Dhruv Deepak

Democratizing Technology | Sociologist | Strategic Foresight Advisor

Portfolio and CV

Email: ddeepak@gmu.edu | dd@tenten100.com | dhruvdeepak@gmail.com

LinkedIn | Website | Substack

Professional Summary

I am a strategic foresight advisor and sociological researcher with 17 years' consulting experience in the Middle East's emerging technology, advanced sciences, energy and public sector innovation spaces. I combine my management consulting background with strategic foresight methodologies and sociological training to navigate complex, ambiguous futures for organizations and societies.

My perspective on technology's role in shaping our world challenges the premises of technological innovation and its relationship to power, agency, and collective well-being: technology is not a neutral tool, but a deeply social phenomenon embedded in complex historical, cultural, and institutional contexts. Currently, I am a PhD Candidate in Sociology at George Mason University, exploring the democratization of digital resources (data and infrastructure) to build community wealth.

PROFESSIONAL

EXPERIENCE

George Mason University | Fairfax, VA

Researcher | 08/2021 – present

  • Researcher, Next System Studies at Center for Social Science Research (2022 - Present): Project Manager, Digital Commonwealth Project .

  • Program Coordinator, Arlington Fellows Programs (2023-2024): Instructor, GLOA 495 / GOVT 496 – Global Politics Fellows Internship .

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant (Spring 2022): Digital Technologies, Knowledge Production and Society .

  • Graduate Research Assistant (2021–2022): Institute for Immigration Research .

tenten100 (Qahwa Management Consulting) | Dubai, UAE

Founder and Managing Director | 11/2015 – present

  • Strategic foresight advisor on public sector innovation.

  • tenten100's focus currently is on the broader digital economy, with particular attention to telecommunications, internet, and media.

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.

  • My remit included business set-up, concept creation, UAE country management, strategy and communications.

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.

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.

  • I worked in the Economy practice: strategic challenges to national competitiveness.

The Executive Council, Government of Dubai | Dubai, UAE

Analyst | 12/2007 – 06/2008

  • TEC functions as a classical Cabinet Office, setting the strategy and sector priorities for Dubai Government entities.

  • I worked on institutional reforms in the Health and Social Development sectors.

Presentation

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."

Under Final Review

Deepak D and Manski B (2025) Coding the future: digital technologists and the constitution of the next system.

Front. Sociol. 10:1362848.

doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1362848

My Substack - a writing project alongside my dissertation work titled Open Wafers