Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt is an award-winning Future Optimist, educator, and entrepreneur. As Google’s first and former Chief Innovation Evangelist, he shaped one of the world’s most admired innovation cultures, training tens of thousands of Googlers and leaders worldwide to transform uncertainty into opportunity with radical optimism, empathy, and experimentation.

He is the bestselling author of What’s Next Is Now and Radikal Besser, and taught groundbreaking courses on innovation and future thinking as Adjunct Professor at Stanford University for more than a decade. Recognized by the media as “Dr. Innovation” and “The Pope of Creativity”, and one of the world’s top creativity trainers, Frederik has inspired more than half a million people – from boardrooms to refugee camps – to imagine and create a better future.

He currently serves as Executive-in-Residence at NYU’s Stern School of Business, where he contributes to the university’s Initiative on Purpose and Flourishing. Born near Lake Constance, he now lives with his family in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where nature, rituals, and playfulness shape the way he lives what he teaches.