FUTURES STRATEGY GROUP - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Associate
• Consultant
• Freelance Researcher and Editor

Cathy Johnson is a freelance researcher and editor who provides research, administrative, and production support to the Futures Strategy Group. Cathy has worked with the founding principals of FSG since the mid-1980s, when they were at The Futures Group, Inc., and later at Deloitte and FSG. She has contributed significantly to many of the projects conducted by these organizations. Prior to recent FSG work, Cathy was Manager of Production Services at The Futures Group for 20 years, coordinating the final printed products for all their proposals, reports, presentations, and marketing efforts. She provided proofreading and copyediting services, as well as graphic and report design. She designed many of The Futures Group's publications for their multiyear USAID contracts and private and government scenario projects. Cathy has also provided research assistance and support for competitive intelligence firms, as well as report design, marketing and web research, website development, database management, desktop publishing, brochure and ad development and design, and trade show preparation. She has provided design assistance for medical education programs. She has also designed, proofed, and facilitated printing of several privately published books. Cathy holds a BA degree in English from Central Connecticut State University, with graduate studies in linguistics.

Job Titles:

• Principal
• Founding Principal

Charles Perrottet is a founding principal of the Futures Strategy Group. Prior to his current position, he led Deloitte Consulting's Scenario Practice as a Firm Director; before that, he worked for The Futures Group, leading the Strategy Practice for over ten years. He has led and worked on projects for FSG and its predecessors in the areas of marketing strategy, customer service, interagency strategic planning, post-9/11 business continuity, research strategy for pharmaceuticals, telecommunications growth strategy, and strategies for financial, automotive, air transportation and banking organizations. Charles has been an advisor to top executives for over 30 years. He has helped them construct strategies that have capitalized on changes in the makeup of the customer base "pulling" their markets, and technological, regulatory, and competitive developments "pushing" the markets. Charles has led strategy projects for some of the largest and most successful companies in the financial services, professional services, pharmaceutical, automotive, air transportation, telecommunications, and technology industries. Prior to entering consulting, as Vice President of Corporate Development for Hasbro, he had corporate responsibility for strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and investor relations. During his tenure, Hasbro was the largest and most successful company in its field, and enjoyed the highest 10-year return to investors of any Fortune 500 firm. Earlier, working for Toro, he thought up the famous "Sno Risk" program, in which buyers were guaranteed rebates if snowfall fell below 50% of historical averages; Toro gained some 22 points of market share in the year of its introduction. Charles has an MBA from the University of Chicago and an MSc in economics from the London School of Economics. He also graduated magna cum laude in Marketing from Lehigh University. He has written extensively on planning, strategy and the forces for change for such publications as Management Review, Best's, Planning Review, Airline Business, Journal of Business Strategy, Chemical Management Review, and other publications. He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and numerous newspapers. He has also been a featured or keynote speaker throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Job Titles:

• Specialist

Tom is a specialist in long-range strategy development and technology planning. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the leading innovators in the field of scenario-based planning. Over the past 30 years, he has led numerous major public and private sector strategic planning, global trend-analysis, and U.S. and foreign technology projects. These have included work for organizations in such diverse fields as information technology, the military, airlines, health care, foreign affairs, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, intelligence community, and utilities.

Job Titles:

• Senior Advisor

Charles ("Tom") Thomas, a founding principal of the Futures Strategy Group, retired from the partnership in December 2017. He is now a senior advisor to the firm.

Job Titles:

