Prof. Groth is a Global Strategist, Entrepreneurial Executive, Thinktank Founder, Advisor and Book Author for Disruption Forces & Futures in the Global Economy.

As Global Professor for Strategy, Innovation, Economics & Management and Program Director for Digital Futures at HULT-Ashridge International Business School, Olaf develops leaders to effectively and responsibly solve problems and build ventures in today's global challenges. He teaches across the school’s global campus network and serves on its Global Faculty Council as lead for strategy & innovation.

Olaf is Founder and Managing Partner of Emergent Frontiers Group LLC, which counsels senior executives on global geo-economic and innovation trends, and the strategies, ecosystems, deals and commercial diplomacy needed to navigate them. As such, he serves on the Innovation Advisory Board of Fortune 100 energy company Phillips 66 and the Advisory Board of automotive AI startup Caruma. He has advised Bechtel, Chevron, Siemens, VW, venture capitalists, startups and thinktanks. Previously, Olaf held managerial roles with AirTouch, Boeing, Q.Cells, Qualcomm, Vodafone and a transportation internet venture, helping develop new revenue streams between $20M and $2B. Most recently, Olaf became co-founder and CEO of soon-to-be-launched Cambrian.ai, an advisory institute and convening platform to solve the challenges arising for society from emerging advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and the 4th industrial revolution.

Olaf is a member of the Global Expert Network at the World Economic Forum, a judge for GE’s Ecomagination challenge, and a mentor for CleantechOpen. His is a Visiting Scholar for Innovation at UC Berkeley’s Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE), a Fellow at the Lab-Center for Competitiveness at Grenoble Business School, and a Research Council member at the Bay Area Economics Institute. He has served on the board of trustees of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, as chairman of the German American Chamber of Commerce West, Sr Fellow for Innovation at the Institute for Business in Global Context at Tufts University’s Fletcher School and co-chair of the Pacific Council Energy & Environment Committee.

Olaf is co-author with Dr. Mark Nitzberg of a forthcoming book “The Machine Awakens – How To Join The AI Revolution That Will Change Your World.” He also has been published in HBR, HBR France, Financial Times and Huffington Post blogs, Harvard Business Manager Deutschland, HBR Italia, Today’s CFO and Thunderbird International Business Review magazines, World Financial Review and European Business Review journals, and Hult Business School Publishing.

He holds PhD, MALD degrees in International Affairs with concentrations in business, economics, technology and negotiation from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and MAIPS and BA degrees from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He also studied negotiation at Harvard, trade economics at Georgetown and finance at UC Berkeley.