About
About
Pax Technologica is a global initiative dedicated to radically improving the adoption of exponential technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, in emerging geographies of the Global South. We envision a harmonious relationship between humanity and technology, which will enable a future of peace, equity, and cultural enrichment. Recognising that the next wave of global growth will be shaped by regions like the African continent, we focus on empowering local leaders, innovators, and communities to leapfrog outdated systems and harness technology in ways that are ethical, sustainable, and culturally aligned.
Thomas is an award-winning futurist, city architect, creative director, and impact entrepreneur committed to the emergence of a regenerative civilisation. For over 25 years, he has worked as a transformation agent and cultural pioneer, using provocative creativity and crowdsourcing to tackle some of the world’s most complex challenges. Trained as an architect and urbanist, Thomas’s career has encompassed urban sustainability, community design, and distributed approaches to planetary welfare. He has provided strategic advice to numerous global institutions and backed ventures across diverse sectors, from regenerative agriculture to disruptive technologies. In 2020, he founded Studio Ermacora with longtime collaborator Paul Hughes, leveraging their expertise in storytelling and identity work to help high-net-worth families participate in transformative impact initiatives.
In 2023, Thomas founded Pax Technologica to advance the role of emerging technologies in shaping a more equitable and harmonious future, particularly in emerging geographies. His long-standing engagement with technology includes serving as the first resident futurist of XPRIZE, advising the G7 on AI adoption and workforce preparedness, and serving as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils on urban infrastructure. He has also played a key role in impact-driven innovation, from running the UK’s leading FabLab to establishing a Vatican-backed accelerator for last-mile technologies. Additionally, he has served on the board of LACI, the first public cleantech incubator in the US, mentored entrepreneurs at Unreasonable Group, and co-founded the MIT-backed REACT programme for refugee education.
A sought-after speaker, Thomas has delivered over 500 keynotes and lectures at venues including the UN General Assembly, EU task forces, leading universities, and global festivals. His work is guided by three core lenses: the geopolitical forces shaping our world, the trend towards nurturing the self, and the transition towards digital society and distributive infrastructures. These perspectives inform his vision for a regenerative civilisation, with Pax Technologica serving as the central manifestation of his work towards this goal.
Paul is a systems thinker and designer renowned for his ability to tackle complex challenges and deliver meaningful solutions with clarity, creativity, and collaboration.
Hailing from Dublin, where he received his design education, Paul has been guided by a deep belief that design serves as a bridge between vision and reality, enabling adaptive decision-making within evolving systems. By embracing complexity, he creates frameworks that offer practical alternatives while crafting narratives that drive behaviour and inspire meaningful action.
As co-founder of Studio Ermacora, Paul blends design, strategy, and storytelling to develop transformative solutions for intricate challenges, always striving to find “the simplicity on the other side of complexity.” His work with Pax Technologica further brings this philosophy to life by navigating the intersection of design, impact, and exponential technologies to address multi-layered issues.
In addition to his work in social action, Paul creates generative spaces for social discourse as an award-winning keynote speaker. For over three decades, he has shaped the field of narrative design, collaborating with leading organisations such as Coca-Cola, 3M, IKEA, LEGO, and Canon, as well as major institutions including Yale University, Carnegie Mellon Qatar, and the European Union. His work continues to explore how design shapes the world, creating new possibilities through the interplay of storytelling, systems thinking, and impact.
Aaron is Fellow of Practice and Director of Digital Transformation Education at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. His work focuses on how large, complex organisations can better use, regulate, and enable digital technologies. A former Singaporean civil servant, he played a key role in shaping policy, founding the Centre for Strategic Futures and the CAST Laboratory for serious policy gaming. He co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Technology Policy and is a member of the OECD’s Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Futures.
At Pax Technologica, Aaron is the non-executive director of the Policy Intelligence Unit, which bridges aspiration and implementation in tech policy. Through research, partnerships, and strategic policy development, the unit equips stakeholders with the tools to harness technology for inclusive growth, cultural preservation, and environmental sustainability while mitigating risks such as inequality and harm.
Juliana is the CEO of ECS Africa and a prominent fintech leader, technology entrepreneur, keynote speaker, consultant, and advisor with years of experience spearheading and scaling technology companies. Her personal mantra is to build impactful technology, fix problems, and help others. She champions internet connectivity in underserved areas, science education, financial literacy, inclusion, and empowerment. An ardent supporter of Learning Lions in Turkana, she also supports entrepreneurs to scale their work and impact as an angel investor in fintech and other startups.
At Pax Technologica, Juliana is the non-executive director of the African Chapter, which supports Africa’s transformation through the appropriate adoption of technology. By collaborating with local leaders, innovators, and institutions and drawing on the exceptional work already underway across the continent, the chapter aims to promote technology adoption strategies that leverage Africa’s unique strengths, positioning the continent as a global leader in technological innovation and problem-solving.
Sophie has over a decade of experience in high-end hospitality and event curation. She was part of the founding team at The Box in Soho, London, where she played a pivotal role in establishling the venue as a thriving institution. She went on to curate events at 5 Hertford Street and later served as head of marketing, events and PR at Sabina in Ibiza. In recent years, she has increasingly applied her creative and technical skills to impact initiatives around the world, such as the Intelligent Change Summit, which she produced.
At Pax Technologica, Sophie collaborates with founders Thomas Ermacora and Paul Hughes to curate events and experiences, notably Pax Technologica’s salon series. Embodying the principles of Grand Curation, the salons aim to spark thought-provoking discussions and prototype novel solutions to address critical global challenges.
