From Mark Zuckerberg saying Facebook will become a Metaverse company, to Satya Nadella saying one of the goals for Microsoft is the Metaverse, you can’t read business news today without looking at du jour.
While the metaverse is still being defined and developed, several prominent figures have become the leading voices promoting, educating, advising, developing and helping to create the successor to today’s mobile Internet.
Here are 30 of the most influential people who can help us all understand what the metaverse is and will be.
1. Neil Stephenson
Neil Stephenson is one of the world’s leading science-fiction writers. Stephenson is recognized as the first author to mention the term metaverse in his 1992 cyberpunk novel “Snow Crash”.
Stephenson’s work explores mathematics, cryptography, linguistics, philosophy, currency and science history. He worked at Blue Origin, a company founded by Jeff Bezos as a consultant.
In addition, he served as the Chief Futurist in Magic Leap from 2014 to 2020.
2. Matthew Ball
Matthew Ball is a renowned strategist, essayist, investor, advisor and futurist. Ball is a managing partner of Epilianco, which operates a pre-seed and seed venture fund and a venture and corporate advisory arm.
Along with Jacob Navok, CEO of Genvid Technologies and Roundhill Investments, Ball has launched The Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF. ETFs allow people to invest in companies that are doing the metaverse now or are positioned to do so in the future.
3. Kathy Hackley
Kathy Hackl is a globally recognized Tech Futurist and Business Executive with deep experience working in metaverse-related areas with companies such as HTC Vive, Magic Leap and Amazon Web Services.
She is the founder of Futures Intelligence Group, where she advises Fortune 1000 and top luxury fashion brands on the Metaverse Growth Strategy, NFT, and how to expand their brands in the virtual world. She is an in-demand consultant, speaker and media personality.
Haeckl was recently featured in the Metaverse’s coverage of 60 Minutes+, Bloomberg and Cheddar and is a contributor to Forbes. She is writing an anticipated book on the business opportunities of the Metaverse which will be published by Bloomsbury Publishing.