David Orban is the Founder and Managing Partner of Network Society Ventures, a seed stage global investment firm focused on innovative ventures at the intersection of exponential technologies and decentralized networks.
He is an entrepreneur, visionary, guru, author, blogger, keynote speaker, and thought leader of the global technology landscape. His entrepreneurial accomplishments span several companies founded and grown over more than twenty years.
As a sought-after speaker, he has given over 100 keynote addresses and speeches around the world for organizations including Abbvie, Cisco, Oracle, Roche, Ernst & Young, Accenture, Gilead, TEDx Academy, ENEL, Intesa, Banca Sella, Mediolanum, Alphabet, Internet Advertising Bureau, European Foundation for Management Development, Globalization and Localization Association, Login and H-Farm.
David Orban is the Founder and a Trustee of Network Society Research (NSR), a London-based global think tank. It is creating a vision and analytical tools to allow individuals, enterprises and the society at large to deal positively with the unstoppable transformation to a world based on decentralized exponential technologies that are disrupting the traditional centralized and hierarchical functions of governments and corporations.
David is an author of two books. “Something New” is about the role of artificial intelligence in society. Network Society – The Coming Phase Change In the World Around You is an innovative ebook publishing project on the phase transformation towards exponential technologies and decentralization. Network Society is offered through Futuroid, David’s consulting firm which helps its clients to understand exponential technologies, the power of networks, distributed/ decentralized organizations and their impact on the clients and the world.
David Orban was the CEO of Dotsub, based in New York City, for four years, driving their rapid growth and new generations of product while serving clients including Cisco, General Electric, Boeing, Bank of America, the US Army, Adobe and AARP. The company offers SaaS tools to caption, translate and index online videos, enabling users to discover and engage with video content in any language – over 500 to date. Dotsub uses both crowdsourced and professional translation to deliver its services.
He is the Founder of Dotwords, an international language service provider based in Milan, Italy. The company supports businesses and organizations operating in the competitive multilingual markets opened by globalization, as well as local companies targeting international expansion.
David Orban is also on the Faculty of and Advisor to the Singularity University, based in Moffett Field, California. SU is an interdisciplinary university whose mission is to assemble, educate and inspire leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies in order to address humanity’s grand challenges. He is an Adjunct Professor at LUISS Business School in Rome, one of Italy’s leading institutions preparing the management and innovation leadership of the future.
He is also a mentor for the Thiel Fellowship, a Scientific Advisory Board Member for the Lifeboat Foundation, a Founder of the Open Government Data working group, and an Advisor to the Institute of Ethics and Emergent Technologies and numerous startups in Europe and North America. David is a founder of Axelera, an Italian nonprofit whose aim is to inspire future leaders, entrepreneurs and technologists by spreading knowledge about exponential technologies and the importance of addressing widespread global challenges. He was the Chairman of the Board, and is an Advisor to Humanity+, an organization dedicated to promoting understanding, interest, and participation in fields of scientific advancement and emerging innovation that benefit the human condition.
Born in Budapest, Hungary, he studied Physics at the University of Milan and the University of Padua.
David’s work cuts across the limits of specialization to contribute to a new renaissance. He explains, “My vision is at the crossroads of technology and society and their co-evolution.” His personal motto is “What is the question I should be asking?” This concept is his vehicle for accelerating cycles of invention and innovation in order to build the brave new world ahead.