• Associate
• Consultant
• Jack Clarke

Dr. John L. Clarke (Jack) is an Associate of the Futures Strategy Group and a contributor to FSG strategy and security engagements. He is also Professor of Defense Management and Strategic Studies and Director of the Program on Civil Security at the Marshall Center in Garmisch, Germany. Jack is recognized as a leading expert on civil and homeland security issues. He has developed and taught numerous courses on civil security, crisis management, and stability operations, as well as developing scenario-based exercises and simulations. He recently led a major research project on European Approaches to Homeland Security and performed European research for Project Horizon, a unique interagency engagement that FSG facilitated in 2005-06. From 1999 to 2002, Jack was a director in the Strategy practice of Deloitte Consulting in Europe. In this capacity he conducted projects for companies such as Airbus and Mercedes-Benz. Jack has led projects in 50 countries worldwide, speaks 6 languages, and has lived outside the U.S. for more than 30 years. He has published dozens of articles on defense and security issues appearing in such publications as Armed Forces Journal, EuroFuture, Survival, Defense News, Magazine der Bundeswehr, European Security, Homeland Security, Homeland Defense and Journal of Homeland Security. He is a frequent contributor on German and Austrian radio and television. In a military career spanning more than a quarter century, Jack held numerous positions of great responsibility in the national security organizations of the United States. A political-military affairs expert, he was responsible for developing the U.S. Army's doctrine for operations into the next century. Jack holds a Doktorat in political science from the University of Salzburg, Austria, a Brévet from the Ecole Supérieure de Guerre in Paris, an M.A. from the University of Southern California, a Diploma from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and a B.A. from Norwich University. He held a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University and was an Olmsted Scholar. A former Special Forces officer, Jack commanded elite military units (parachute, Special Forces, Ranger, armored infantry) in combat and military operations in Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA.

Job Titles:

• Managing Principal
• Managing Principal With the

Gerard Smith is a Managing Principal with the Futures Strategy Group, specializing in long-term market assessment, enterprise risk management, and scenario-based strategic planning. FSG helps organizations plan more effectively and make difficult decisions in the face of uncertainty, by exploring the forces for change that will affect their future operating environment. Clients derive great value from both the product and the process, which leaves a lasting impression on participants. Over the last decade, much of Gerard's scenario planning work has been focused on health care and medical sectors, where he has played leadership roles in strategic planning projects for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, several medical certification boards and schools of medicine and nursing. His work at FSG follows many years as a strategic planner with experience in advertising, branding and global marketing. He has an extensive background in addressing strategic marketing and communications challenges for many of the world's best known companies. His career began leading an operations research department, a small group devoted to the development and pioneering application of sophisticated computer-based tools and analytical methods to address advertising and marketing problems. In subsequent years his role broadened in national and global strategic leadership positions. Over the course of his career he has advised many world-class companies - IBM, Microsoft, Ford, Mars, Heineken, Coca Cola, Procter and Gamble, Kimberly Clark, Credit Suisse, UBS, Whirlpool, and innumerable other brands and businesses in virtually every category. Gerard has contributed articles to a variety of professional publications, was joint author of an introductory guide to econometric modeling with a professor at the London Business School, and chaired a Paris-based software user group. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School, and lives with his wife in Washington, Connecticut. Gerard Smith is a Managing Principal of the Futures Strategy Group, following more than 30 years as a brand and marketing strategist with experience in advertising, branding and global marketing. He has an extensive background in creating solutions to strategic marketing challenges for many of the world's best known companies.

Job Titles:

• Associate
• FSG Associate Consultant

Jonathan Jeter is an FSG associate consultant with a considerable background in innovation and training. As an independent strategy, innovation and culture consultant, Jonathan works with organizations to unlock their potential through more inspired insights, ideas, and people. Prior to starting his own consultancy, he was a non-profit fundraiser, a strategy director at Publicis Advertising, and an innovation consultant/trainer at What If Innovation. Over the course of this nearly 20-year career, he has led hundreds of strategy, innovation, and organizational capability building projects and trained thousands of executives at companies including Google, Disney, JetBlue, L'Oreal, IBM, Pfizer, MetLife, Hyatt, Whirlpool, UBS, and Bahamas Tourism.

Job Titles:

• Principal
• FSG Principal

Joseph ("Joe") Dufresne is an FSG Principal, with deep experience in strategic planning and operational policy decision-support. Joe began working with FSG in 2009 as a strategic analyst for the US Coast Guard. Serving as the project manager for the Coast Guard's strategic foresight program, Project Evergreen, he facilitated comprehensive foresight effort from across the Coast Guard and DHS enterprise to lead senior leadership through budget, operational policy, HR, and acquisition decisions. He mentored several federal agencies on the use of scenario-based planning to combine corporate knowledge with structured foresight and position the organization for long-term success. Joe brings extensive experience at field, managerial, and executive levels not only to craft organizational strategy, but to overcome the difficult challenge of translating and operationalizing strategic foresight work. Joe Dufresne is an FSG Principal - and former FSG client with the US Coast Guard. A recently retired USCG Captain, Joe specializes in strategic foresight, with broad corporate application, including budgeting, operations, human capital and acquisitions.

