About Global Development International

Leadership & Focus

Henry E. Cole is Founder and President of Global Development International (GDI) and leads GDI Future, the firm’s foresight and strategy platform. His work focuses on long-range systems analysis, enterprise strategy, and decision support across global health, economics, energy and international development.

Henry's primary professional activity centers on building, advising, and governing multiple enterprises and new initiatives spanning health systems, diagnostics, medical infrastructure, bio-security, policy, and socio-economic transformation, operating across complex international markets.

Experience & Perspective

Over a five-decade career, Mr. Cole has founded, led, and scaled numerous companies and institutions with operations in more than 50 countries. He previously served for 25 years as an Executive and  President of The Futures Group International and its subsidiaries, where he helped develop the company into a global leader in forecasting, planning, and policy analytics. Corporate US offices were in Washington, Glastonbury, and Raleigh-Durham and in Bath, England;  Corporate clients included Ford's  futurist Advisor in Dearborn and Ford Europe's  Think Tank in Bath; programs for Shell Canada and Shell International , and government level programs for  Australia,  and for the US  agencies domestically and overseas, including The State Department, Department of Energy,  USAID, and CDC. 

Mr. Cole's  experience includes leadership positions with GE’s Center for Advanced Studies (TEMPO. There he managed the  international socioeconomic and demographic policy analytics programs, including work in for 15 countries and  where he also established the economic and demographic modeling and projection programs  for institutions in Africa and the Middle East 

For Energy programs at TEMPO he also lead  teams for economic and social analysis for nuclear nonproliferation and energy assessment programs in Egypt, Turkey and Peru. and  three countries. Later at Hittman Nuclear Associates he served as Senior Economist  for US domestic energy programs, modeling residential and commercial energy supply and demand  for the US Department of Energy.    

Mr. Cole Cole's economics background includs faculty of economics at Tulane and an Internship at the President's Council of Economic Advisors. 

Mr. Cole currently serves on selected corporate and institutional boards, including: The Millennium Project, where he was a founder and  which now has  futurist nodes in 72 countries for foresight analytics and national and institutional guidance; and with Global Medical REIT and its predecessor for ten years where he serves as Lead of the Independent Board and Chair of the Compensation Committee for 8, Member of the Audit Committee for 10, and more recently Chair of ESG  and Member of the Nominations and  Governance Committees. 

Earlier he was on  board of proteomics diagnostic company, Avant Diagnostics (TheraLink and Ignite). His prior corporate and many non profit boards and senior executive roles span technology, healthcare, diagnostics, bio-defense, energy, and international development policy and planning .

His experience includes leadership positions with GE’s Center for Advanced Studies, international demographic and energy assessment programs, and academic appointments in economics at Tulane and an Internship at the President's Council of Economic Advisors. 

Henry holds degrees from Yale University and The Johns Hopkins University, with training in economics, mathematics, and political economy. He has lived and worked extensively across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, including numerous developing and  emerging market countries. He speaks and has lectured in French. 

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