Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt @ QSP SUMMIT 2023

Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt @ QSP SUMMIT 2023 | Main Stage
Google’s First and Former Chief Innovation Evangelist & Adjunct Professor
Stanford University
BIO
“Dr. Innovation” (Yediot Aharonot)
"Creativity is like a delicate plant. This German makes it bloom". (Focus Magazin)
“A creative superengine” (Focus Magazin)
Dr. Frederik’s mission is to inspire people to invent their future and he believes creativity exists in all of us - the #1 human superpower to choose your future.
As the First and Former Chief Innovation Evangelist at Google, where since 2010 he has led the growth of the company’s fabled innovation culture, working with tens of thousands of executives and employees to support innovation across the organization. From founding “The Google Garage”, creating Google’s first Innovation Laboratory, to launching Google’s future leadership institute, the Google School for Leaders, he has personally trained and mentored a diverse global community of 600+ Googlers who have served as innovation evangelists in every corner of the company.
Since 2013, he has been an adjunct professor at Stanford University’s d.school, where he teaches graduate classes on navigating ambiguity at the intersection of innovation, creativity, and design.
A global thought leader on the subject of innovation, creativity, and future, Dr. Frederik has built and trained communities of innovation catalysts, ambassadors, and coaches for organizations including Adidas, Bayer, Daimler, DigitalX, E.ON, Faber-Castell, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the German Soccer Association, Lufthansa, NASA, the NBA, SAP, Seoul Digital Forum, the United Nations, and governments from more than 25 countries around the world. He has also counseled thousands of entrepreneurs and changemakers through organizations such as Google for Startups, Stanford University Innovation Fellows, and other nonprofits and educational institutions. His work has been highlighted by more than 250 international media outlets, including Fast Company, El Tiempo, Inc., Harvard Business Manager, Time Magazine, Asia Business Daily, El Tiempo, Der Spiegel, Arte TV, ARD, Chosun Ilbo, and The Telegraph, among many others.
With his award-winning approach (New Work Award), he served as Innovation Consultant to the United Nations (UN) and is the youngest member of the “Hall of Fame” at Paderborn University. With his wife Angela, he founded Germany’s kids' maker space: “Tüftelei”. Born near Lake Constance, Germany, and educated in Germany, Shanghai, Cape Town, California, Buenos Aires, and New York, he currently lives above Silicon Valley in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where he draws inspiration from the playfulness and explorer mindsets of his three children.