Soushiant Zanganehpour

Change Agent, Entrepreneur, Foodie, Global soul, Idea generator, Parent, World traveler, Writer/Editor

Soushiant’s life and work are an unfolding story, shaped by a belief in what becomes possible when courage, consciousness, and creativity are placed in service of something larger. He is a systems thinker, builder, and father working at the intersection of technology, collective intelligence, governance, and inner development. He founded Swae, an early exploration in collective intelligence and more participatory forms of decision making, designed to help people shape the organizations they belong to and resource decisions that affect their lives. Over the past decade, he has advised leaders across sectors on innovation, transformation, and the deeper conditions that help change take root. He is drawn to questions that sit between the personal and the systemic, especially how people and institutions evolve in an age of increasingly intelligent tools. He currently leads digital transformation and AI automation initiatives at the University of British Columbia, where he helps navigate the human, cultural, and strategic questions that come with technological change. He is also building Tricycle Labz, a venture studio creating AI native tools that help everyday people increase self awareness, agency, and productivity. As a father of two, he is especially interested in how the next generation learns to stay connected to its inner voice, and in how technology might support human development rather than erode it. Selected Career Highlights: * Winner of the 2018 New Shape Prize, a global competition to reimagine democracy, selected from over 14,000 submissions worldwide, earning $1M in recognition for the proposal for AI-supported collective governance (which became Swae). * Founded and led Swae, a venture-backed platform for bottom-up decision-making, attracting Netflix's former CTO as lead investor. Scaled to 100,000+ users across global organizations including Etihad Airways, Bosch, COP28, LifeLabs and Doctors Without Borders * Former Head of Strategy and Operations – Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University * Founded Tribeca Impact Partners, advising global companies, government and UN agencies on how to successfully navigate environmental sustainability and disruption challenges. * Advisory Boards – MIT Tech Review Global Insights Panel and Harvard Business Review.

Expanding human agency and participation Rethinking democracy, governance, and organizational design Consciousness and inner development Spirituality and Sufism Healing and transformation

Innovation without ethics is just fancy extraction. The rise of "Techno-Humanitarianism" -

Collective Intelligence, Decentralized Decision-Making, Democratic Innovation, Governance Design, Healing Trauma, Human Agency, Inner Development, Institutional Transformation, Organizational Change, Personal Transformation, Startups, Tech & Ethics

TED has been one of the few spaces in my life that has consistently brought me back into alignment with what feels most essential. It is one of the most transformative communities I belong to. More than a conference, it is a place where reflection and serendipity quietly do their work. Each time I have attended, I have left with greater clarity about what I am actually called to do, and a sharper sense of responsibility for the perspective and capabilities I carry. What has stayed with me most is the sense of possibility the gathering creates. Over the years my path has moved through many fields – social entrepreneurship, technology startups, governance and collective intelligence. In my current state, my attention is turning toward something deeper: the relationship between awareness, technology, and agency. TED has been one of the places that has helped me recognize and trust that shift. Witnessing the life stories of people who “actualized”, closing the gap between what they believe and how they live has helped me close my own gaps, let go of impostor syndrome, and trust a shift in direction that was already underway.

Photographing antique doors, repairing broken ceramics (kintsugi), singing Iranian folk songs and Sufi poetry, cooking without recipes.