David Roberts

Business leader, Change agent, Concerned citizen, Consultant, Engineer, Investor, Public servant, Scientist, Social entrepreneur, Startup, Technologist, World traveler

David Roberts passion is to inspire leaders to transform and make more courageous and compassionate decisions for global good. He is the founder of GEDI.com whose mission is to uniquely forge character traits in civilian leaders for extraordinary lifetime human performance. He is the world's leading expert on Exponential Leadership and a leading global expert on exponential technology and business disruption. He was the first person to major in Artificial Intelligence at M.I.T. and his formal advisor was Joseph Weizenbaum, the founder of ELIZA the first real text based AI. He served as Singularity University’s Distinguished Faculty member, Vice-President and Director of their Graduate Studies Program. He is the founder of Exponential Leadership, an organization dedicated to transforming global leadership potential through courage, compassion and integrity. He is the founder of the 17 Global Inspirational Goals, a proposal made at the United Nations to inspire the best of human potential so that humanity is not just focused on solving problems. He is the recipient of numerous national and military awards to include the Clay Christensen Disruptive Innovation Tribeca Award which recognizers game-changers whose breakthroughs create radical solutions to the world’s most vexing problems. He is also the founder of New Disruption Theory superseding the theory of Disruptive Innovation. His award winning high-tech ventures have received over $150 million in funding from Silicon Valley’s top investors to include Kleiner Perkins, Cisco, Oracle, Accenture, and In-Q-Tel and serves as Director at a leading Venture Capital firm. He served in multiple roles as a Career Officer in the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government and led the development of some of the most revolutionary programs ever built to include multibillion dollar spacecraft, advanced spy planes and fleets of autonomous flying robots. He was an Investment Banker in Mergers & Acquisitions at Goldman Sachs headquarters. He began his career in service as a decorated Special Agent and Active Duty Air Force officer. He was educated as a Harvard M.B.A. and M.I.T. Computer Scientist & Engineer and majored in Artificial Intelligence and Bio-Computer Engineering. Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley’s Business schools have written and taught case studies on David’s leadership, management, and decision-making. His fascination with technology began in the fourth grade after building a hovercraft (early drone) to carry his sister to the bus stop, powered by what was formerly his mother’s vacuum cleaner, and fortunately limited by the length of an electric power cord.

Forging great leaders and inspiring others to live lives that inspire them.

Our world suffers most from a lack of great leadership. Great leaders can be forged. GEDI.com

Advanced Aircraft, Artificial Intelligence, Compassion, Courage, Digital Biology, Disruption, Disruptive Innovation, Drones, Enlightenment, Entrepreneurship, Exponential Leadership, Exponential Technology, Keynote Speaker, Leadership, Leadership Training, Satellites, Spacecraft, Venture Capital

Helping others to discover that they can be free from all forms of suffering and that this can be achieved by anyone.