Greg Werkheiser is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, cultural heritage and civil rights attorney, and leadership educator. He is dedicated to advancing shared social progress through four key strategies: leveraging history, preparing leaders, direct engagement, and securing rights.
As the co-founder and CEO of ARtGlass, the pioneering global technology company specializing in augmented reality (AR) software, Greg works to strengthen the connections between humanity’s past, present, and future. ARtGlass empowers museums, historic sites, and cultural attractions to provide immersive tours to millions of visitors, seamlessly blending digital visuals and sound with real-world locations and objects through transparent smartglasses, tablets, and phones.
In addition to his work with ARtGlass, Greg co-founded Cultural Heritage Partners, PLLC. Through this law firm, he has served clients worldwide, including museums, governments, and tribes who are committed to addressing complex challenges related to the preservation of artifacts, art, architecture, landscapes, sacred places, and living traditions. Greg’s advocacy has achieved significant victories, particularly in the realm of Indigenous and Black cultural heritage and civil rights.
Recognized as one of America’s leading civic educators by the Carnegie Foundation for Teaching, Greg spent over two decades establishing and leading five national centers dedicated to fostering movements for innovative approaches to leadership education. These groundbreaking institutes include the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia, which focuses on bipartisan civic engagement among youth; the Phoenix Project, promoting social entrepreneurship and civic capacity-building in distressed communities; the George Mason University Center for Social Innovation; the Presidio Institute, specializing in cross-sector leadership; and the ARCUS academy, providing emerging leaders with training in heritage preservation.
In his commitment to thoughtful public leadership, Greg has run as a candidate for the Virginia legislature, earning the endorsement of The Washington Post. His campaign sparked meaningful debate in the Commonwealth, addressing government ethics, electoral reform, civil rights, educational opportunity, child welfare, and transportation. Greg’s speechwriting skills have been enlisted by leaders at the White House, the U.S. Embassy in Paris, and by candidates for national office. He frequently speaks on topics including the societal impact of technological growth, the importance of heritage preservation, the evolving nature of public leadership, and the necessity of political engagement.
Greg obtained his Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law and holds a B.A. in Government from the College of William and Mary. During his time at William and Mary, Greg served as student government president, chaired a statewide student coalition advocating for public higher education investments, and co-founded the NAACP chapter.