Passionate about the value of futures thinking to organisations, Melanie Howard co-founded the Future Foundation in 1996 and remains its Executive Chair. The Foundation is an independent think tank that advises companies on how to plan for the future by identifying and capitalising on emerging market opportunities and reducing risks.

Melanie has spent two decades using social trends analysis to help businesses identify opportunities and develop new service, observing how and why understanding consumer trends can really make a difference to effectiveness and creativity. She has identified powerful trends such as the “24 Hour Society”, has explored the nature of communications in the network society and established a successful online consumer insight service “nVision. Melanie explores the value of thinking in more structured ways about the future for businesses and for society as a whole, as well as exploring how some key trends will be shaping our lives over the coming decade.

Amongst other roles, Melanie is a Visiting Business Research Fellow at Innovation RCA at the Royal College of Art, visiting professor at Henley Business School where she runs Masterclasses in Futures Thinking, and a trustee of the IDM and the Women’s Sport & Fitness Foundation.