Job Titles:

• Principal
• Principal With the

Kevin McDermott is a principal with the Futures Strategy Group. In addition to his scenario-planning work for corporate and government clients Kevin is also the founder of Collective Intelligence, a boutique strategic-communications firm in New York. Working in countries around the world Kevin has served a client portfolio that includes General Motors, IBM, Innosight, A.T. Kearney, Korn-Ferry, MasterCard Advisors, McKinsey & Co., Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Spencer Stuart, United Way of America and financial-services startups. For FSG he was a major contributor to Project Horizon, a groundbreaking FSG strategic-planning exercise sponsored by U.S. global-affairs agencies. In addition to his contributions to Horizon and to the US Coast Guard's Evergreen project Kevin has been among the project leaders on FSG engagements in the fields of education, health care and urban economic development. Kevin publishes extensively, including most recently Paragraph 3: Prepared Leadership in the Age of Perpetual Uncertainty. One reviewer describes Paragraph 3 as "the guidebook we need in the post-Covid world, where unpredictability and uncertainty are part of our everyday reality." Among Kevin's other publications have been his contributions of new perspectives on the strategic foresight and planning disciplines, notably through his widely distributed blog pieces for Future Strategy Group. Kevin began his career as a journalist, pursuing entrepreneurial reporting projects for leading U.S. publications including The Atlantic Monthly in Haiti, The New York Times in Britain, and The Washington Post in France. He made a specialty of international business and finance reporting for such publications as Business Week and The Economist. Kevin holds a Masters in American Studies from the University of Nottingham. He also holds a double degree in Political Science and English from the University of Rochester.

Job Titles:

• Associate
• Consultant
• FSG Associate
• Mark Trexler

Mark C. Trexler is an FSG Associate, specializing in climate change scenario planning. Mark has advised companies on climate strategies and risk management for more than 20 years, and launched the first business climate risk consultancy in the U.S. in 1991. Most recently he was Director of Climate Risk for the global risk firm of DNV GL. Mark holds Masters and PhD degrees from the University of California at Berkeley

Job Titles:

• Associate
• Consultant
• FSG Associate

Patrick Kelly has joined the Futures Strategy Group as an Associate to support the development of our practice in the Financial Services Industry (FSI). Patrick has over 25 years' experience in consulting, specializing primarily in financial services. He was a Partner in Deloitte Consulting's Strategy & Operations practice in Boston for 11 years, following 8 years with PwC (Coopers & Lybrand). Patrick has a truly international background. He recently spent over 3 years building Deloitte's FSI practice in Hong Kong and China. He has previously worked in banking in the UK and Ireland. Patrick is a highly collaborative Client Relationship and Engagement partner with outstanding strategic, critical thinking, scenario planning, problem-solving and leadership skills. His more recent engagements include working with global clients on mergers & integration strategy and enterprise cost reduction, outsourcing and financial operations. He is adept at breaking down complex client issues and engaging and leading high-performing teams to design, develop, and implement robust solutions, providing clients with best-in-industry solutions. Patrick Kelly is an FSG Associate, specializing in strategy and decision support in Financial Services. Prior to joining us, he was a Partner in Deloitte Consulting's Strategy & Operation's practice. He was deeply involved in building Deloitte's Financial Services practice in China and Hong Kong.

