JOHN HIGHLAND
Fractional Chief Future Strategy Advisor
Institutional memory and foresight for leadership facing irreversible decisions
in an era of accelerating technological and systemic change.
Limited to 2–3 organizations at a time.
ABOUT THIS ROLE
This is not consulting.
This is not coaching.
This is not trend forecasting.
This role exists to support CEOs, owners, and boards before decisions are made that cannot be undone.
I provide independent judgment, long-cycle pattern recognition, and future-risk translation
grounded in decades of real operating and strategic experience
across industries, geographies, and economic cycles.
WHERE I’M MOST USEFUL
Construction & infrastructure groups
Universities and institutional think tanks
Family offices navigating generational and technological transition
LATAM–US cross-border organizations
Mainstream Media & News Organizations
Telecommunications & Digital Infrastructure
Retail & Consumer Distribution Systems
SELECTED EXPERIENCE
McKinsey & Company — Senior Managing Consultant
PepsiCo — Chief Strategy & EVP, Latin America
Electropura / GEMEX (PepsiCo) — CEO & Board Member
CBS Telenoticias — SVP Sales & Marketing
Heart Productions — Chairman & CSO
Full background available upon request.
EDUCATION
IMD Lausanne (MBA, Strategy) · Harvard Executive Program
Honorary Member, Mexican Academy of International Law
Harvard Business School - Top Management Diplma
Universidad de las Americas - BA Busines, minors in Finance and Psychology
HOW ENGAGEMENTS WORK
Fractional advisory role.
Direct access to leadership.
Focused on long-horizon, high-stakes decisions.
This is a fractional, board-level advisory role designed to support leadership before irreversible decisions are made.
Engagements are intentionally limited and selective to preserve judgment quality, independence, and discretion.
I work with a small number of organizations at a time, typically in periods of heightened uncertainty, transition, or long-horizon strategic inflection.
Advisory relationships are structured on a confidential retainer basis, aligned with:
Direct access to leadership, and when appropriate, the board
Long-cycle decision support (not deliverables)
High-stakes timing, risk interpretation, and judgment clarity