Nicholas Davis

Nicholas Davis's Biography

Nicholas Davis is a Professor of Practice in Innovation at Thunderbird School of Global Management and the Managing Partner at SWIFT Partners, a global consultancy focused on helping companies harness emerging technologies to create sustainable value.

Through SWIFT Partners and other collaborations, Nick leads innovation, technology and foresight projects with Salesforce, Amazon, Accenture, ICRC, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Australian and Canadian governments and many others.

Through his academic work, Nick helps senior leaders adapt to the strategy, leadership and policy challenges they face in a volatile and uncertain business environment.

From 2015 to 2019, Nick was Head of Society and Innovation and a member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum, where he led the Forum’s thought-leadership on the concept of “The Fourth Industrial Revolution”. With Klaus Schwab, the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, he is the co-author of Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution, published in January 2018. He has authored or co-authored almost 60 publications on technology policy, innovation, artificial intelligence and strategic foresight.

Originally from Sydney, and previously a commercial lawyer, Director at Oxford Investment Research and the World Economic Forum’s Head of Europe, Nick is a Certified Professional Facilitator and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA) in the UK. He is currently a Visiting Professor at UCL’s Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy, an Associate Fellow at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and sits on the board of the IMPROVE European Innovation Management Academy.

He holds degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Sydney as well as a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Oxford.

Nicholas works on tech and innovation policy, however also presents more generally on areas such as the national response to the pandemic. Recently Nicholas was a panellist at the Australian Leadership Summit in Brisbane talking about lessons learned from the pandemic, where he also drew on his experiences developing the innovation strategy for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, during the first year of the pandemic.

Because he’s worked with so many global civil society organisations, Nicholas has also been facilitating sessions for organisations such as the Sydney Policy Lab touching on this sector.

Speaking Topics Include

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the emerging future of technology

(Artificial Intelligence ethics and governance, the impact of emerging technologies, approaches to how we should regulate technology, technology and sustainability etc)

Nicholas co-authored ‘Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ and ghost-wrote a second with Klaus Schwab at the World Economic Forum on this topic.

The Future of Leadership

(why leaders need to change, how to approach failure in an uncertain world, from principles to action as leaders etc)

Nicholas is currently writing a short ebook commissioned by Amazon on this topic.

Nicholas teaches a masters level course on “Global Leadership” at Arizona State University each year

Innovation strategy and future-oriented business models

(how organisations need to think about innovation, how to do innovation strategy, types of innovation, digital innovation etc)

Nicholas is co-author of the forthcoming AICD Innovation Handbook, recently moderated the AICD Digital Directors series webinar on this.

Foresight, futures, risks and scenarios

(how we understand a changing world, the current big trends, why you need a foresight strategy, dealing with disruption etc)

Nicholas is an Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford, and in this role focuses on how organisations think about the future. He teaches on the Oxford Scenarios Programme and regularly do exec ed courses for Oxford clients.

Nicholas has recently led the executive education programme for the International Red Cross on foresight and strategy, facilitating and teaching a series of modules for their leaders