Patrick Dixon - Futurist - Biography - keynote conference speaker and management consultant
Dr Patrick Dixon - Patrick Dixon
Dr Patrick Dixon, Futurist
"Europe's Leading Futurist" - Press Assocation
"Global Change Guru" - Wall Street Journal
"One of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive today" Thinkers 50 2005
CONTACT: +44 7768 511 390 ( media and corporate enquiries only)
"Dr Dixon lives in the year 2020 and sees tomorrow as history"
Dr Patrick Dixon is often described in the media as Europe's leading Futurist and has been ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive today (Thinkers 50 - 2005). Chairman of Global Change Ltd, he is author of twelve books (485,000 in print in 26 languages). Titles include Building a Better Business, Futurewise, The Genetic Revolution, The Truth about Westminster, The Truth about Drugs and The Truth about AIDS.
Dr Dixon has spoken to audiences in 51 countries and is one of the world's most sought after keynote speakers at corporate conferences and client events. His multimedia 2D or 3D vision of the future is experienced by up to 4,500 people a time, in up to five countries a week. Challenging, hard-hitting, provocative, dynamic, passionate and practical as well as entertaining, motivating people to change, backed by data and original research - watch videos.
He advises multinational company boards and senior teams on strategic implications of a wide range of global trends such as the new economy, the digital society, financial services, biotechnology, health care, geopolitical issues, lifestyle changes, marketing issues, consumer behaviour, employee motivation, public policy, business ethics and corporate social responsibility.
His clients include Microsoft, IBM, UBS, Google, World Bank, Siemens, Ford, ABN AMRO, Freshfields, Sara Lee, Prudential, Aviva, Barclays, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hewlett Packard, Gillette, Roche, BASF, Credit Suisse, Forbes, Fortune, Royal Bank of Scotland, Zurich Financial Services, Tetrapak, Unisys, BT, BBC, Fedex, UNIDO, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the American Management Association. He was a Fellow of the World Economic Forum (Davos) in 1997 and contributed to the World Economic Forum Governor's Meeting of the Travel and Tourism Industry in 2005. He has also taught on executive / MBA programmes at seven business schools.
Originally a physician by training, Dr Dixon has a Web TV site which is visited by up to 500,000 different people a month (11 million since 1996) and radio/TV studio in his home from which he broadcasts worldwide for the BBC and others, as well as delivering interactive lectures to as many as 7 different national conferences simultaneously (World Bank).
He has appeared on many TV stations, including CNN, CNBC, Fox News, Sky News and ITV commenting on global events and ethical issues, with features in the Financial Times, Times, Telegraph and Time magazine (see media log).
Planning a corporate event? Watch videos / slides, and read feedback
Answers to common questions:
Q: Where does medicine fit in?
Dr Dixon (MA MBBS) is a graduate of Kings College Cambridge (1978) and University of London, Charing Cross Hospital Medical School (1982). In 1978, while a medical student he took a sabbatical (first of many) to found the IT startup Medicom, selling medical software solutions in the UK and the Middle East, based on early personal computers. After qualifying as a physician he cared for those dying of cancer at St Joseph's Hospice and then as part of the Community Care Team based at University College Hospital London, while also continuing IT consulting part-time. In 1988 he launched the international AIDS agency ACET, following publication of his first book "The Truth about AIDS". ACET is now an alliance of independent AIDS care and prevention programmes in places such as the UK, Ireland, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Thailand, India, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Russia. Different country operations are now spawning their own partnerships and project relationships in many other nations, as part of a growing international movement to save lives and offer compassionate care. The Alliance has also distributed over 180,000 free copies of Dr Dxon's book "AIDS and You" to those requesting them in developing countries, along with a new global edition of "The Truth about AIDS". Although heavily involved on a day to day basis in supporting the Alliance, with several international partner visits each year, Dr Dixon has not treated patients for a decade. Many corporate clients particularly appreciate this "other dimension": a sharp business perspective that is broader than - say - economics or marketing, and interpreting future trends in a holistic way.
Q: How did the consulting / lecturing begin?
