Fred Polak

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Fred L. Polak is one of the Dutch founding fathers of futures studies. He studied law and economics in Amsterdam and, before the Second World War, was a member of the Board of Directors of a large chain of stores in the Netherlands. After the war he became a staff member and managing director of the Netherlands' Central Planning Bureau, personal advisor to the Minister of Education (Art and Science), advisor of the Dutch government for Full Employment, Professor of Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Managing Director of an industrial organization at Twente (Netherlands).

Polak graduated cum laude in philosophy in 1946, and since his thesis and inaugural address in 1947 on the evolution of science and society of tomorrow, has devoted himself continuously to the future of man and society.

Author of many previous publications on futurology, Polak is recipient of Fellowships from UNESCO, the Ford Foundation, and the Council of Europe which awarded him a prize for the two-volume book The Image of the Future. He was the founder and first president of Teleac (Dutch television academy), co-founder and vice-president of the Erasmus Prize Foundation, scientific advisor for long term planning to numerous concerns in the Netherlands, and President of Mankind 2000 International. He was engaged in setting up an institute for long term future research and development in the Netherlands and was also Secretary-General of the International Society for Technology Assessment.