Job Titles:

• Principal

Patrick Marren is a principal of the Futures Strategy Group, specializing in strategy and scenario planning. He has 30 years' experience in business strategy consulting, corporate finance, strategic planning, business intelligence, sales and marketing strategy, financial forecasting and budgeting, and insurance underwriting for four international companies. He was previously associated with The Futures Group, Inc., and Deloitte Consulting; prior to that he was a Business Research Analyst at the NutraSweet Company and an excess and surplus lines insurance underwriter for Crum & Forster. At FSG, Patrick has participated in engagements for organizations in high technology, pharmaceuticals, health care, airlines, interagency federal planning, the intelligence community, the military, transportation, finance and utilities. Patrick has an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago and an AB, cum laude, General Studies, with a Government concentration, from Harvard University. He had a regular column in the Journal of Business Strategy for about a decade, and has written and spoken extensively on the future and on organizational strategy. He speaks, reads, and writes Greek. Patrick is the author of the forthcoming Fatal Certainty: How a Cult of Prediction Made the Twenty-First Century Into an Era of Strategic Shock - and How Rigorous Imagination Could Bring Us Back. Currently, he supports FSG's scenario planning clients out of Auckland, New Zealand.

Job Titles:

• Managing Principal
• Founding Principal

Peter Kennedy is a founding principal of the Futures Strategy Group who specializes in long-term market assessment, enterprise risk management, and scenario-based strategic planning. Peter has more than 25 years' experience in helping client organizations make effective plans in the face of future uncertainty and change. He has provided analytical, forecasting and decision-support services to numerous corporate and governmental organizations in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. Peter has managed scenario-planning engagements for clients in the automotive, air transportation, health care, financial services, telecommunications, and consumer products industries. His government clients include the U.S. Coast Guard, NASA Aeronautics, FEMA, and the U.S. Department of State. Over the last decade, much of Peter's scenario planning work has been focused on health care and medical sectors, where he has played leadership roles in strategic planning project for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, several medical certification boards and schools of medicine and nursing. Prior to the founding of FSG and for nearly four years, Peter was a senior manager in the Strategy practice of Deloitte Consulting. Before that, Peter was director of the Emerging Markets practice of The Futures Group, Inc., based in Glastonbury, Conn. Prior to joining The Futures Group, Peter spent six years with The Economist Group, where he served as a country analyst, editor, and manager of proprietary research for the Americas region. Peter holds an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin (Economics/Public Policy) and a BA in History from Le Moyne College. He has written extensively on planning, strategy, and risk management issues for such publications as Journal of Business Strategy, Directors and Boards and Innovation Management. Peter has appeared on national news programs carried by the CNN and Bloomberg networks. He is a guest lecturer on Strategy & Operations at Fordham University and the Copenhagen Business School. Peter speaks Spanish, and holds U.S. and Irish citizenship. Peter Kennedy is a founding principal of the Futures Strategy Group who specializes in long-term market assessment and scenario-based strategic planning.

Job Titles:

• Associate
• Consultant
• Economist
• Founder of FutureCrunch LLC

Robert Avila is an economist working with the Futures Strategy Group on scenario planning for corporate and government clients. Robert has advised companies on strategy and market environment issues for well over twenty years. He is an authority on market modeling, business forecasting and scenario-based planning. He has helped companies to identify opportunities in troubled markets, to evaluate growth opportunities and to prepare for competitive challenges. Robert is the founder of FutureCrunch LLC, a New York based economic consulting firm. FutureCrunch develops mission-critical, data-driven insights and recommendations for business, drawing on its deep knowledge of industry and the economy, markets and consumers, to select the most relevant data and information to address the problem at hand. Prior to founding FutureCrunch, Robert worked at a number of major consulting firms including Deloitte, PWC, and Coopers & Lybrand, where he was the chief economist for the firm's strategy practice and director of Economics and Policy Analysis. Earlier, he worked as chief economist at The Futures Group, doing scenario-based strategy development for Fortune 100 companies; prior to this he worked at SAGE Associates doing public policy analysis. Robert's work has been widely quoted in the press, including in Business Week, Fortune, Forbes, Forecast, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. In addition, he has spoken before major trade associations, EIU conferences, the World Future Society, and the Planning Forum. Robert has also been a guest commentator on CBS Evening News and PBS's News Hour. He has previously served as Adjunct Professor of Strategic Planning at Denver University's Public Policy Institute.