People

Denise Hearn

Denise Hearn

Director of Strategic Initiatives

Denise is an author, advisor, and cross-disciplinary leader whose work bridges institutional design, economic governance, market regulation, and systems thinking to address humanity's long-term challenges. 

Denise has collaborated with global nonprofits, governments, companies, and financial institutions as a strategic consultant. She has managed complex multi-stakeholder initiatives spanning diverse sectors – from catalyzing the Antitrust and Sustainability initiative at Columbia University to serving as Advisory Board Chair of The Predistribution Initiative, which reimagines investment structures to address systemic risks including inequality, biodiversity loss, and climate change. She has been a fellow of the Berggruen Institute, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, and American Economic Liberties Project.

Denise co-authored The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition, named a Financial Times Best Book of 2018 and endorsed by two Nobel Prize-winning economists, and The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians (2024). Her other writing connects seemingly disparate fields—from complexity economics and starling murmurations to consciousness studies and climate finance—revealing the underlying patterns that shape our collective future. Denise has also presented to audiences globally at venues such as: the Oxford Union, Canadian Parliamentary Standing Committees, the Goethe Institute, and the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club. 

Denise has degrees from Oxford Saïd Business School (MBA) and Baylor University (BA in International Studies), and has lived and worked on multiple continents.

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