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Open Future Forum has grown from a series of Silicon Valley gatherings into a year-round executive community connecting CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, CISOs, General Counsel, investors, founders and AI leaders.
Founded by Murray Newlands in Silicon Valley in 2019, Open Future Forum has held more than 100 events. Its programming includes private executive dinners, panels, roundtables, golf gatherings, wine tastings, sailing events and private suites at sporting events across Palo Alto, Silicon Valley and San Francisco.
The organization also publishes original research using first-party survey and qualitative data from its executive network.
Yahoo Finance described Open Future Forum as:
“a top executive leadership community”
That recognition points to what Newlands set out to build: a trusted network where senior leaders can have serious conversations, develop valuable relationships and help one another make better decisions.
Why Murray Newlands Built Open Future Forum
Newlands has spent more than 20 years working across technology, marketing, media, venture capital and executive leadership. Throughout his career, he found that the most consequential introductions and opportunities rarely came from conventional networking.
They came through trusted relationships.
“The best executive communities are not built by collecting contacts,” Newlands said. “They are built by earning enough trust that senior leaders will speak honestly, help one another and continue the relationship after the event.”
That belief became the foundation of Open Future Forum.
The organization is built around a give-first philosophy. Members are expected to contribute experience, judgment and introductions without treating every conversation as a transaction.
“The people who create the most value in an executive community are usually the people who arrive asking how they can help,” Newlands said. “They share experience, make thoughtful introductions and build trust before they need anything. Those are the people we want in the room.”
More Than an Events Company
Open Future Forum operates through two principal formats.
Forum Select is its invitation-only private tier for C-suite executives and board directors. These gatherings create confidential settings where leaders can discuss decisions they cannot easily address with employees, customers, investors or vendors.
Forum Events runs larger panels, presentations, fireside conversations and gatherings for the wider technology, investment and enterprise AI community.
Open Future Forum has also developed role-specific communities for CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, CISOs, General Counsel and AI leaders. It convenes founders, investors, private equity professionals and board directors throughout the year.
“A successful event gives people a valuable evening,” Newlands said. “A successful community creates relationships that remain valuable for years. That is the difference between hosting events and building an executive network.”
The event may create the first connection. The lasting value comes afterward through introductions, advice, partnerships, investments and recurring conversations.
What Business Leaders Say About Open Future Forum
Comments from executives, speakers and partners show how Open Future Forum is viewed by people who have participated in its programs.
Silvio Sangineto of Microsoft and Stanford described its position within the Silicon Valley enterprise AI community:
“Open Future Forum is helping define the enterprise AI agenda in Silicon Valley. It brings together the executives, investors and AI leaders turning emerging technology into measurable business impact. Murray Newlands has built one of the most influential and trusted executive communities shaping the future of enterprise AI.”
Louis Lehot, a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP and board member of the CFO Executive Forum, has also highlighted Open Future Forum’s place within the region:
“Open Future Forum has become an important part of Silicon Valley’s executive ecosystem. Murray Newlands brings together CFOs, General Counsel, CEOs, investors and advisers in a way that creates substantive conversations, trusted relationships and real opportunities to collaborate.”
These endorsements speak to the central strength of Open Future Forum: it brings credible leaders into the same room and gives them a reason to keep talking after the event ends.
Building a High-Quality CFO Community
The CFO Executive Forum shows how the model works within a specific executive role.
Christina Bui of Robert Half co-chairs the community with Newlands. After co-hosting an Open Future Forum gathering for finance leaders in Menlo Park, Bui thanked him for:
“building a high-quality community of CFOs and enterprise operators to exchange ideas, build relationships, and learn from each other.”
The gathering focused on how AI is producing measurable returns inside finance organizations. Bui also recognized the speakers and the support of Foley & Lardner, Protiviti and Robert Half.
Janice Berthold of Heffernan Insurance Brokers commented:
“Focusing on execution-grade AI shows how the CFO’s role is changing.”
The comments capture an important part of the model. Open Future Forum does not treat the C-suite as one broad audience. Each community is built around the responsibilities, pressures and decisions of a specific executive role.
The Quality of the Room Matters
Newlands believes a valuable executive gathering depends on three things: the people in the room, the relevance of the subject and the trust created by the host.
Armine Abramyan, vice president of emerging middle-market commercial banking at BMO, expressed the value simply:
“Quality conversations happen in intimate settings.”
Private gatherings give executives room to discuss leadership, investment, hiring, governance, growth and transformation with peers who understand the stakes.
Larger Forum Events serve a different purpose. They bring a wider audience together around consequential questions in enterprise technology, investment and AI.
Open Future Forum chooses the format to fit the conversation. Private dinners create candor. Panels spread useful knowledge. Golf, sailing and wine gatherings give relationships time to develop without forcing a formal agenda.
Scaling From Private Dinners to Major AI Events
Open Future Forum has also built a record of producing larger programs with major technology companies and recognized enterprise leaders.
