Cathy Hackl is a leading tech futurist and globally recognized business leader with deep expertise in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), spatial computing, & the metaverse. She is one of LinkedIn's top technology voices (the highest honor on the platform) and a champion for diversity in tech.
Hackl has worked with some of the biggest names in tech including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Magic Leap, and HTC VIVE. She leads the Futures Intelligence Group & Future Metaverse Labs, an emerging technology consulting firm and lab that helps brands through strategic foresight and next-gen actionable strategies, helping brands and businesses enter the metaverse via virtual goods, virtual worlds, AR VR, and gaming.
Hackl also serves as VP at Avatar Dimension, the only Microsoft Mixed Reality volumetric video capture studio on the East Coast helping brands in entertainment, fashion, enterprise, and beyond create holograms. Avatar Dimension helped Dimension Studio in London with some of the work on Balenciaga’s futuristic fusion of volumetric capture and video gaming for the launch of their 2021 Fall Collection. This project incorporated 50 volumetric characters, one of the largest volumetric video projects ever undertaken.
BigThink named Cathy one of the top 10 most influential women in tech in 2020 and she's been called the CEO's business guide to the metaverse. Cathy was included in the 2021 prestigious Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of how organizations are managed and led. She’s a Limited Partner at the WXR Fund, which invests in female-led early-stage startups focused on the next phase of the internet and AI.
She is a sought-after keynote speaker and author. She has spoken at CES, SXSW, Comic-Con, Adobe Summit, Harvard Business School. Facebook, Twitter, Aspen Institute, In-Q-Tel, US Navy, SDA Bocconi, IE, Singularity University, and many other places
Cathy is a professionally trained futurist and uses strategic foresight and futures intelligence to harness weak signals and today’s emerging trends and help companies and brands future-proof their long-term strategic planning.
Hackl has been featured in media outlets like 60 Minutes, CNBC, CNN, NBC News, Forbes, Vogue Business, Barron’s, Salon, VentureBeat, Digiday, Digital Trends, CMO.com, and Mashable. She is a global advisor for VR AR Association and was recognized in 2016 by NBC News as one of the top Latina women working in VR.
Before working in technology, she worked at media companies such as CNN, Discovery, and ABC News and was nominated in 2007 for an EMMY Award for her storytelling work. She's also the creator of the world’s first holographic press release and loves all things spatial computing, digital economy, and futurism.