Joshua L. Spear is an active entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. Nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2009, Spear has been an active participant and speaker during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. He is the former Chairman of WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Social Media and actively contributed to the agenda at all global meetings. He was an active advisor to Millennium Promise, helping apply digital technology to the eradication of extreme poverty and the completion of the Millennium Development goals. He has supported a number of charities and foundations most recently serving as a member of the board of The Smithsonian Museum of the North American Indian.

Spear’s personal investments, in literally dozens upon dozens of companies, include such breakout successes as early investments in Uber, Warby Parker, LittleBits, MakeSpace, HipCamp, StyleSeat, Archer Aviation and many, many more. He has spent over a decade as an active adviser to startups and large corporations alike and is an active and celebrated global speaker about the digital revolution and the startups that are leading that charge.

In 2008, Spear co-founded Undercurrent, a consulting firm that became world renowned for applying a digital worldview to help solve some of the most complex problems facing today’s corporations and their leaders. Undercurrent’s clients ranged from General Electric, PepsiCo, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, to startups looking to bridge the gap and understand corporate America. In 2015, Undercurrent was acquired.

Spear has lectured to an enormously diverse group of audiences as far reaching as News International, IWC Schaffhausen, Estee Lauder, L’Oreal, Metro Newspapers, PepsiCo, The World Economic Forum in Davos– as well as educational institutions and universities including the commencement speaker to the Qatar Foundation’s Education City. He was a visiting professor at KMD, KEIO University Graduate School of Media Design in Japan– where he taught a course on “The Human Brand” through an interactive lecture series.

Spear completed a variety of educational courses including executive education modules on Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century at the Harvard Kennedy School, as well as Foundations for Leadership in the 21st Century at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University– both as part of his commitment to the World Economic Young Global Leader program. He was enrolled in the University of Colorado, Boulder when he began his first company, one of the first “Trend Spotting” websites which ultimately led him to expand his business and investment interests in lieu of pursuing a degree in Journalism.

With a passion for the outdoors, Spear embarked on a sponsored competitive climbing career in his late teens and early twenties. While spending time in Colorado, he developed a taste for powder and later traveled the world to carve freshly fallen snow. In 2016 Spear was in a backcountry snowboarding accident. He remained unplugged from 2017 through 2019, focusing exclusively on his health. At the end of 2019 and again in 2020 and 2023 he underwent spinal surgery to correct the damage that was done during the accident and continues to recover. Today, he is back at work, grateful for every opportunity, and passionate about working with companies large and small to make every step count.

Spear lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming full time with his wife and dog Yoshi.