We have a long track record of helping leadership and innovation teams understand and navigate the future

Our History

Kjaer Global was establish in 1988. Our founder Anne Lise Kjaer began her career in design, living and working in Paris and her native Denmark before relocating to Hamburg. During this time design trends and forecasting became the core expertise. In 1992, already well established internationally, Kjaer Global opened its London studio, evolving its Trend Management system over the succeeding decades to help companies with their leadership and innovation strategies.

Trend Management

We have developed a set of practical trend toolkits to understand trends and navigate the future. Our methodology is recognised globally for its contribution to successful trend mapping and scenario planning. Today, our multidisciplinary consultancy consists of a diverse team and network of international practitioners. They all draw on the principles from our groundbreaking book The Trend Management Toolkit: A Practical Guide to the Future published by Palgrave Macmillan.

How We Work

Our trend intelligence and insights stems from our data-driven and evidence-based research. To identify core drivers of change we draw on our local experts and informants, ensuring deep regional and ‘insider’ knowledge in a meaningful trend ecosystem. All our projects are led by senior team members and supported by our specialist team, both in-house and around the world. Over time we have built a dynamic and extended network, carefully selected team across regions.

Futures 1.0

Design thinking matters
In its first decade Kjaer moves from design focus in the Hamburg studio into conceptual thinking and design processes in London. This becomes a search for the answer to: What happens before we start designing? How can we best visualise moods of tomorrow through colours, materials and concepts?

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Futures 2.0

A wholebrain vision
The impending Millennium ushers in a desire for new models to inspire people and businesses. We expand our trend vision by connecting to a wider audience and in 1999 Kjaer present the iGeneration concept in Cologne. It is a success and this leads to a keynote at Sydney Design ’99 on Design Viewpoints in Time.

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Futures 3.0

Economics for humans
As the world economic crisis hits, the discourse surrounding meaningful consumption and purpose widens. Kjaer responds by designing a trend toolkit to help organisations navigate the future. At The Economist Big Rethink conference, Kjaer launches the 4P bottom line of People, Planet, Purpose and Profit.

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Futures 4.0

Never Stop Learning
The coming decade will evolve around lifelong learning and human-centric processes. Kjaer Global’s futurist and trend management workshop programmes now include business schools and innovation labs to help them embed foresight and trend management in the ideation and planning stage.

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Meet Our Team

Our visionary consultants and collaborators are drawn from multiple disciplines. They research, analyse and strategise to narrate key developments in social sciences, global studies, economics, disruptive technologies, the environment, transportation, urbanism, architecture, design and consumer behaviour. In a fast-changing landscape of diverse influences and influencers, we also monitor contemporary culture – from social media and memes to life hacks and new lifestyle patterns. We explore and assess today’s core trends in our mission to make sense of tomorrow’s world.

Anne Lise Kjaer
Anne Lise Kjaer at Palestine International Business Forum 2010-10-13.
Founder, futurist and author

Anne Lise’s career began in Denmark, initially in the design industries prior to establishing Kjaer Global in 1988. She lived and worked in Hamburg and Paris before choosing London as her base to evolve her passion for trends. A renowned speaker and author, she has delivered talks to over 50,000 people since 1999 and is a frequent commentator in the international press. Anne Lise is on the IPE advisory board of Singapore’s URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) and holds the honorary title of Copenhagen Goodwill Ambassador.

Jordan Waid

Futurist, keynote speaker & creative strategist

Jordan Waid has been a Kjaer Global Futurist since 2015 and is a Keynote Speaker, Creative Strategist, Workshop Facilitator and a Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts. An Academy Award-winning film-maker, PRECOG Founder and pattern recognition activist; his educational background triangulates architecture, filmmaking and digital design. To keep pace with the speed of change, Jordan continually monitors, curates and shares the latest signals shaping our future in his PRECOG REPORT (showcasing stories on innovation, design, sustainability, science, tech, culture, social impact, futurity and more).

Louise Loecke Foverskov

Futurist, designer and creative strategist

Louise has helped people and businesses navigate the future at Kjaer Global since 2006. She holds an MA in product design from RCA and has a past career in film and TV. She is passionate about building bridges between creative and business processes. Pairing her endless curiosity with business and strategic acumen gives her a unique perspective and ability to spot opportunity. Louise believes in the power of purpose and vision as a vehicle to inspire positive transformation, and she communicates with engagement and insight about the future and tomorrow’s people.

 

Harald Brekke

Director & arkitekt
Harald is an experienced architect. He worked in Scandinavia for more than two decades, before moving to Kjaer Global in 2008. With a wealth of expertise in complex and design-led projects, environmental innovation and city planning, he draws on a strategic future perspective in his work. A keen storyteller, explorer and photographer, he guides groups on urban ‘Walks & Talks’, teaching people how to use the city as an inspirational source for planning, navigating and understanding the future.

