Prof. Spyros Makridakis

Spyros Makridakis is a professor at the University of Nicosia (UNIC), where he serves as the Director of the Institute for the Future (IFF) and holds the title of Emeritus Professor of Decision Sciences at INSEAD, a position he has held since 1970. He is renowned as one of the world’s leading experts in forecasting, with numerous journal articles and books dedicated to the subject. Prof. Makridakis is particularly famous for organizing the Makridakis Competition, widely recognized in the field of forecasting as the M Competitions.

Prof. Makridakis was a member of the Greek Sailing Team during the 1960 Olympic Games and pursued his studies at the Graduate School of Industrial Studies in Piraeus (now University of Piraeus). Following this, he joined New York University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1969. Throughout his career, he has held various teaching and research positions, including roles as a research fellow at IIM Berlin and Stanford University, as well as a visiting scholar at Harvard and MIT. He also served as the Rector of Neapolis University. In addition to his expertise in teaching and consulting, Prof. Makridakis has authored or co-authored 28 books, including “Forecasting, Planning, and Strategy for the 21st Century” (The Free Press), “Forecasting: Methods and Applications,” 3rd edition, and “Forecasting Methods for Management,” 5th edition (Wiley), which have been translated into twelve languages and collectively sold more than 120,000 copies. He has also published over 360 articles and book chapters and has more than 33,000 Google Scholar citations.  He was also the founding editor in chief of the Journal of Forecasting and the International Journal of Forecasting. Furthermore, he has been honored with the “Best Teacher Award” at INSEAD twice.

Spyros’ current interest centers on the uses and limitations of forecasting and what we can do with the resulting uncertainty and risk, given our inability to accurately predict a wide range of future events (e.g., the 2000 burst of the Internet bubble or the 2007-2009 major financial crisis). In addition, he is interested in medical decision-making by comparing the costs and benefits of treatment. These and similar issues are dealt with in the book “Dance with Chance: Making Luck Work for You” (co-authored with Robin Hogarth and Anil Gaba) and in a special issue of the International Journal of Forecasting on “Decision Making and Planning Under Low Levels of Predictability” (co-edited with Nassim Nicholas Taleb). He is the co-editor of the special issue of the International Journal of Forecasting (IJF) devoted to M Competitions.