Ana Adi Keynote Speaker

Vice President, Quadriga University of Applied Sciences (2022–)
Co-author: Cultural Transformations (Routledge, 2025)
“What If” framework published in Public Relations Review (2025)

Ana Adi's Biography

Prof. Dr. Ana Adi is Vice President and Professor of Public Relations and Corporate Communications at Quadriga University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. Educated across Europe and the US (including as a Fulbright Scholar), she brings a genuinely international lens to how organisations earn trust—across cultures, markets, and stakeholder expectations.

Ana’s work sits where leadership pressure meets public scrutiny: responsible AI adoption, sustainability and ESG credibility, communication ethics, and strategic decision-making in “polycrisis” conditions. She is known for straight-talking clarity—no hype, no jargon—paired with practical, research-backed tools teams can use immediately. Her work has been trusted by global brands and professional bodies including Henkel, Deloitte, Coca-Cola, IBM, Continental, AMEC and IABC.

Her distinctive contribution is a metamodern approach to strategy. Metamodernism is not “either/or” thinking; it’s the discipline of holding tensions long enough to make better choices: efficiency and ethics, innovation and responsibility, global narratives and local realities. In her recent work on a metamodern “What If” framework for communication planning, she shows how teams can surface assumptions, test scenarios, and build dialogic feedback loops that improve judgment under uncertainty.

Alongside her academic publications and industry studies (including PR2025 and the Future of PR/Comms and their Social Impact), she is the host of the Women in PR podcast and was the chair of she was Chair of the Digital Communication Awards in Berlin for a the past decade. She speaks primarily in English, and also in Spanish and Romanian, with stage capability in German, French, and Italian.

AI as Lens, Not Autopilot: Governance, Judgment & Trust in the GenAI Era

A straight-talking guide to moving from “tool adoption” to responsible use: where automation helps, where human judgment must stay in the loop, and how to build governance that holds the tension between speed and accountability without killing innovation.

Sustainability After Greenwashing & Greenhushing: Credibility in the Both/And Era

How to communicate sustainability when audiences expect receipts and realism. This keynote shows how to narrate progress without perfection, disclose trade-offs, and align claims with evidence across cultures holding ambition and accountability together.

The “What If” Mindset: Scenario-Testing for Strategic Resilience in Polycrisis

A metamodern approach to decision-making under pressure: structured “What if?” prompts to surface assumptions, stress-test strategy, and build dialogic feedback loops so teams adapt faster and recalibrate ethically.

Metrics to Meaning: Measurement that Enables Strategic Doubt (and Better Decisions)

Move beyond dashboards that “prove success” toward evaluation that improves judgment. How to combine numbers and narratives, design measurement into the work, and use uncertainty as a strategic asset rather than a threat.

Cultural Fluency Under Pressure: Communicating Across Competing Truths

When stakeholders disagree on reality, values, and fairness, communication becomes negotiation with consequences. This keynote offers practical ways to lead across cultural complexity balancing global coherence with local legitimacy.

She sits at the intersection of leadership pressure and public scrutiny, helping organisations earn trust across cultures, markets and stakeholder expectations.
She translates research on responsible AI, sustainability credibility and communication ethics into practical frameworks that strengthen judgment and decision-making under pressure.
She equips leaders and communication teams to navigate polycrisis conditions with structured scenario-testing through her metamodern “What If” approach.
She helps organisations balance global coherence with local legitimacy, building cultural fluency when stakeholders disagree on reality, values and fairness.
She delivers clear, jargon-free keynotes that give executives and teams tools they can apply immediately to improve governance, evaluation and strategic resilience.