Humanising Cities >>

Libby Norman
Editor and narrator

Libby has more than two decades’ experience as a writer/editor across a range of spheres – including health, homes, lifestyle and culture – working for groups such as Hearst, BBC Worldwide and New York Times. Author of four books, she has edited and contributed to numerous publications, as well as acting as a media consultant. She began working with Kjaer Global in 2003 and helps to build cogent trend narratives, as well as editing for its publications and presentations.

Timo Mashiyi-Veikkola
Anthropologist

Timo is an Amsterdam-based cultural anthropologist. His extensive experience of both the design and strategy innovation processes is culled from a professional background with global organisations such as Nokia and Dell. Having previously collaborated on several successful projects with Kjaer Global, he joined the team in 2015. Timo is an inspiring facilitator and speaker who delivers insights into trend analysis and people-focused solutions drawing on sociology, impact translation and ethnography.

Stephanie Morphew
Trend researcher

A graduate of the School of English & Drama at Queen Mary, University of London, Stephanie joined us in 2015 as a junior research assistant and analyst, helping to support the work of the core team. She primarily works with our clients on the Kjaer Academy where she helps to map, convert and assess the enormous amount of data and insights. She is also a key player in monitoring and logging the latest case studies from around the world to help ensure that our Trend Atlas remains up-to-date and dynamic.

Oswaldo Macia
Visual artist

Oswaldo holds a Masters in fine art from Goldsmiths, University of London. His work focuses around olfactory-acoustic sculptures exploring how outside-world stimuli are translated into images and information through our senses, mediated by what we think we know.  He contributes to Kjaer Global with his inspiring cultural insights, contacts and stories from around the world. Oswaldo’s work has been shown at the Venice Bienniale, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia and Tate Britain.

Our Extended Global Network

Kjaer Global has access to regional knowledge networks and experts via more than 80 business leaders in 30 countries around the world. Contacts are garnered from local and global organisations, as well as an extended network of skilled, research-active contacts at education institutions around the world.

Jean Ahlefeldt-Laurvig
Ethical impact investment

Jean has a background in luxury PR and with consultancy roles in a diverse range of fields. She has a keen interest and expertise in ethical investments and sustainable opportunities. Raised in Denmark, and with strong family roots across the African continent, Jean sits on the board of Kjaer Global and provides expert insights on Africa.

Jens Laugesen (UK/FR)
Luxury designer

Jens studied at Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne and at Central Saint Martins. He has worked for legendary Paris fashion houses and ran a highly successful eponymous label, which won numerous international fashion awards. Today he undertakes consultancies and brand audits for international luxury and RTW clients as well as teaching and advising on the future of fashion.

Araceli Camargo (UK/US)
Cognitive neuroscientist

Araceli is a social entrepreneur with an MA in neuroscience. Her passion is the relationship between spaces and people, and how more biological and humane environments built with purpose are key to cultivating innovation. In 2009, she founded the co-working space THECUBE in London to help people build their business acumen and create successful strategies.

Sonia Wang (UK/APAC)
Insights strategist

Sonia combines her eastern roots with a global outlook to explore and decipher cross-cultural insights for innovation. Her speciality is compelling storytelling using social science techniques, including video ethnography, cultural probes, customer journey mapping, shadowing, cultural immersion and lifestyle trend research. She manages complex briefs in her work with some of the world’s most innovative brands.

Daniel Gutierrez (US)
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Industrial systems engineer

Dan is a Florida native and the co-founder of creative meeting points on both sides of the Atlantic – WECREATE NYC and its sister community THECUBE London. A graduate of Auburn University in Industrial and Systems Engineering, he applies his scientific background to developing new systems for innovation and fresh thinking.

Kenneth Mikkelsen (DK)
Writer, speaker & learning designer

Kenneth is an international leadership expert with focus on learning and global business trends. He helps leaders and organisations adapt to the shifting nature of the world. Kenneth is the co-author of The Neo-Generalist, which explores the value of multidisciplinarity in our lives. He has a passion for social media and can be watched at work on Twitter @LeadershipABC.

Nicklas Bergman (SE)
Social tech entrepreneur, futurist & author

Niklas’ insatiable appetite for new tech informs his investments, keynotes and research. His unique insights led to him being appointed the Scandinavian advisor to the TechCast Technology Think Tank in Washington DC. Niklas is also the author of Surviving the Tech Storm – Strategy in Time of Technological Uncertainty.

Roger Camrass (UK)
Roger-Camrass-Kjaer-Global
Business leader, futurist & author
Roger is a futurist, business leader and academic who studied at Cambridge and MIT. Over 40 years, he has assisted organisations to adopt new technologies. He led groundbreaking research for SRI in the 1990s, with a major strategic study that paved the way for the e-commerce revolution. He has helped companies such as Amazon, and Fujitsu and lectured in over 40 countries. Roger is author of ‘Atomic: reforming the business landscape into the new structures of tomorrow’.

Ask us anything about the future, our courses or your project

Drop us a line anytime with your questions or request, and we will respond within 48 hours