Francisco Barreto Araujo

Singularity Expert: Environment, Policy, Law, Ethics

Francisco B. Araujo, Ph.D., is a world-class impact catalyst, anthropologist, futurist, entrepreneur, designer of learning experiences, and public speaker. He has more than a decade of experience working with innovation and social impact organizations. Francisco is a systems thinker and culture shaper, a leader who bridges the gaps between different social groups to promote human development and well-being. He is passionate about leveraging knowledge, skills, mindsets, and tools that support people to unleash their untapped potential. Throughout his career, Francisco established a remarkable track record in creating and implementing corporate social innovation projects. He has successfully implemented projects dealing with different Millennium Development Goals, by integrating exponential technologies, human-centered design principles, deep and nuanced anthropological understanding of local contexts, the mobilization of cross-sector partnership networks, and new organizational and financial arrangements. Francisco has designed and implemented programs involving conflict resolution and complex negotiations with various stakeholders, including multinational companies, local governments, universities, hedge funds, foundations, NGOs, and diverse local communities, to promote social impact and organizational innovation. Currently, he is the CEO of Hyperflow; a company focused on projects involving future studies, innovation, education, change management, smart cities, and social impact projects for governments, public and private companies. He also teaches innovation, change management, and business strategy at IBMEC's MBA courses. He served as the Chief Innovation Officer and Head of Education at Viva Rio, an organization directly impacting over 2 million people in vulnerable communities in Rio de Janeiro. He coordinated the Espaço Criança Esperança Rio, in partnership with Rede Globo and UNESCO. He was a senior researcher and consultant in the innovation area of ​​the Department of Public Policy Analysis of FGV. He served as general coordinator of studies for impact assessment and mitigation, referring to the indigenous communities component of the socio-environmental licensing processes of the Jirau Hydroelectric Plant. At Jirau, he worked with different indigenous ethnic groups, including the Kaxarari, Oro-Wari, and Uru-eu-wau-wau. He was also a field anthropologist in the Genographic Project, a genetic-anthropological study that mapped historical human migration patterns by collecting and analyzing DNA samples. He began his career as an Advisor to the Office of International Relations at the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. Francisco has a multidisciplinary background, with a Ph.D. in History of Science and Technology & Epistemology, an M.Phil in Anthropology, and a Masters in International Management. He has further training in diverse areas, including Design Thinking, Environmental Impact Econometric Evaluation, and Executive Leadership for Early Childhood Development. Francisco is a Singularity University Alumni, GSP15. He has lectured in several academic and non-academic programs, including Singularity University's GSP, SingularityU Brazil Conference, Prince of Wales Business and Sustainability Program at Cambridge University, and the Latin American Conference at Sloan School of Management, MIT. Francisco is also interested in meta-learning strategies. He never stops exploring new knowledge fields, according to the current needs, always approaching challenges with a beginner's mindset.