About
Gerald Wood is the CEO of AC Authentic Consult GmbH, a Germany-based consultancy at the forefront of the #NextGenWork era, a movement that goes beyond the conventional "Future of Work" narrative to redefine how organizations are built, led, and sustained. Central to Gerald's thinking is a foundational conviction: that enduring organizational success requires the simultaneous and deliberate development of two structural pillars, #FutureHuman and #FutureTech. Neither is optional. Together, they form the architecture that makes #NextGenWork possible.
At AC Authentic, Gerald guides organizations through the strategic convergence of human-centered leadership and AI-powered intelligence. The company's practice spans intrinsic motivation measurement, leadership development, cultural architecture, workforce analytics, and enterprise AI integration. Its scientific cornerstone, the A5 Intrinsic@Work Index, delivers real-time, evidence-based insight into the psychological drivers of employee motivation, equipping leaders to act on culture rather than merely assess it. AC Authentic helps organizations build the human and technological foundations that performance, retention, and transformation genuinely require.
Gerald developed fluency with AI technologies well before generative AI entered mainstream corporate discourse, working extensively with platforms including ChatGPT, Jasper, Midjourney, CustomGPT, HeyGen, and Synthesia. His current AI practice helps organizations build genuine digital capability, not as a technology overlay, but as the structural #FutureTech infrastructure that makes human-intelligent organizations sustainable and scalable.
Prior to founding AC Authentic, Gerald served as Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Change Officer at ADB, a global TV software company headquartered in Switzerland. He led the organizational and strategic transformation from a hardware-based to a software-driven business model, developed international channel partnerships across Europe, Asia, and the United States, and established the company's Berlin operations.
Earlier, as Chief Customer Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer at real,- Hypermarkets (Metro Group), he directed large-scale cultural transformation, customer experience strategy, CRM innovation, and sustainability programs. Under his leadership, the organization earned the "Germany's Most Customer-Oriented Company 2012" distinction, awarded by Handelsblatt and the University of St. Gallen.
As Managing Director, Senior Strategic Consultant, and Member of the Board of Directors Europe at Gallup, Gerald rebuilt regional business operations across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, advising organizations on customer loyalty, employee engagement, quality management, and performance, thereby helping to build the intellectual foundations that would later crystallize into the #FutureHuman pillar of his work.
Additional executive experience includes Vice President Business Development EMEA at Nortel Networks, Marketing Executive for City Public Works Potsdam, and Press Secretary for the State Government of Brandenburg, Germany.
Gerald is the author of #NextGenWork: The Updated Definition of the Future of Work and has contributed substantially to the discourse on Human Capital Management in German organizations and beyond.
He holds certification from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Innovation of Products and Services: MIT's Approach to Design Thinking. His expertise spans change architecture, leadership transformation, intrinsic motivation science, and the strategic integration of AI-driven organizational development.
