Peter is one of Canada's most experienced futurists. Over his career, he led hundreds of foresight projects that developed vision, policy and strategy with federal government departments, NGOs, business and UN agencies on a wide range of themes – from the future of primary health care in Asia to the future of the UN Security Council.
Between 2008 and 2021, he played a leadership role in building a foresight centre in the Canadian federal government called Policy Horizons Canada - one of the leading government foresight centers in the world.
In September 2021, he retired as Chief Futurist from Policy Horizons Canada to set up a "boutique" foresight center to assist governments and NGOs with capacity-building, advice, mentoring, evaluation as well as foresight and vision-building for transformative change.
In 2024, Peter was among the 10 international experts appointed to the OECD's Advisory Committee on Foresight.
Peter has a MSc in Future Studies from the University of Houston (with a focus on participatory foresight methods). Over his career, he had extended work assignments in Costa Rica, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Holland, New York and Geneva and work-related travel in more than 50 countries. He has been on the board of directors of a number of organizations and is a founding member of the Association of Professional Futurists.
Showcase
Helping people think about the future - Insights from cognitive science
Cognitive science has identified cognitive processes that underpin thinking and decision-making. Understanding and working with these processes will improve the efficacy of scanning, foresight, and vision-building. These cognitive devices include mental models (internalized system maps), mental simulations (for scenario development and testing), inference processes (that explore implications), and assumptions (that summarize and consolidate thinking). This paper describes the cognitive science behind these processes and suggests how we might use them in foresight. This paper is a chapter in The Handbook for Future Studies edited by Roberto Poli, July 2024, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. The authors copy is also available on my website. The FARSI method (also on my website) integrates these insights in a foresight method to address complex public policy problems.
View