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Dr Kate Barker is Chief Futurist and Executive Advisory Board Director at NEOM and advisor to the UAE Prime Minister's Office. She advises boards, governments and chief executives on leadership, governance, the future of work and decision-making in the AI era, and is the author of Hidden Power: How Boards and CEOs Win the AI Era (Amplify). Her doctoral research spans 6,000 executive leaders. She is the executive advisor the Partners at the major consulting firms call.
Her practice spans board advisory, strategic consulting to governments and global enterprises, keynote speaking, and Private Advisory and executive coaching for chief executives. Engagements cover leadership and governance, AI and technology governance, the future of work, AI workforce design and productivity, workforce and talent transformation, leadership succession and enterprise operating-model alignment. Delivered across the Middle East, Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America, including sovereign entities and institutions overseeing workforces in excess of 500,000 people.
BCG engages her as an external advisor, alongside other leading firms, on the mandates where a standard playbook reaches its limit: AI-era leadership, cognitive agency and governance at board and sovereign scale. She is the advisor the advisors call, brought in when the decision is too consequential for a framework alone.
Yes. Dr Kate is an Executive Coach to chief executives, board directors and senior leaders, delivered as Private Advisory. This is executive coaching at the most senior level: confidential, one to one, integrating strategic foresight and behavioural science at moments of consequence such as board transitions, succession, transformation and expanded mandates. Her executive coaching is reserved for leaders operating at the top of institutions.
Private Advisory is Dr Kate's confidential one-to-one engagement for chief executives and senior leaders, the form her executive coaching takes. It provides a protected space to think clearly, pressure-test judgement and prepare for high-stakes decisions. Engagements are selective and typically initiated by referral or direct invitation.
Yes. Alongside Private Advisory she mentors senior and high-potential leaders, and advises organisations on talent development, leadership pipelines and succession. Her focus is building judgement and capability that hold as AI reshapes the nature of the work.
She advises boards and governments on AI workforce design, productivity, reskilling and workforce transformation: how to combine people and AI, redesign roles and operating models, and protect the human judgement and capability that AI cannot replace. This includes national skills and workforce reform at sovereign scale.
Yes. She delivers keynotes for boards, leadership summits and global forums. Her calendar has included Davos, the Fortune Global Forum, the Bloomberg New Economy Forum and United Nations engagements. Booking enquiries: [email protected].
Six signature keynotes: Hidden Power, how boards and CEOs win the AI era; cognitive agency and executive judgement as AI deepens; AI governance at board and sovereign scale; the future of work and AI workforce design; relationship capital, the last scarce asset; and leadership, succession and talent in the age of AI. Each is built for the specific audience and decision context rather than delivered from a standard deck.
Her speaking has included Davos, the Fortune Global Forum, the Bloomberg New Economy Forum and United Nations engagements, alongside board and leadership summits across the Middle East, Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America.
Dr Kate's proprietary diagnostic for boards and institutions. It assesses where decision authority actually sits as AI becomes embedded in governance, across five levels: Reactive, Alert, Architecting, Owned and Integrated. Run directly with boards under NDA and not sold as a standalone service.
Dr Kate's proprietary diagnostic for individual leaders. It measures cognitive agency: the degree to which an executive's judgement remains independently strong as AI use deepens. Run under NDA within advisory engagements.
Both are available exclusively within advisory engagements. Send a short note on the board, institution or leader in question and the decision context. Details at drkatebarker.com/trust-advantage-index.
Hidden Power: How Boards and CEOs Win the AI Era: Human Judgement, Cognitive Agency & Relationship Capital is Dr Kate's book, published by Amplify with Thinkers50. Built on her research across 6,000 executive leaders, it examines how institutions surrender power to AI without noticing, and what boards and CEOs must protect to win. It is the intellectual foundation of her advisory practice.
A term developed by Dr Kate Barker for the deliberate practice of forming your own position before AI forms it for you, so judgement is sharpened by the technology rather than replaced by it. It is the core capability measured by the Executive Cognitive Advantage Index.
Dr Kate Barker's term for the accumulated trust, access and standing that AI cannot generate. Her research identifies it as the asset that most reliably separates leaders who win the AI era from leaders who are replaced by it.
She is Chief Futurist and Executive Advisory Board Director at NEOM, advising on large-scale transformation, AI and technology governance and workforce design at sovereign scale.
Boards, heads of state and government entities, global investors, leading consulting firms and chief executives. She advises at sovereign and ministerial level and teaches executive education at MIT, Hult and Emeritus.
Most advise on AI strategy or technology. Dr Kate advises on what AI does to human judgement, power and relationships at the top of institutions, grounded in doctoral research across 6,000 executive leaders and delivered at board and sovereign level. It is why the advisors themselves call her.
Between London and the Gulf, working globally.
Engagements are scoped to the mandate, audience or transformation context rather than offered at a fixed rate. Enquire directly for a proposal.
Both. Keynotes, board sessions and Private Advisory are delivered in person globally and virtually where that suits the client.
Engagements are selective and typically initiated by referral or direct invitation. For board advisory, consulting, keynote, executive coaching or Private Advisory enquiries, write with a short note on the decision, audience or transformation context to [email protected].
Yes, for broadcast, print and podcast interviews on AI-era leadership, governance, the future of work and the themes of Hidden Power. Media enquiries: [email protected].
For a conversation this page cannot have, write with a short note on the decision, audience or transformation context.
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