User:Tom.wujec

Tom Wujec (born July 14, 1959) is considered to be a thought leader in personal and team creativity, technology innovation, and visual strategy. Tom is the author and editor of several books, a Fellow at Autodesk, an adjunct professor at Singularity University, a multiple TED Conference speaker and a pioneer in the emerging practice of business visualization.

Background and Career
Born in Winnipeg, Canada, Tom Wujec graduated from the University of Toronto with degrees in Astronomy and Psychology. Starting in 1983, he worked as a writer, lecturer, and producer at the McLaughlin Planetarium and in 1989 became a creative director at the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada's largest cultural organization, where he produced a wide variety of large scale interactive exhibits.

After leaving the public sector in 1996, Tom joined Alias Wavefront, a Canadian computer graphic company to lead a variety of marketing, sales, product management and consulting functions. Tom helped bring several products to market, including Autodesk Maya and SketchBook Pro.

In 1996, Tom joined Autodesk as a Fellow, where he currently charts long-term strategy, introduces disruptive technologies and facilitates innovation practices internally as well as for leadership teams serving the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Manufacturing and Entertainment Industries.

Over the past decade Tom has delivered over 250 keynotes, presentations and workshops to a wide range of public and private organizations on the subjects of innovation, creativity, and technology disruption. He has developed a facilitation practice called Visual Strategy that applies visualization, rapid prototyping and business mapping and has applied it to financial, manufacturing, energy, and entertainment industries as well as non-profit organizations.

Tom's personal mission is to help individuals and organizations develop their capacity for creating clarity. In today's volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous world, the ability to produce clear, accurate, concise and compelling mental models of important aspects of work and life is more essential than ever. Through his facilitations, workshops, writings, videos, and blogs, he develops, catalogues and advocates techniques for fostering creativity and clarity.

Books
Tom is the author, co-author and editor of four books on creativity, design and imagination.


 * 1988: "Pumping Ions: Games and Exercises to Flex the Mind" Doubleday ISBN 0385247494
 * 1995: "Five Star Mind: Games and Puzzles to Stimulate the Imagination" Random House ISBN 0385414625
 * 2002: "Return on Imagination: Realizing the Power of Ideas" Co-authored with Sandra Muscat Financial Times ISBN 0130622850
 * 2011: "Imagine, Design, Create: How Design, Architects, and Engineers are Transforming our World" Melcher Media ISBN 1595910662

TED Conferences
Tom is a passionate supporter of TED, having participated in over 20 conferences. He has spoken at both TED and TEDX events numerous times, conducted several masterclasses, produced many animations, and participated as the invited TED artist.


 * TED Talk: The Marshmallow Challenge
 * TED Talk: Tom Wujec demos the 13th Century Astrolabe
 * TED Talk: Three Ways the Brain Creates Meaning

Singularity University
Tom is a founding professor at Singularity University where he teaches design paradigms, collaboration techniques and exponentially growing design technologies. Frequently, he produces massive wall drawings, sometimes hundreds of feet long, that graphically capture several days of presenters' content, providing visual reference for participants to develop comprehensive business strategies.