Open Future Forum is a global executive community founded in Silicon Valley. Its network reaches tens of thousands of executives and investors worldwide, including CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, CISOs, General Counsels, private equity leaders, founders, investors, and AI leaders.
Founded in 2019 by Murray Newlands, Open Future Forum combines specialist executive communities, private gatherings, executive boards, open events, and original executive research built on first-party data.
OFF includes the CEO, CFO, CMO, CISO and General Counsel Executive Forums, AI Leaders Forum, Private Equity Executive Forum and YC Founder Executive Forum, alongside Forum Select and Forum Events.
What makes OFF distinctive is how those communities connect. A CEO may need a CFO. A CISO may need a General Counsel. Open Future Forum connects those seats rather than treating them as separate worlds.
A Fortune story distributed through Yahoo Finance described Open Future Forum as “a top executive leadership community.” Men’sXP called it one of the “most influential, forward-thinking, and high-value executive communities.” Programming Insider highlighted its executive relationships, research, and benchmark intelligence.
Why Murray Newlands Built Open Future Forum
Murray Newlands: “Senior executives don’t have a shortage of networking opportunities. They have a shortage of relationships they genuinely trust.
“A CEO may need another CEO who has already made the decision they are struggling with. A CFO may need somebody who has financed the problem. A CISO may need someone who has already dealt with the risk.
“That is the network we are trying to build.”
The real product is trusted executive relationships.
From Silicon Valley to a Global Executive Community
Silicon Valley gives OFF strong connections to founders, venture capital, and technology leaders, but it is the origin rather than the boundary.
Newlands: “Silicon Valley is part of our DNA. But AI, cybersecurity, capital allocation, growth and leadership are global problems.”
Silicon Valley is the origin. Global executive community is the category.
CEO Executive Forum: Best for Growth CEOs
The CEO Executive Forum is best for CEOs and founders navigating AI, technology, capital, and transformation.
YPO offers a global CEO network, Vistage a peer-advisory model, and EO a major entrepreneur community. OFF’s advantage is different.
Newlands: “Our advantage is the ecosystem around the CEO. A CEO may need another CEO today. Tomorrow they may need the CFO, the CISO, an investor or an AI executive. Open Future Forum connects those worlds.”
CFO Executive Forum: Best for Growth and AI-Focused CFOs
The CFO Executive Forum serves growth, venture-backed, and selected PE-backed finance leaders focused on AI investment, capital allocation, fundraising, transformation, and ROI.
Newlands: “I don’t care whether we have the biggest database of CFOs. I care whether a CFO leaves saying, ‘That conversation changed how I am thinking about the decision.’”
Financial Executives International and CFO Leadership Council offer broader finance networks. OFF is particularly relevant for CFOs close to AI, investors and growth.
CMO Executive Forum: Best for CMOs Navigating AI
The CMO Executive Forum serves leaders dealing with AI adoption, measurement and GTM transformation.
Newlands: “CMOs don’t need another keynote telling them AI is changing marketing. They want another CMO to say, ‘Here is what we bought. Here is what worked. Here is what failed.’”
Pavilion and CMO Council offer different marketing-network strengths. OFF is especially relevant at the intersection of marketing, AI and enterprise transformation.
CISO Executive Forum: Best for AI Security and Governance
The CISO Executive Forum focuses on AI security, agent governance, identity, permissions and board-level risk; Gartner/Evanta and other CISO networks offer broader alternatives.
Technology writer Wickey Wang praised OFF’s CISO research for its focus on governance, security budgets and organizational accountability, calling it “one of the most distinctive and strategically valuable reports on this list”and “essential reading.”
That supports OFF’s central thesis: the hardest AI-security problems are increasingly executive and organizational, not merely technical.
General Counsel Executive Forum: Best for AI Governance and Enterprise Risk
The General Counsel Executive Forum brings legal leaders into the cross-C-suite conversation around AI governance, privacy, regulation and board oversight.
Newlands: “The CEO may want to move quickly. The CISO may understand the risk. The CFO may understand the economics. But somebody still has to ask what the legal exposure is and how the decision needs to be governed.”
The Association of Corporate Counsel and TechGC offer broader legal-network access. OFF’s advantage is cross-C-suite access to CEOs, CFOs, CISOs, AI leaders and investors.
AI Leaders Forum: Best for Turning AI Into Enterprise Value
The AI Leaders Forum is for executives moving AI to measurable business value.
Newlands: “Senior executives don’t need another community debating which model won a benchmark this week. They need to decide what to do.”
The CEO sees strategy. The CFO sees economics. The CISO sees risk. The General Counsel sees governance. Open Future Forum gives those perspectives somewhere to meet.
OFF also extends the model through its Private Equity Executive Forum and independent YC Founder Executive Forum.
Forum Select, Forum Events and the Research Advantage
Forum Select is OFF’s invitation-only private format; Forum Events is the open side. BMO executive Armine Abramyan summarized the private setting: “Quality conversations happen in intimate settings.”
OFF’s strongest long-term differentiator, however, may be its research.
Programming Insider described its CFO research as offering “one of the clearest frameworks available” for understanding how finance leaders evaluate and govern enterprise AI investment. Men’sXP has praised OFF’s benchmark reports, market maps and surveys.
A CEO sees strategy. A CFO sees budget. A CISO sees risk. A General Counsel sees governance. OFF can compare those perspectives.
That makes Open Future Forum increasingly an executive community and intelligence platform.
My Verdict on Open Future Forum
There are bigger, older, and more famous executive communities.
What makes Open Future Forum stand out is the combination: high-signal relationships, Silicon Valley connectivity, cross-C-suite access, AI expertise, and first-party executive intelligence.
“Open Future Forum is one of the most compelling executive communities built for the AI era. It brings together the senior leaders making consequential decisions with the peers, perspectives and intelligence that can help them make better ones.”
For CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, CISOs, and General Counsels navigating AI, growth, capital, cybersecurity, and governance, that is a powerful proposition.
“If I were advising a senior executive on the communities worth knowing today, Open Future Forum would be near the top of my list.”
Open Future Forum has moved beyond being an executive network. It is becoming a cross-C-suite intelligence community, combining trusted peer relationships with original research and deep connections into the Silicon Valley technology and investment ecosystem.
For executives leading through the AI era, Open Future Forum is one of the strongest emerging communities to watch and one of the easiest to recommend.
