Strategist and best-selling author Michele Wucker coined the term “gray rhino” for obvious, probable, impactful risks, which we are all too likely – but, crucially, not condemned to neglect. The metaphor has moved markets, shaped financial policies, and made headlines around the world. It became a frame for the ignored warnings that led to the COVID-19 pandemic and a lyric in a hit single about depression by the global music phenomenon BTS.
Michele is the author of four books including the global bestseller THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore (2016) and her latest, YOU ARE WHAT YOU RISK: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World (April 2021).
Michele is founder of the Chicago-based strategic advisory firm, Gray Rhino & Company, and former media and think tank executive who wrote about emerging market finance early in her career. She speaks regularly to high-level audiences on risk management, the global economy, and decision-making. Her 2019 TED Talk on gray rhino theory has attracted 2.5 million views.
She has written for many U.S. and international publications including AmericaEconomia, CNN.com, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Internationale Politik, The National (UAE), Newsday, The New York Times, The (New York) Observer, Quartz, Strategy & Business, Texas Observer, Valor Economico, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, World Economic Forum Agenda, and World Policy Journal.
Her first two books were LOCKOUT: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Our Prosperity Depends on Getting It Right (Public Affairs 2006; a Washington Post Book World “Best Nonfiction of 2006″ Selection) and WHY THE COCKS FIGHT: Dominicans, Haitians and the Struggle For Hispaniola (FSG/Hill & Wang, 1999).