Having seen at first hand how a timely book can provoke public debate about the future, change how people think, alter life-decisions they take, and facilitate a movement, Dr Dixon began to research and write a book a year, about different issues and practical, effective responses. As with "The Truth about AIDS", many received significant media coverage, and for a while Dr Dixon was health correspondent to IRN (Reuters). By 1996, corporations began requesting lectures, seminars and advice, including UBS. Dr Dixon was a Fellow of the World Economic Forum in 1997 and this further accelerated demand from multinationals for lectures and consulting on issues ranging from e-banking to geo-political change, brand development, risk managment, ethics and leadership. Since 1999 he has been represented by Leigh Bureau - a community of 150 global thinkers including Peter Drucker and Michael Porter. Dr Dixon combines corporate activity and business school classroom teaching with ongoing support for ACET International Alliance. He is also Patron of NEAC, Patron of Choices, on advisory boards of Hope HIV, the global AIDS orphans initiative, the development agency Links International, Marriage Matters, Parentwise, CMF and ISAAC, a regular contributor to UK Christian events such as Spring Harvest and an associate of Pioneer.
Q: And the website? How did it start? Where do all the visitors come from?
Over 11 million people have used the website which began in 1995 as a personal storehouse for press articles and other writing. More than a million videos have been viewed on the various linked sites. Without any advertising, people began to arrive from 1995 onwards, in large numbers, using search engines. The site has been developed in response to traffic patterns, adding to popular pages and topics, with extra resources including presentations, videos, and the entire text of six books, all available on an unrestricted non-pay basis as a public service. On a busy day, around 22,500 diffferent people spend almost 2,600 hours on the site amongst more than 30,000 pages. That's the same amount of time as you would clock up in a year working more than 16 hours a day, 5 days a week with no vacation - not including time spent reading offline up to 2,000 book chapters, equivalent to the same individual reading a couple of entire books almost every workday evening. Visitors come from every country in the world, and read pages in many different languages. 4 million more individuals are expected over the next 12 months - 65% from the US where already an estimated 3% of all web surfers have already visited this site at least once. Around half of all visitors are in management, and most of the rest are in full-time education. All pages except three have been authored by Dr Dixon, who maintains the site, updating new information while on the move. More than 80,000 other websites refer to the content of this site.
Q: Why give so much "intellectual capital" away with free online videos, books and other resources?
Because it gives pleasure and help to many millions of people. In contrast, many business speakers are very protective of their "intellectual capital", preferring to hoard rather than give away, anxious about articles, presentations, books or corporate videos being online, maybe a reflection of how fragile and vulnerable they feel, at the thought of someone taking their material and exploiting it. That's last-century thinking. The future is about a world where information is free, ideas are widely broadcast, use and adaptation encouraged (acknowledging the source). The real added-value of course is knowing exactly how to apply ideas to build a better kind of future for your own business, yourself, family, community and wider world.
Q: Talking of family - what about life outside of "work" ? Is there one?
In all these commitments, he is passionate about long-term relationships, family and work-life balance, works mainly from home / virtually, and frequently takes time off during the day to offset travel and intensive work patterns. 48 years old, happily married to Sheila for more than 27 years, with four children aged 15-22 in West London, where the family is involved together in the life of a local church. Recreations include gardening, watercolour painting, playing the piano, home cinema movies, walking, watching waves on a windy beach or embers of a winter fire - with frequent breaks from all technology including mobile phones and e-mail - he has received as many as 1,430 messages in a single day, mainly as a result of the website.
Publications:
Books:
Building a Better Business - Profile Books published 2005
Futurewise - Harper Collins 1998, 2001, Profile Books 2003, reprinted 2004, 4th edition 2007
The Genetic Revolution - Kingsway 1993,1995
The Truth about Westminster - Kingsway 1995
The Truth about Drugs - Hodder 1996
The Truth about AIDS - Kingsway / ACET Int All 1987,1989,1994, new edition 2004
AIDS and Young People - Kingsway 1989,
AIDS and You - Kingsway / ACET Int All 1990, new edition 2004
The Rising Price of Love - Kingsway 1994
Signs of Revival - Kingsway 1994,1995
Out of the Ghetto - Word 1995
Island of Bolay - Harper Collins
Cyberchurch - Kingsway 1996
Book Chapters:
Impact of new technology on corporate banking - Chapter in Handbuch Firmenkundengeschaft -ed Juncker and Priewasser - Fritz Knapp Verlag 2002
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Thank you, Dr. Dixon, you provide inspiration to the masses during one of the most devastating crisis the financial world has endured. You are the dose of hope that everyone needs at the moment and ideas for change to ensure Future Successful Outcomes.
Thanks for your kind words which I appreciate a lot.
