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), his master’s degree at the Bartlett School of Architecture, and his undergraduate studies at Brown University. He is a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Agenda Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, a Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Economics, a fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture, a member of the International Futures Forum.

He lives in Dubai, is married with two children and is a semi-retired techno DJ. He maintains an occasional podcast called NerdHouse(mixing deep techno with deep lectures and spoken word) and recently finished his second book, “Warlords, Inc.”