MBZUAI
Academic appointment
Professor of Practice in AI at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI)
Abu Dhabi.
About
Meet
Dr Kate Barker
Chief Futurist. Board Director.
Global Executive Advisor.
Dr Kate Barker advises governments, boards and global chief executives on future strategy, AI governance and long-term competitiveness. Her work connects strategic foresight with investment priorities, organisational transformation and national ambition.
Advisory experience
Advising boards, CEOs
and Heads of State.
Kate is a strategic advisor to the offices of the UAE and UK Prime Ministers and an executive advisor to BCG, Bain and McKinsey & Company.
At NEOM, her work across fourteen giga-projects has connected national ambition with the leadership and workforce capabilities needed to deliver it.
She has shaped national AI and workforce strategies covering twenty million people and benchmarked more than four hundred global organisations.
At EY Global, based in New York City, Kate led a global consulting team. Her wider advisory experience includes BCG, Bain and McKinsey.
She brings three decades of experience, including earlier roles as Vice President at SAP Asia Pacific and Partner in PwC’s Asia consulting practice.
Her approach starts with the decision, not the technology: where to invest, what to build, how to govern and what not to surrender. AI is part of that conversation, not its boundary.
Sector experience
Her clients span technology, pharmaceuticals, finance and banking, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, sovereign wealth, manufacturing, education and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG).
The technology was never the difference. We are.
Explore the keynote portfolio →Qualifications & distinctions
Academic credentials & recognition.
Education
Doctor of Business Administration
Swiss School of Business and Management Geneva. Research on generative AI and organisational trust, drawing on evidence from 6,000 executive leaders.
Master’s in Organisational Psychology
The University of Sydney.
Master of Business Administration
Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM), UNSW Sydney.
Board education · Company Directors Course, Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Recognition
TIME100 AI Impact
Thinkers50
Stevie Awards Women in Business · 2026
What others say
Research with practical consequence.
“What makes the work particularly valuable is the connection between rigorous research and the decisions leaders and organisations are actually facing.”
“Her findings challenged some of our assumptions about leadership. We changed part of our leadership development as a result.”
Selected testimonial excerpts.
Beyond work
Sydney roots. Still curious.
Raised in Sydney, Kate has lived and worked across Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. Beyond her professional life, she enjoys marathon running and, above all, staying curious.
Work with Kate
Begin with a confidential conversation.
For board advisory, strategic consulting, private executive advisory or a keynote engagement, start with the decision or ambition you have in mind.