Wilford Welch has been exploring the driving forces impacting our world for more than five decades as a U.S. diplomat in Asia; as an economic development and business consultant in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S.; as the publisher of a world affairs magazine that appeared in 26 countries in six language editions; and as the leader of educational trips to numerous countries and cultures.
Wilford developed future planning scenarios for a number of multinational corporations and governments, including Citibank, Toyota, the U.S. Navy, and the Korean Government. He was the leader of a research team that developed the Wealth of Nations Index using 63 variables to measure each nation’s economic, information technology, and social well-being. He is the author of In Our Hands: A Handbook for Intergenerational Actions to Solve the Climate Crisis, published in 2018, and The Tactics of Hope: How Social Entrepreneurs Are Changing Our World, published in 2008.
Wilford has been deeply involved in outdoor and environmental education, including being chair of the board of the NatureBridge Golden Gate campus and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). In 1994 Wilford led the support team of NOLS instructors on Mount Everest, which removed 5,000 pounds of trash off the high camps and introduced the notion of “Leave No Trace” to Everest mountaineering.
Over the past decades, Wilford has created and led several large conferences exploring the issues addressed in In Our Hands, including two Quest for Global Healing gatherings in Bali, Indonesia, in 2004 and 2007 for over 1,000 participants from forty countries, and the Beyond Sustainability conference that took place at the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii in 2010.
Wilford has a BA from Yale University, a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PMD degree from the Harvard Business School. He lives in Sausalito, California. You can find out more about him at www.WilfordWelch.com.
Wilford regularly publishes blogs on solutions to the climate crisis that need to be taken by individuals, local, state and national governments and by businesses if we are going to survive and prosper as a species. Those interested can go to www.WilfordWelch.com/blog and sign up.
- Location: California, USA