Following an Open Future Forum event at Microsoft, Ashley Tarver, a data, AI and cloud evangelist, wrote:
“Wonderful event and great feedback from the attendees.”
Demand exceeded the original event capacity. Tarver reported:
“The event is already oversold.”
After another gathering, she summarized the experience:
“Great networking. It was magical.”
These comments show that the Open Future Forum model works beyond private executive dinners. Its larger events combine strong speakers, substantive topics and a carefully developed audience of executives, investors, founders and technology leaders.
Convening the People Making Enterprise Decisions
Open Future Forum builds its programming around decisions senior leaders are making now.
Subjects have included AI investment, finance transformation, cybersecurity, agentic security, governance, identity, capital allocation, M&A and operational improvement.
After participating in an Enterprise AI and Agentic Security Dinner, Manjush Menon, a global product and standards leader at Visa, wrote:
“AI governance and structure aren’t afterthoughts. They’re the foundation.”
Menon joined leaders from ZoomInfo and Agentic Fabriq in a discussion moderated by Newlands. The conversation addressed identity, permissions, governance, enterprise standards and what business leaders must prepare for as agentic AI moves into production.
She publicly thanked Newlands, Yvonne Newlands and Open Future Forum for convening the event.
The discussion illustrates the purpose of the network: put the people responsible for consequential decisions in a room where they can compare practical experience.
Executive Communities Built for Each Leadership Role
The CFO Executive Forum focuses on finance leadership, AI ROI, forecasting, capital allocation, fundraising, risk and M&A.
The CISO community examines cybersecurity, identity, AI governance, enterprise risk and agentic security.
The CEO community brings together leaders of venture-backed, growth-stage and established companies to discuss leadership, investment, scale and corporate strategy.
The CMO community covers go-to-market strategy, customer acquisition, brand, revenue and the changing role of AI in marketing.
The General Counsel community is being developed for chief legal officers and senior legal leaders navigating governance, transactions, regulation, risk and enterprise AI.
Open Future Forum also convenes private equity leaders, investors, founders, board directors and executives responsible for enterprise AI.
“Executives want to meet peers who understand the weight and complexity of their seat,” Newlands said. “A CFO needs a different conversation from a CMO. A General Counsel faces different pressures from a founder. The community becomes more valuable when the room reflects those differences.”
Turning Executive Access Into Original Research
Open Future Forum converts insight from its executive network into original research.
Its research program has gathered hundreds of executive responses covering AI budgets, purchasing authority, governance, adoption, security, investment and operational transformation.
Reports are developed for specific leadership roles, allowing Open Future Forum to examine how CEOs, CFOs, CISOs, CMOs, investors and other decision-makers approach the same questions.
“The events tell us which questions executives are struggling with,” Newlands said. “The research allows us to test those questions across a wider group and publish evidence that is useful beyond the room.”
The research starts with the executives, founders and investors who hold budgets, build products, manage risk and decide whether projects proceed.
That access gives Open Future Forum a distinctive source of first-party business intelligence. The organization can identify questions inside its events, test them across its network and publish findings for a wider executive audience.
Why Trusted Executive Communities Matter
Senior leadership can be isolating. Executives regularly face decisions they cannot discuss openly with their teams, customers, investors or service providers.
Yahoo Finance’s description of Open Future Forum as “a top executive leadership community” appeared in coverage examining executive loneliness and the growing importance of trusted peer relationships.
Newlands believes those relationships become more valuable as leaders confront faster technological change and make important decisions without established playbooks.
“Senior leaders do not always need another presentation,” Newlands said. “Sometimes they need a trusted room where they can admit what they do not know, hear how other leaders are approaching the same problem and leave with a clearer decision.”
Open Future Forum is designed to provide that room through both private and open formats.
Building a Network That Compounds
A strong executive network is not created by maximizing registrations for a single event. It develops when credible people return, introduce others and contribute to the community.
Banks, law firms, advisory businesses and technology companies also play a role. They contribute venues, speakers, expertise and introductions while helping each community remain connected to real business needs.
“The event is the visible part of the community,” Newlands said. “The real network is everything that continues between events: the introductions, advice, partnerships and opportunities created because the right people developed trust.”
That compounding network has allowed Open Future Forum to expand into new executive categories while maintaining a clear identity.
The objective remains the same as it was when Newlands began building the organization in Silicon Valley: create valuable rooms, convene people who contribute and build relationships that last beyond the calendar.
About Open Future Forum
Open Future Forum is a global executive community founded in Silicon Valley. Its network reaches tens of thousands of executives and investors worldwide.
The organization runs a year-round calendar of events for senior executives and investors through Forum Select, its invitation-only private gatherings, and Forum Events, its open panels and gatherings. It also convenes peer groups and executive boards and publishes original research based on first-party survey and qualitative data from its executive network.
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