The authors
Three people who stayed curious
Paul Ashcroft, Simon Brown and Garrick Jones are the co-authors of The Curious Advantage and The Curious Imperative. Their different worlds of consulting, corporate learning and academia are connected by a shared focus on curiosity.
Through their books, The Curious Advantage Podcast, keynote speeches, international talks and work with organizations worldwide, they explore how better questions can help people think differently, navigate uncertainty and create what comes next.
Co-founder, Ludic Group
Paul Ashcroft
Co-author of The Curious Advantage and The Curious Imperative, and co-host of The Curious Advantage Podcast.
Paul writes and speaks about curiosity, AI, and how people and organizations adapt to change. His ideas have been shaped by twenty years of working closely with leaders of some of the world’s largest companies, and by the hundred-plus guests who have joined him on the podcast — among them business leaders, scientists, artists and thinkers from across the world.
He is co-founder of Ludic Group, which helps organizations navigate transformation in an AI-driven world, working with Fortune 500 companies, fast-growing scale-ups, and leaders who are rethinking what comes next.
With a background in mathematics and computer science, Paul has always been drawn to the space where technology meets human potential — and to the questions that matter more than the answers.
- Curiosity as a business capability
- People and organizations in the age of AI
- Transformation that actually lands
Global Learning & Development Leader, EY
Simon Brown
A commercially minded learning leader with experience across a range of the world’s top organizations.
In 2000 Simon co-founded Brightwave, one of the UK’s leading e-learning companies, eventually acquired by Capita Plc. He then spent seven years at Accenture, advising companies including BT, BP, Microsoft, Canon, Barclays and HSBC.
In 2010 he moved to Lloyds Banking Group, where he led an award-winning bank-wide learning transformation. In 2013 he moved to Novartis global HQ in Switzerland and led a series of global learning teams — raising the effectiveness of learning for the global pharma sales force, creating the cross-divisional Global Development University, running the Novartis-wide Learning Center of Expertise and corporate universities, and defining how Novartis would build digital capability across the company. He went on to lead a new award-winning learning strategy there, and the company has since won several global awards for learning, including Learning Strategy Innovation.
Simon shares his experience at conferences around the world and through an active presence on LinkedIn. He lives in Switzerland with his wife Rachel, son Oliver, daughter Lucinda, their cat Paddy and a coop of chickens — and can be found most weekends struggling up a Swiss mountain road on his bike.
- Building a curiosity culture at enterprise scale
- The chief learning officer’s agenda in the AI era
- Learning strategy that earns its budget
Co-founder, Ludic Group
Garrick Jones
Entrepreneur, academic and musician, based in London. Co-founder and partner of Ludic Group.
Garrick co-founded The Ludic Group in 2004 — a pioneering consultancy transforming the way people live, work and learn across time and distance. He is a renowned expert in digital transformation, digital learning and engagement.
He is a Fellow of the Warburg Institute — the home of curiosity — and a Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he introduced Capstone programs and designed the groundbreaking Open Innovation Program. His research focuses on creative economies and large-scale support systems for commerce, culture, education and community development, and on the value of the design process, visualization methods and tools for enabling decision-making and constructive problem solving. He has been instrumental in the development of purpose-built collaborative learning environments.
Garrick works with Fortune 100 clients, governments, the UN and UNDP, and is interested in how very large systems are able to transform themselves. Wearing his musical hat, he composes for film, contemporary artists and performance — ask him to play the piano for you if you get the opportunity.
- How very large systems transform themselves
- Design, visualization and collective decision-making
- Think tanks, forums and the architecture of collaboration
Book one author, or all three
They speak together and separately — conferences, leadership offsites, internal summits and podcasts.