Peter Schwartz is an American futurist, innovator, author, and co-founder of the Global Business Network, a corporate strategy firm, specializing in future-think and scenario planning. As of October 2011, he has served as Senior Vice President Strategic Planning for Salesforce.com based in San Francisco, California. Schwartz is best known as the primary author of the discredited 2004 Pentagon Climate Change report that warned that European cities would be underwater and Britain would be a Siberian wasteland by the year 2020. In 2010, Schwartz and GBN authored "Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development", which was published by the Rockefeller Foundation and includes scenarios, detailed to either create positive change or massive political violence, that posture as future international development strategies. One scenario entitled 'Lock Step' describes a worldwide pandemic leading to international economic failures and oppressive authoritarian controls. Other scenarios are entitled 'Clever Together', 'Hack Attack, and 'Smart Scramble', all of which illustrate pre- and post-pandemic governmental, business and societal responses.
Inevitable Surprises is a look at the forces at play in today's world, and how they will continue to affect the world.
He also wrote The Long Boom with co-authors Peter Leyden and Joel Hyatt, which is a book about the future of the global economy.
His book When Good Companies Do Bad Things, is an argument for corporate responsibility in an age of corruption.
China's Futures, is a vision of several different potential futures for China.
He also co-authored with Doug Randall the Pentagon's An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security.
He has also worked as a consultant on several movies, including Minority Report, Deep Impact, Sneakers, and WarGames. He serves on the board of directors for the Long Now Foundation. He also serves in the boards of the Center for a New American Security and the Asia Internet Coalition In 2007, Schwartz moderated a forum titled "The Impact of Web 2.0 and Emerging Social Network Models" as part of the World Economic Forum in Davos. He serves on the Research Innovation and Enterprise Council of Singapore and in 2014 was appointed an International Distinguished Fellow of the Prime Minister's Office. He was also voted into the Futurists hall of fame by the Association of Professional Futurists in 2012. Additionally, Schwartz is also a member of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council.
Global Business Network
Schwartz founded the Global Business Network in 1988 in his Berkeley basement with several close friends including Napier Collyns, Jay Ogilvy and Stewart Brand. Schwartz called GBN an “information hunting and gathering company”, and describes it as a high level networking and corporate research agency. In 2001, it was bought by premier strategy consulting firm the Monitor Group, although it continued to operate as a distinct entity. The Monitor Group was acquired by Deloitte in 2013 which elected to shut down GBN. He left the company in October 2011, to work at Salesforce.com as Senior Vice President Strategic Planning.
