THE METAMORPHOSIS ROUNDTABLES:
TRANSFORMATION AND ADAPTATION IN AN ERA OF VOLATILE RISK

Date: July 2023
Location:Chicago, IL

Co-Chairs 

  • Dr. Laurence B. Mussio, Co-Founder and Chair, Long Run Institute; Senior Research Fellow, Global Risk Institute 
  • Piyush Agrawal, Chief Risk Officer, BMO Financial Group  
  • Patrick Cronin, Immediate Past Chief Risk Officer, BMO Financial Group  

Keynote Guests 

  • General Stanley McChrystal, former Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and author of Risk: A User’s Guide 
  • Dr. Nouriel Roubini, Professor Emeritus at New York University and author of Crisis Economics and MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, And How to Survive Them 
  • Professor Juliette Kayyem, Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and author of The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters 

Events, cycles and overlapping crises in the first half of 2023 have severely tested systems and assumptions. Our objective was to provide senior executives and decision makers with the deep context and intel to manage probable events. What should we worry about? What don’t we need to worry about? The existential risks of climate change, the threats to energy security, the degradations in social cohesion, the spread of social inequality and the preservation of our material prosperity have generated an unprecedented risk decision-making environment for leaders. Prevailing narratives can tempt decision makers into succumbing to a catastrophist perspective. But if we are all doomed, then what’s the point? Without being naïve, leaders know things are not always as dark as they seem. The Metamorphosis Roundtables focused on how decision-making engines can utilize pattern recognition (applied history), strategic adaptation (present action) to secure equitable future pathways for government and enterprise and the people they serve (long-run planning). 

The LRI would like to express its appreciation to BMO Financial Group, North America’s eighth-largest financial institution, for co-presenting The Metamorphosis Roundtables. The invitation-only discussion provided an important opportunity for senior decision makers to examine some of the deep context related to risk and garner useful insight into what has become a much more contested risk environment.  

Have a question? Email us at events@longruninstitute.com.