Michele Wucker

Strategic advisor, policy expert, and best-selling author Michele Wucker coined the term “gray rhino” as a call to take a fresh look at obvious, probable, impactful risks that give us a choice to act or not. Her insights help to explain why some people step up to head off the dangers right in front of their eyes, yet others let themselves and those around them get trampled. Wucker introduced the gray rhino at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2013. It inspired her third book, the influential global best-seller, "THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on Obvious Dangers We Ignore." Her 2019 TED Talk about using the gray rhino in personal life has attracted more than 2.5 million views.

Drawing on her earlier work as a global economic policy analyst, financial journalist, and think tank executive, Wucker founded the Chicago-based advisory firm Gray Rhino & Company to help business and policy decision makers to use gray rhino theory to improve their risk responses. She speaks regularly to high-level audiences on risk management, the global economy, and decision-making. She has been recognized as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a Guggenheim Fellow, among other honors.

The gray rhino has made headlines around the world as a framework for the ignored warnings for the COVID-19 pandemic. It has appeared in thousands of media references in more than 70 countries and 35 languages and counting. It sent tremors through global stock markets when Chinese officials warned of gray rhino financial risks. Central banks and securities regulators around the world use gray rhino theory, as do business strategists, boards of directors, business continuity and emergency management professionals, insurers, ESG specialists, and policy makers focused on everything from national security to climate change.

The metaphor appears in a lyric in the hit single, “Blue & Grey,” by the global mega-K-Pop phenomenon BTS. It has inspired characters in a video game and an experimental jazz single in Japan, and a dance choreography in Australia. The gray rhino also has cameos in the pages of books by respected historians and diplomats, business writers from China to Brazil, and even a science fiction novel.

To her great surprise, Wucker’s readers encouraged her to apply the gray rhino concept to more personal issues. In response, her newest book, "YOU ARE WHAT YOU RISK: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World," builds on insights into personality and societal influences on how and why each of us responds to looming risks the way we do in business, life, and the world. Her first two books, WHY THE COCKS FIGHT and LOCKOUT, have influenced debates on US policy on immigration and in Latin America. Her byline has appeared in publications around the world including The Economist, The New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, and strategy and business. She has been interviewed and quoted by many media including the BBC, National Public Radio, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Reuters, and many more.