Mike Gilliland is a futurist and storyteller who spent the last decade exploring how humans can live well in a world transformed by AI, automation, and ecological change. He co-founded Future Thinkers — a podcast that has reached millions globally — with his wife Euvie Ivanova. In 2020, Mike moved to a 400-acre property in the BC mountains to build Canada's first Smart Village prototype, developing practical expertise in land, infrastructure, AI systems, and community design. He now leads design, technology, strategy, and Village OS development at Portal.Place.

Euvie Ivanova is a cultural creator and network weaver dedicated to developing healthier ways for people to live, learn, and grow. She focuses on how communities can raise children, support families, revive ancestral knowledge, and cultivate cultures that reconnect people to land and purpose. Raised in rural Russia and Bulgaria during the USSR collapse, she studied psychology at UBC and the University of Copenhagen before spending a decade of international exploration with Mike. Her commitment to village building deepened through motherhood and the co-creation of Canada's first Smart Village prototype.