Roberto Alvarez is a systems-thinker and -doer who has been working at the intersections of technology, business, policy, global issues, and communications for more than twenty-five years. A native from Brazil, he has worked and implemented joint initiatives with organizations and partners in the Americas, Africa, Europe, MENA, Oceania, and Asia throughout his career.
As a citizen, he is particularly concerned about how organizations and countries can innovate to “solve for sustainability” and how societies can address an increasingly complex array of challenges in the policy arena. His professional focus has been on convening cross-sector global groups of leaders to address economic and societal issues and building partnerships to accelerate innovation in technology, business models, and institutions.
Roberto currently serves as the Executive Director of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils (GFCC), a global multi-stakeholder organization with a footprint in more than thirty nations, and a Senior Policy Fellow at the Queen Mary University London’s Global Policy Institute. Before joining the GFCC, he was a Senior Manager at the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI), where he led innovation, internationalization and sectorial development initiatives. He also worked as a management and operations consultant with a focus on manufacturing and logistics, cofounded three tech companies, designed and implemented grad programs, and taught graduated courses in different Brazilian universities. He is an author and organizer of publications on innovation, industrial development, and manufacturing strategy and operations. During his period in consultancy, he managed projects in industries such as automotive, energy, building materials, government administration, and higher education.
He holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering and was trained in Quality and Productivity at the Japan Productivity Center and in Exponential Technologies at the NASA AMES-based Singularity University. He is a global speaker and has made angel investments in Brazil and the United States.