Wes Cummins is the visionary CEO of Applied Data, driving technology, hiring and AI data centre solutions forward for communities in an ethical and sustainable way. 

In our conversation, Wes shares his leadership insights for CEOs to evolve in the AI age – fast.

One of the reasons I started this podcast season is because about 50 days ago, I walked into a glass wall. Yes… really.

I had a brain scan and the headaches and poor concentration persist. And I was advised not to travel by air, because concussion recovery apparently takes time. That’s when I asked myself: How do I do book readings if I can’t fly or drive well? The answer is this series. So imagine I’m with you—reading this at your local bookstore or library. Today, I’m sharing the Introduction to AfterShock to 2030.

Picture this: It’s Christmas Day, 2024. I arrive in Bali, and I declare on social media that I’m going to go dark and write. The world's events and the accelerating collision of crises made me realize we are at a leadership tipping point. So, I wrote like my life depended on it.

The preface—what you are about to hear—is where AfterShock to 2030 began.

In this episode, Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director at GamesBeat, joins me for a conversation after reading AfterShock to 2030.

Dean’s been reporting on tech and gaming since 1988, and he’s interviewed some of the most influential CEOs in the industry—including Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA. If you know the tech world, you know Dean is one of its most trusted and respected voices.

In this conversation, we explore the collision of AI, entertainment, and societal reinvention—and what leadership must look like in the Fifth Industrial Revolution.

To launch this series, we’re starting with the foreword to my book AfterShock to 2030: A CEO’s Guide to Reinvention in the Age of AI, Climate, and Societal Collapse.

The foreword was written by Darrell West of Brookings, someone who’s been tracking the intersection of policy, leadership and technology for decades.

I asked Joe Nickolls, a seasoned CEO in interactive entertainment industry, to read it aloud. As you’ll hear, his voice brings depth to Darrell’s framing and power to the urgent leadership themes my book and this podcast will explore.