Dhruv Deepak
Technology Policy Researcher & Strategic Foresight Advisor: Platforms, Data, and AI Governance
Portfolio and CV
LinkedIn
Professional Summary
Advancing Community-Led Innovation in the Digital Economy
I am a strategic foresight advisor and sociologist, drawing on over 15 years of management consulting experience in the emerging technology, energy, and public sector innovation spaces. I advise on tech policy and governance innovations for the digital economy, having spent my career channeling technological progress into strategic wins for organizations and societies. As a PhD Candidate in Sociology at George Mason University, my research informs contemporary policy debates around AI governance, platform regulation, and data sovereignty.
I bridge scholarship with transformative advisory experience, having led strategic foresight exercises at the highest levels of government in areas like advanced technologies, space, health and wellbeing, and renewable energy. Now, through my academic research, I publish on technology, society, power, and community wealth.
Presentations and Publications
Democratizing Digital Futures
Paper presented at Business Perspectives on Corporate Accountability for Human and Environmental Rights Violations, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest, Romania, March 2025: "Democratizing Digital Futures: Community-Led Initiatives as Models of Corporate Accountability in the Platform Economy".
  • Comprises my initial dissertation findings, demonstrating how alternative accountability models emerge from grassroots technological innovation rather than top-down regulations and policy.
  • Draft paper (for inclusion as a chapter in an edited volume titled Just Business: Can Corporate Accountability Democratize the Economy?)
Coding the Future
Deepak, D and Manski, B. 2025. "Coding the Future: Digital Technologists and the Constitution of the Next System". Frontiers in Sociology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1362848
  • This paper examines how technologists function as constitutional authors, embedding democratic principles directly into digital infrastructures.
  • To be presented at the upcoming American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, on August 11 2025, in a discussion on Political Economy of the World-System
  • A workshop-specific version of this material was presented at the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics Annual Conference on July 22nd 2023 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Digital Constitutionalism and the Constitutive Powers of Digital Technology
Paper presented for the workshop on Popular Constitutionalism Beyond the Nation State at Law & Society Association Annual Meeting, June 2024: "Digital Constitutionalism and the Constitutive Powers of Digital Technology".
Understanding Voluntary Migration
Computational Social Science research produced for the Institute for Immigration Research (2021-2022): "Understanding Voluntary Migration Decision-Making and Consequences with Agent Based Modelling: Computing migration between Asia and North America as a complex social, cognitive and planned behavior".
A Substack exploring Technology, Society, and Power
Professional Experience
1
George Mason University | Fairfax, VA
Researcher | 08/2021 – present
Project Manager, Digital Commonwealth Project (2022 - Present): Led project conceptualization, tech development, fundraising, and knowledge production efforts for a community-engaged initiative designing accountable digital infrastructure.
Instructor, GLOA 495 / GOVT 496 – Global Politics Fellows Internship & Program Coordinator, Arlington Fellows Programs (2023 - 2024): Managed four cohorts (~100 students) through structured public policy internship experiences on Capitol Hill; responsible as coordinator for program recruiting, internship placements, logistics, and class events.
Graduate Teaching Assistant (Spring 2022): Digital Technologies, Knowledge Production, and Society.
Graduate Research Assistant (2021 - 2022): Institute for Immigration Research.
2
tenten100 (Qahwa Management Consulting) | Dubai, UAE
Founder and Managing Director | 11/2015 – present
  • Built an advisory firm, tenten100 (Qahwa Management Consulting DWC-LLC), for public sector innovation and emerging tech. Delivered large-scale programs to codify and embed foresight practices, building leadership futurist capabilities.
  • Modeled futures for high priority topics (geopolitics, health and well-being, advanced sciences and technology, climate change, food security), with numerous successes in institutional innovation ("experimental" government agencies), policy (supporting advanced technologies), and long-term government strategies.
  • Tenten100's focus currently (while I complete my doctoral research) is on the broader digital economy, with particular attention to telecommunications, internet, and media.
3
Global Electric Vehicle Road Trip (EVRT) | Dubai, UAE
Strategy Director | 06/2016 – 06/2017
  • EVRT (now Vuka Mobility) is an events start-up accelerating electric vehicle adoption for the creation of smart and sustainable societies. They do this by organizing road-trips, conferences, and technology showcases.
  • Launched UAE country operations and growth strategy; owned partnerships, funding, and market development to accelerate EV adoption, supportive infrastructure (e.g. charging networks, green finance), and policy engagement.
4
Tetra Tech | Dubai, UAE
Principal | 08/2012 – 07/2015
  • Tetra Tech is a global, NASDAQ listed engineering and consulting firm, focused on the Energy, Water, Environment and Public Infrastructure sectors. I worked with the management consulting division, advising energy sector investors, operators and regulators in the MENA region.
  • Led assignments on strategic and scenario planning, market assessments and feasibility studies, and options analysis for big-ticket infrastructure investments.
  • Consistently exceeded business development targets, securing multi-million dollar consulting contracts with government and private sector clients in complex regulatory environments.
5
TCO Management Consulting | Dubai, UAE
Consultant | 06/2008 – 06/2012
  • TCO was a start-up incubated by Dubai Government, focused on delivering advisory services (strategy and policy, performance, capability development) to Middle East public sector institutions and state-owned organizations.
  • My consulting assignments primarily fell under the Economy practice, tackling strategic challenges to national competitiveness such as research and development, intellectual property and economic policy.
6
The Executive Council, Government of Dubai | Dubai, UAE
Analyst | 12/2007 – 06/2008
  • TEC functions as a Cabinet Office, setting the strategy and sector priorities for Dubai Government entities.
  • My role was to assess the alignment of institutional structures in the Health and Social Development sectors with desired long-term strategic outcomes.
Education
PhD Candidate, Sociology
George Mason University
09/2020 – Present | Fairfax, Virginia
Expected graduation: December 2025
Sociology of digital technology: How rules, architectures, and incentives in the digital economy shape power and public outcomes.
Research Focus | Rulemaking and accountability for digital infrastructure, data sovereignty and stewardship, community-led innovation, and democratizing digital technology (co-design, co-decision, public oversight, cooperative ownership).
Dissertation (in progress): "Community-Owned Digital Resources: Experiments to Democratize 'Data Relations' for Community Wealth."
I explore the community-led stewardship of digital resources — platforms, data, and infrastructures — by analyzing over 50 global cases of "democratic experiments with technology" (digital cooperatives, data sovereignty initiatives, and peer production systems).
Insights span topic areas such as "the constitutive powers of digital technology", "digital sovereignty", "community intelligence frameworks", and an emergent field of research termed the "digital commonwealth".
Fellowships and Awards
Institute for a Sustainable Earth
AI and Technology Policy
Next System Movement Lab
The Democracy Collaborative's Next System Movement Lab (February 2024)
Mason Trailblazer Award
Center for Humanities Research
Bachelor of Science, Human Biology and Bioethics
University of Toronto
2004 – 2007 | Toronto, Canada
Program Focus | A Life Sciences program focused on genetics, molecular biology, global health, health policy and medical ethics.