04 February 2026 – What first motivated you to become a member of the Club of Rome and how did that journey begin for you?
At the time, the co-presidents of the Club of Rome, Anders Wijkman and Ernst von Weizsäcker, acknowledged my contributions in AI, technology, and entrepreneurship as a strategic bridge to implementing the mission of the Club of Rome. When they invited me to join, it was a no brainer, of course.
How does your work connect with the mission and the vision of the Club of Rome?
The mission and vision of the Club of Rome were set in 1968, when the Club of Rome was initiated by Italian industrialist Aurelio Peccei to limit the unsustainable growth of human activity on the planet. As a computer scientist who studied AI 40 years ago, my contribution consists in applying new technologies to implement the goals for the Club of Rome including the UN SDGs within planetary boundaries by 2050.
The Club of Rome is known for its systems approach to global challenges. How does your focus on investing within planetary boundaries add to this thinking?
At the heart of my work is Integral Investing, which is based on the philosophy of Ken Wilber, integral theory, which goes way beyond a systemic approach. In its traditional definition, systems theory aims at fixing the world from the outside, pretending to know what is on the inside. But we need a much, much deeper multi-perspectival approach that helps people better understand complexity by including not only social and environmental aspects, but also cultural, personal development, technological, and other intelligences. Within the age of AI, a more holistic approach becomes quite necessary.
This is what integral investing brings to the table through a holistic and more inclusive methodology.
Your book, Integral Investing from Profit to Prosperity was published as a report to the Club of Rome. What impact do you hope it has made in advancing global solutions?
I have worked on this model for 25 years. So, even if the Integral Investing report to the Club of Rome is rather new, it’s been applied in the real world for quite some time including within the adoption of the Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) of the United Nations in Germany and at the EU level. Ken Wilber even said that integral investing is the next paradigm in investing.
My most important endeavor is to support young entrepreneurs get access to financial support, important networks, and key people to help make their start-ups successful. To achieve that at scale, we need to aggregate much more the capital from money owners who subscribe to the “six Ps,” the motto of Integral Investing, the Parity of People, Planet and Prosperity with Passion and Purpose. We need many more investors who feel attracted to using their capital for the greater good, to enable safe planetary boundaries and implement the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations before it is too late. And for that, I started the AQAL Foundation.
How has your membership of the Club of Rome shaped your ideas and inspired your work?
Being a member of the Club of Rome, we have access to extraordinary people. It is encouraging to see how everyone is making a huge difference. For example, I’m joining forces with people like Charly Kleissner, who started TONIIC, the greatest network of impact investors around the world. He is also a big supporter of the Investment Turnaround that I launched with the former presidents of the Club of Rome, Ernst von Weizsäcker and Anders Wijkman.
Thomas Bjorkman is another member who started the Inner Development Goals initiative, because he recognised that the UN SDGs are missing the interior aspects of the people, their individual talents and their collective intelligences. And there are many, many others.
As someone who works at the intersection of technology, investment and psychology, how do cross disciplinary approaches shape your approach to problem solving?
A classical interdisciplinary methodology is no longer sufficient to address the growing complexity of current grand global challenges. We need a transdisciplinary approach, a completely new way of analysing current problems, across all disciplines and all silos, which should be united to not leave anybody behind. This is why I adopted integral theory by Ken Wilber as a much more holistic and inclusive lens. In my view, it is the best philosophy to enable AI and deep-tech to implement the goals of the Club of Rome and the UN SGDs within planetary boundaries by 2050.
Looking ahead, what gives you hope for the future and where do you see your greatest impact being made again?
What gives me hope for the future is the current generation of young people who have great ideas, but don’t have the political or the financial power to implement them. That’s why I am supporting young scientists, entrepreneurs, quantum physicists, and other smart people who have the solutions for creating new paradigms to replace the unsustainable ones. This gives me a lot of hope and the certainty that we will succeed in building a better world if we stick together.
