Nassim Nicholas Taleb (official bio)
Nassim Nicholas Taleb spent 21 years 
as a risk taker (quantitative trader) before becoming a researcher in philosophical, mathematical and (mostly) practical problems with probability.
Taleb is the author of multivolume essay Incerto (comprising The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, The Bed of Procrustes and Antifragile) covering broad facets of uncertainty. It has been translated into 36 languages. In addition to his trader life, Taleb has also written, as a backup of Incerto, more than 50 scholarly papers in statistical physics, statistics, philosophy, ethics, economics, international affairs and quantitative finance, all around the notion of risk and probability. Taleb is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering (a quarter-time position). His current focus is on the properties of systems that can handle disorder (‘antifragile’). Taleb refuses all honours and anything that ‘turns knowledge into a spectator sport’.
Real World Risk Institute, LLC
The Real World Risk Institute was formed in October 2015 in New York to build principles and methodology for real world decision-making in uncertain circumstances. The core team of the Institute: Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Robert J. Frey and Raphael Douady, promote a no-nonsense approach to risk management that emphasises risk taking and clarity of mind. Their work prioritises simplicity and understanding, focusing on using real-world, practical knowledge and recommending caution for models and theories. The Institute offers two certificates: the Mini-Certificate in Real World Risk Management and the more advanced version, the Mini-Certificate in Real World Risk Analytics.
Mini-Certificate in Real World Risk Management
The Mini-Certificate in Real World Risk Management is a week-long intensive workshop for people with a background in risk interested in learning about fragility, antifragility and probability problems in an interactive context. The course is taught using an apprenticeship model whereby experienced professionals (the lecturer and usually two other instructors) teach less-experienced professionals in a conversational rather than classroom lecture style. The course covers a range of topics including the education of a risk-taker, fragility/antifragility, behaviour and risk assessment errors, ‘the inverse problem’, ‘fat tails’, squeezes and fungibility, how to look at history, path dependence, how to not be fooled by data, cyber-risks, hidden optionality, formal approaches to panics, finance versus insurance, extreme value theory and complexity theory.