What I admire, what inspires me,
are organizations and individuals
that went beyond their industry’s
paradigms to create new frontiers
of opportunity.
Michael Shamiyeh is a UNESCO Chair Holder, Professor, and Author. He specializes in moving C-suite leaders beyond habitual thinking to help them imagine — and build momentum for — desired futures no one has created yet, rather than fixing the problems of the past.
His unique personal capability to combine scholarly research with practical experience and to bring together world-renowned pioneers and thought leaders to share their experience turns into rigorous, generalizable insight for clients. His work spans keynotes, long-term advisory engagements with Fortune Global 500 companies, and ongoing research into what it takes to create the future.
Current Affiliations & Roles
Michael holds the UNESCO Chair in Anticipatory Techniques and Future Design — an academic research and teaching institution based in Austria dedicated to strengthening people‘s futuring skills. This chair was originally established in collaboration with colleagues from the International Center for Corporate Governance (ICCG) at the University of St. Gallen (CH), where he remains a partner, and the Department of Mechanical Engineering (CDR) at Stanford University (USA), where he served as a Visiting Professor from 2017 to 2020. In addition, he is Vice President of the Intergovernmental Council of UNESCO‘s „Management of Social Transformations“ programme, a member of the editorial board of the journal She Ji (Tongji University, China), and a member of the advisory boards of voestalpine AG and the Fraunhofer IAO Center for Responsible Research and Innovation (CeRRI) in Berlin, Germany. In September 2026, he begins a one-year visiting professorship at SUSTech in Shenzhen, China.
Academic Credentials
He holds degrees from the University of St. Gallen (PhD in Management), Harvard University (post-professional Master‘s in Architecture), AA London (MA in History and Critical Thinking), and the Technical University of Vienna (Dipl.-Ing. in Architecture & Engineering).
Awards & Recognition
The work he and his team have done has won awards, including the highly remunerated ‘Innovation Prize’ (€100,000) from the Austrian Ministry of Science (2009) and the Gold Medal for ‘Best Invention’ from the World Intellectual Property Organization (2010). Recently a work of his was awarded the Green ‘Good Design Award’—the oldest and most prestigious awards program organized worldwide. Other honors and awards on request.
In his keynotes
Michael shows what it actually takes for organizations to create the future they want, instead of managing what‘s already behind them. Book Michael to Speak
Press & Media
2026
FACC‘s BEyond magazine — feature interview on future-readiness
2025
Hornung, S. — „In die Zukunft führen.“ Neues lernen
2025
Hornung, S. — „Weil wir es können: Zukünfte gestalten.“ Neues lernen
2022
Duschlbauer, T. — „Die Zukunft beginnt in Linz.“ Wirtschaftsnachrichten Donauraum
2018
Kötritsch, M. — „Zukunft passiert nicht einfach so“ (interview). Die Presse
2018
Zauner, K. — „Die Chefs reisen in die Zukunft“ (interview). Salzburger Nachrichten
Full press kit available on request.
The Arc of the Journey
“Everything began with a simple question: can design — a creative-analytical activity that transfers a given situation into a desired one — help organizations bring desired futures to life?”
How it began. Michael started his career within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism, with offices in Austria, Trinidad and Tobago, and Croatia. His work received international recognition, but challenging assignments pushed him beyond the original domain. Already in the mid-1990s, during his time at Harvard, he began to believe that a designer‘s mode of operation held real potential for strategic futures planning in organizations. Despite research and publications in the field, the thinking didn‘t gain wide recognition for another decade, which meant working in both architecture and foresight in parallel.
Early 2000s. It began to bear fruit. In 2006, Wallpaper listed him among the 101 most exciting new architects in the world; The Architectural Review named one of his buildings among the most significant structures of the early 21st century; the Financial Times and others covered his architectural work extensively. At the same time, he was already lecturing on futures-oriented management at global consultancies and business schools. It was during this transitional period that he also wrote Die Besten Gewinnen (co-authored, with Duschlbauer and Zauner), on talent and location competitiveness — a snapshot of the pivot in progress, though outside his focus today.
Combining the two. Given this dual success, Michael brought the two fields of expertise together, and was able to work with world-renowned companies on a wide range of future-oriented topics. His work at Kodak and in-depth study of its struggle to shape the future of digital photography grew directly out of this convergence. Today he works as an architect only in the broadest sense — drawing on the expertise, not the practice. Design remains part of how he thinks even after stepping back from professional practice in building with bricks and mortar. Today, his focus is helping organizations build new, meaningful futures.
download tran•si•tion (2003–08)
His self-published monograph documenting the transition