LEADERS Interview with Richard Attias, Chairman of the Executive Committee, and Acting CEO, Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute

Editors’ Note

Born in Morocco in 1959, Richard Attias completed his studies in civil engineering and earned a master’s degree in mathematics and physics. He began his career at IBM, and his passion for innovation led him to establish several companies in the IT industry and Global Communications fields. Over the course of his career, Attias has built a reputation for activating powerful networks, inspiring innovation, fostering public-private partnerships, and driving foreign direct investment in emerging markets. Attias spent over a decade at Publicis Group, where he served as Executive Chairman of Publicis Events Worldwide. From 1995 to 2008, he was the Executive Producer of all World Economic Forum meetings. He also co-founded the Nobel Laureates Conferences with the late Elie Wiesel and designed more than 1,000 high-level events for governments, institutions, and corporations. In 2008, he was appointed by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to create a strong ecosystem to lead the nation branding strategy of the Emirate of Dubai. Also, in 2008 he founded Richard Attias & Associates (RA&A), a strategic communication and advisory firm specializing in nation branding with a focus on attracting FDI. In his capacity of Executive Chairman of RA&A, he supported Morocco to become the top African country for tourism, hosted the Global Entrepreneurship Summit and five U.N. conferences. In 2009, he co-founded the Clinton Global Initiative and, in 2010, founded The New York Forum, followed by The New York Forum AFRICA. In parallel, he was entrusted by President Macky Sall to position Senegal as one of the leading countries in Sub-Sahara, designing the country’s events strategy and expanding the international awareness of Dakar, which became in two years the top destination in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2018, Attias entered into a financial partnership with the Saudi Public Investment Fund, and in 2019, became CEO of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute, a not-for-profit foundation with a mission of Impact on Humanity. Over the past 30 years, Attias’ talent for anticipating and addressing the most pressing issues of the time, activating powerful networks and inspiring innovation has made him a trusted advisor of many heads of state who have sought his support in achieving economic and social development.

Organization Brief

The Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute started in 2017 as an annual event bringing people together to invest in the most promising solutions. The leadership team realized that the energy of catalyzing ideas into actions with a global human impact should happen more than once a year since society needs ongoing, sustained action. FII Institute (fii-institute.org) has expanded its scope to become a fully-fledged, new generation of global, nonprofit foundation with an investment arm and one pressing agenda – creating an impact on humanity. Working across the globe with decision makers and innovators, the Institute works to advance humanity to enable a brighter future for humanity. Through research, high-profile programming, and innovative investments, the Institute focuses on four main areas: AI & Robotics, Education, Healthcare and Sustainability. These focus areas drive data-driven insights and collaborative conversations to generate societal impact on communities, empowering innovators and investors to concentrate efforts on the technologies and initiatives that matter most.

Board of Changemakers, FII9
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 2025
(above and following)

My journey is a little unconventional. I started in Morocco, moved to France to study engineering, and realized very quickly that I preferred engineering people over engineering machines. Instead of building physical bridges, I discovered a passion for building human ones – and believe me, those are far more complex. This curiosity led me to the FII Institute, where we created a platform uniting leaders from across the world’s power centers – India, China, Korea, Japan, Africa, the U.S., Europe, Latin America. We don’t just track global shifts; we help shape them.

Over the years, whether organizing Olympic ceremonies or global summits in Davos or Riyadh, I learned something simple but profound: when you create the right environment, people stop posturing and start co-creating. Today, my focus is turning big ideas into tangible impact – or as I like to call it, turning “talk” into “done.”

FII Institute was a once-in-a-generation opportunity. There was a huge gap in the global landscape: a place where investors could understand not just where capital should go, but where humanity needs it to go. We built FII to be the opposite of a traditional conference. No echo chambers. No grandstanding. No shouting competitions. Instead: real collaboration on AI, healthcare, sustainability, education – topics that actually matter. Today, FII is a global ecosystem, with gatherings from Riyadh to Miami to Asia to Brazil – because prosperity should not depend on your geography.

Our next big moment is FII PRIORITY Miami in March 2026. After last year’s summit – inaugurated by President Trump and joined by leaders from every major region – expectations are high. Good, because we intend to exceed them. 2026 will be transformative. The world is changing fast, and we plan to stay three steps ahead.

How does FII Institute gather decision makers and innovators to advance humanity?

We operate on three pillars – THINK, XCHANGE, ACT – which is basically our formula for global problem-solving:

THINK gives us the facts and the truth. Our 2025 Priority Compass surveyed more than 60,000 people across countries representing 66 percent of humanity – a pretty decent focus group – to pinpoint what people truly care about: cost of living, healthcare, technology, inclusion. XCHANGE is where we bring the world together. At FII9 in Riyadh, 90+ countries gathered and walked away with over $50 billion in agreements – all focused on real solutions: AI, sustainability, health, education. ACT is where we roll up our sleeves. We invest in innovators in electric aviation, AI healthcare, and clean tech – founders who aren’t waiting for permission to change the world.

Yes, the numbers are spectacular – over $250 billion in commitments over nine years. But numbers alone don’t excite me. If they did, I would have stayed an engineer. I measure success by what happens between the numbers:

The real legacy of FII is not the billions invested. It’s the bridges built – across borders, sectors, cultures – that will accelerate inclusive global growth.

When I founded RA&A, I wanted to end the era of global “talk shops.” Too many conferences produced beautiful speeches – and zero outcomes. So, we built RA&A to design platforms that convert dialogue into decisions. Plans into partnerships. Visions into action. Our mission is simple: don’t communicate – catalyze.

RA&A is where strategic consultancy meets creative agency meets production powerhouse. We design global summits, policy forums, investor conferences, nation-branding strategies – but our real specialty is content architecture: creating the conversations that need to happen, not just the ones that sound good.

We love putting unusual combinations of people together – the policymaker and the innovator, the activist and the investor, the taxi driver and the mayor. That’s where breakthroughs happen. We’ve worked in more than 100 countries for one reason: impact is universal, and action travels.

AI isn’t just reshaping the events industry – it’s reshaping every major driver of prosperity. It’s no longer a tool; it’s an economic engine. This year, 77 percent of respondents in our Compass survey said their country must build its own AI capabilities. That’s a national development strategy, not a tech preference. At our events, AI moderators are already joining human ones – not to replace them, but to amplify conversations at a global scale.

The future belongs to those who combine digital intelligence with emotional intelligence. Humanity plus technology – that’s where the magic happens.

Africa isn’t “the next frontier.” It’s the now. With a workforce surpassing 800 million by 2050, Africa is the world’s greatest source of talent and potential. Tech adoption is accelerating across sectors: agriculture, energy, healthcare, finance. African innovators are leapfrogging old systems and building new ones from scratch – often faster than the rest of the world. But the biggest multiplier is education. If we invest in digital skills and connectivity, Africa will not just participate in the global economy – it will power it.

At FII Institute, we focus on inclusive tech because the future of humanity depends on the future of Africa.

Leadership today has nothing to do with titles and everything to do with trust. The world moves too fast for rigid leaders. The modern leader needs four superpowers:

My personal priority now is the last one: empowering the next generation. They will build the world we only imagine.

My advice is intentionally simple: Take action. Not tomorrow. Not after “more research.” Today.

In a world reshaped by AI, your greatest advantage is your humanity – your imagination, your integrity, your ability to connect ideas and people.

Young innovators who blend creativity with execution will write the next chapter of our global story.