Jennie is an experienced producer and multidisciplinary artist with a background in fine art from Central Saint Martins. Alongside running her own artistic practice, she has worked closely with Thomas Ermacora for over a decade, from the early days of LimeWharf Arts Hub to the diverse projects of Studio Ermacora. Her work includes facilitating and producing salon events and exhibitions, liaising with artists and clients, and leading arts and crafts workshop series. Most recently, she has applied her skills to community management, supporting architects Ab Rogers, tech startups, and creative initiatives.
At Pax Technologica, Jennie oversees and supports the organisation’s community. Bringing together creative and technological pioneers, the community serves as a distributed task force dedicated to advancing appropriate technology adoption in emerging geographies.
Bob is an acclaimed designer with a background in design and education from both Ireland and the Netherlands. He is a lecturer at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, a partner at the art practice Uncoated, a founding partner of the design studio Red&Grey, and the design director at Studio Ermacora. One of Ireland’s leading designers, Bob has received both national and international awards, including Ireland’s prestigious Gold Bell for identity and branding and the Institute of Designers in Ireland Award for his outstanding contribution to Irish design.
At Pax Technologica, Bob serves as the design director, bringing his distinctive approach that celebrates play, humour, and curiosity. Drawing on his diverse experiences and creative philosophy, he helps ensure that aesthetic intelligence is at the heart of Pax Technologica’s activities.
Frank is a writer and researcher with an academic background in philosophy. Over the past two decades, he has collaborated with Thomas Ermacora on a wide range of initiatives, from screenplays to start-ups and charitable projects. Since 2015, he has served as the CEO of Clear Village, a London-based non-profit founded by Thomas to assist disadvantaged communities in addressing their challenges through co-creative processes and participatory design. Over the years, the organisation has supported communities in more than 10 countries, helping them develop sustainable solutions and foster resilience from within.
At Pax Technologica, Frank conducts research to support the organisation’s activities. Additionally, he works closely with founders Thomas Ermacora and Paul Hughes on Pax Technologica’s essay series, white papers, and, more broadly, on its underlying philosophy of technology adoption.
Matthew is an award-winning artist specialising in photography and film. His collaborative Poetry Speaks films were exhibited at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin in 2021, while his portrait of Andrew Hozier-Byrne was a finalist for the Zurich Portrait Award in 2020. Over the years, he has worked with a wide range of esteemed clients, including Pentagram, Philips, Saatchi & Saatchi Pro, and Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation, among others. He has also collaborated with Broadstone Films to represent Ireland at the Architectural Biennale in Shenzhen, China.
At Pax Technologica, Matthew serves as the organisation’s documentarian. He brings his expertise in visual storytelling to document and capture the essence of Pax Technologica’s initiatives. By translating complex ideas into compelling narratives through film and photography, Matthew helps communicate the organisation’s mission of fostering appropriate technology adoption in emerging regions.
Pax Technologica was founded in response to the significant challenges posed by the rise of exponential technologies, particularly artificial intelligence. The troubling events of 2016- where technology played a critical role in threatening the integrity of the US elections- served as an early warning of developments that may now accelerate rapidly. Yet alongside these challenges lies a landscape of opportunities. While many initiatives focus primarily on mitigating risks, Pax Technologica prioritises identifying opportunities where the benefits of thoughtful and appropriate technology adoption outweigh the risks.
Through initiatives such as the Fellowship Program, Policy Intelligence Unit, strategic salons, and curated dialogues, Pax Technologica brings together diverse voices to co-create solutions for critical challenges in climate, healthcare, education, and food systems. To support and sustain these efforts, we are actively exploring the creation of a dedicated fund in collaboration with diverse partners. Across all our activities, we strive to address the inequities of the digital divide while inspiring a global conversation about technology’s role in fostering a more inclusive and balanced world.
Pax Technologica was incubated by Studio Ermacora in Amsterdam and has its roots in creativity, drawing from our backgrounds as designers, artists, urbanists, futurists, and storytellers. We believe in the transformative power of narrative and beauty to shape behaviour and drive the changes we seek in the world. As such, Pax Technologica is as much about exploring the narrative and aesthetic dimensions of exponential technology and societal transformation as it is about making tangible change happen on the ground.
Africa lies at the heart of Pax Technologica’s vision of a future where humanity and technology coexist in harmony. We stand on the brink of an African century, in which the continent’s rapid transformation will not only reshape Africa but also have a profound impact on the world. With demographic forecasts predicting that by 2050, one in three young people globally will be African, it is crucial to ensure that Africa’s demographic dividend is accompanied by a technology dividend. This presents a unique opportunity to adopt exponential technologies in ways that empower individuals and communities, while also contributing to the development of new governance structures and infrastructures that support the well-being of the continent and its natural ecosystems.
Pax Technologica Africa- the first of our global chapters- is committed to supporting this transformation by partnering with local leaders, innovators, and institutions that are already doing remarkable work across the continent, particularly in policy, venture, and public education. By the summer of 2025, we aim to establish a physical presence in Africa and begin rolling out our Fellowship Program and policy initiatives. Additionally, we will collaborate with our partners to co-develop an African technology adoption summit. Our goal is to support local growth and facilitate international scaling, contributing to a new dynamic in which Africa becomes a leading exporter of technological innovation and problem solving.
