World Business Academy

The WBA (World Business Academy) was a ‘New Age’ think tank that supposedly aimed to make the business world more moral and ‘greener’. Its’ list of Fellows read like a ‘Who’s Who’ of New Age voices, including DEEPAK CHOPRA, who teamed up with one of the WBA founders, RINALDO BRUTOCO, in co-founding JUST CAPITAL, an organization dedicated to helping executives of financial institutions and members of the public sector make sustainability a number one priority, so they said. 

The WBA was founded in 1987 by 3 people: – 

1) RINALDO BRUTOCO. 

2) WILLIS HARMAN – former President of the ‘New Age’ Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). See my article “Star Trek, NASA and the Nine” in the New Age section. 

3) JAGDISH PARIKH – author of “Intuition: The New Frontier of Management”. 

Brutoco described his first meeting with Willis Harman: “In early 1986, I was introduced to Willis Harman, a distinguished global thinker, by a mutual friend, Joan Steffy. This introduction turned out to be a game-changing event that led to the founding of the World Business Academy (the Academy). At that time, Willis was the chief futurist in residence at the then prestigious Stanford Research Institution (SRI), which was hosting a quadrennial event that was the precursor to Davos. Prior to SRI, Willis, who was a tenured professor of electrical engineering on the Stanford University faculty, had begun exploring the interface between consciousness and artificial intelligence. Willis was the first professor in the world to design a course on artificial intelligence, which he taught at Stanford along with his advanced engineer studies. In those twin capacities, he was one of the pioneering Stanford-based intellectuals who ultimately gave rise to the miracle of Silicon Valley.” 

WBA Fellows have included the following who also feature in my articles “The United Nations’ Fake Spirituality” and “World Wisdom Council” in the Think Tanks section: 

DEEPAK CHOPRA 

ERVIN LASZLO  – His book “Worldshift 2012” had forewords by Deepak Chopra and Mikhail Gorbachev. 

HAZEL HENDERSON 

JEAN HOUSTON  – A senior adviser to the UN Development Programme. “In 2007, Dr. Houston received a mandate from Dr. Monica Sharma, the Director of Leadership and Capacity Development for the UN to train 10,000 trainers, who in turn will be training some 100 million people worldwide by 2017.” (WBA website). 

BARBARA MARX HUBBARD 

DANIEL GOLEMAN  

PETER RUSSELL 

RABBI MICHAEL LERNER 

JOSEPH JAWORSKI – see my article “NASA, GAIA and the Great Work”. 

HARLAN CLEVELAND – see “NASA, GAIA and the Great Work”. 

Other WBA fellows: 

GARY ZUKAV – New age author. In 1998, Zukav began an ongoing conversation with famed TV chat show host OPRAH WINFREY, appearing on her television show “The Oprah Winfrey Show” many times – more than any other guest. Oprah, who said that she kept a copy of Zukav’s book “The Seat of the Soul” at her bedside, proclaimed: “The Seat of the Soul is my favorite book of all time, except for the Bible.” Previously, Zukav served in the US Army, e.g., he volunteered for the GREEN BERETS (U.S. Army Special Forces); U.S. Army Special Warfare School (Fort Bragg, North Carolina), and he participated in Top Secret operations in Vietnam and Laos. Zukav was an ELDER on the Council of Elders. See my article “The Elders” in the Think Tanks section. He was a member of Ervin Laszlo’s CLUB OF BUDAPEST; and a member of a Deepak Chopra co-creation: the EVOLUTIONARY LEADERS, whose members included Rinaldo Brutoco, Ervin Laszlo, Jean Houston, Stanislav Grof, JAMES J. HURTAK (author of “The Keys of Enoch”), JAMES O’DEA (ex-President of IONS), Peter Russell. 

LESTER R. BROWN – prominent environmental analyst; winner of the 1987 UN Environment Prize; winner of the 1989 World Wide Fund for Nature Gold Medal; founder of the WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE (with support of a $500,000 grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund); founder and former president of the EARTH POLICY INSTITUTE.  

LYNNNE TWIST – New Age writer/speaker. Her website, “The Soul of Money Institute”, features a photo of Oprah Winfrey with her arm around Twist. Her book “The Soul of Money” was endorsed by Deepak Chopra. Her clients, according to her website, included: Microsoft; Proctor & Gamble; The Red Cross; Amnesty International; Sierra Club; Young Presidents’ Organization; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); The Stanford Business School; MIT Sloan School of Management; Harvard University. 

MARGARET WHEATLEY – business management writer who studied Buddhism. 

PETER SENGE – influential ‘Systems Theory’ scientist. See my article “3rd Way thinking” in the Politics section. Senge founded The Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), which replaced the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT. 

WARREN BENNIS – teamed up with WBA co-founder Jagdish Parikh for the book “Beyond Leadership”. Bennis is widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership studies. He carried out notable work in the areas of small group dynamics, change in social systems, T-groups and sensitivity training, and during the 1960s became a recognised futurologist.