Jerry Michalski (ma-call-ski) is the founder of REX, the Relationship Economy eXpedition, a private, collaborative inquiry into the next economy. More broadly, he is a pattern finder, lateral thinker, connector and facilitator. He loves public speaking, is two degrees from Kevin Bacon (took an urban design course from Kevin’s Father, Ed) and has a unique claim: the world’s largest published Brain (online and in an iOS app).
Three decades of exploration into the interactions between technology, society and business made him realize the word “consumer” made him itch. Paying attention to the word gifted him the thesis that we are entering a Relationship Economy: We are rediscovering trust, interdependence and meaning through movements as varied as open source software, pattern languages, the sharing economy, microfinance, unschooling, traffic calming and workplace democracy.
From 1987 to 1998, Jerry was a technology analyst, first at the market-research firm New Science Associates, then as Managing Editor of Esther Dyson’s monthly tech newsletter Release 1.0, as well as co-host of her annual conference, PC Forum. He was fortunate to be on duty when the Internet showed up. That turned out well.
Since 1998, Jerry has been independent, advising organizations large and small. Jerry earned an MBA from the Wharton School, where he stumbled into the mind-expanding ideas of Russ Ackoff, and a BA in Economics (mostly econometrics) from UC Irvine. He was raised in Peru and Argentina and speaks fluent Spanish and German, as well as pretty passable French.
