Henry E. Cole

Founder of Global Development International. Economist, strategist, futurist, entrepreneur, and corporate director helping organizations and institutions navigate transformative change

                                                          Professional Focus

Henry E. Cole is Founder and President of Global Development International (GDI) and leads GDI Future, its foresight and strategic initiatives platform.

His work focuses on strategic foresight, systems analysis, enterprise development, governance, and decision support across healthcare, economics, emerging technologies, energy, and international development.

Throughout his career, Mr. Cole has worked at the intersection of public policy, enterprise, and institutional development, helping organizations understand long-term change and translate strategy into practical implementation.

His experience spans economic, energy, and health systems, medical diagnostics, healthcare infrastructure, biosafety, technological innovation, demographic and socio-economic analysis, and, more recently, the governance of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

                                                 Experience & Leadership

Over his career, Mr. Cole has founded, helped establish, led, governed, and advised numerous companies, institutions, and international initiatives operating across more than fifty countries and supported by over 3,000 international and local professional and administrative staff.

He served for twenty-five years as an Executive and President of The Futures Group International and its subsidiaries, where he helped build the organization's international policy, planning, forecasting, and development programs into one of the world's leading organizations in strategic planning, policy analytics, international development, and technology assessment.

Corporate offices were located in Washington, D.C.; Glastonbury, Connecticut; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; and Bath, England. Corporate and institutional clients included Ford Motor Company, Ford Europe, Shell Canada, Shell International, together with government, institutional, and private-sector organizations throughout North America, Europe, Asia,  and in Australia, Great Britain, Mexico and France.

Country program offices operated in more than fifty countries with support from international and national agencies including the United Nations, UNDP, UNESCO, WHO, FAO, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, OECD, bilateral development agencies, and numerous United States departments and agencies, including Energy, Labor, Interior, Commerce, Health and Human Services, USAID, CDC, NIH, and the Census Bureau.

Earlier, Mr. Cole served with GE's Center for Advanced Studies (TEMPO), directing international socio-economic, demographic, and policy analysis programs involving more than fifteen countries.

In this he established economic and demographic modeling and projection programs supporting institutions in Africa and the Middle East and led analytical teams examining nuclear non-proliferation, national energy assessment, energy technologies, and energy policy in Egypt, Turkey, and Peru.

Later, as energy  economist  with Hittman  Nuclear Associates, he directed energy economics analysis and systems modeling for United States Department of Energy programs involving residential and commercial energy supply and demand.

Mr. Cole's economics background includes service with the President's Council of Economic Advisers, the faculty of economics at Tulane University, and professional lectures and training in socio-economic modeling, forecasting, planning, and policy applications for OECD, the International Labor Organization, UNDP, the French National Institute for Demographic Studies, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, American University of Beirut, Hacettepe University, and other national and international institutions.

                                           Institutions, Boards. and Companies

Mr. Cole serves on selected corporate and institutional boards, including The Millennium Project, where he participated in its founding during the early 1990s, and supports futurist analytical studies  and  advisory activities.

The Millennium Project includes futurist Nodes in more than seventy countries and provides foresight research and strategic guidance for governments, institutions, and international organizations. His present interests include the practical, institutional, corporate,and international governance of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

For eleven years, through mid-2026, he served on the Board of CHIRON (NYSE: XRN) and its predecessor Global Medical REIT (NYSE: GMRE), including service  as Lead Independent Director and Chair of the Compensation Committee and, member of the Audit Committee for 10 years, Chair of ESG, and member of the Nominating and Governance Committee.

He also served on the Board of Avant Diagnostics(AVDX) (later Theralink), and continues advisory and governance roles supporting Ignite Proteomics, advancing precision cancer diagnostics and treatment technologies.

Beyond these, his broader experience includes founding, governing, investing in, or advising more than fifteen additional companies and  six nonprofit organizations spanning healthcare systems, diagnostics, biotechnology, blood safety, medical technologies, energy systems, international development assistance, maternal and child health, mental health, education planning, disability services, and strategic foresight.

                                            Education & International Perspective

Henry E. Cole holds degrees from Yale University and The Johns Hopkins University, with studies in economics, mathematics, political economy, and a background in physics.

He has lived and worked extensively throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, in both developed and emerging regions.He speaks French and has lectured in this internationally.

Beyond corporate management and oversight responsibilities  in  many countries, his direct developing-country engagements included Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, the countries of Sahelian Africa, the Philippines, Indonesia, the countries of the Caribbean with focus on Haiti.

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