As the son of a Naval officer, Chris grew up living around the world, which caused him to wonder about the world. That led him to innovation. His father was a four-star admiral. That led him to leadership. Together, they have resulted in what some say is his unique ability to help organizations and individuals realize their unrealized potential by challenging convention, embracing the truth, and creating foundations for functional and behavioral growth. From the early 1990s to 2005, he helped start and run several companies focused on innovation and technology, including Database Marketing Corporation, BeNow (sold to Equifax), and Holland-Mark, a full-service agency and innovation-consulting firm. From 2007 to 2012, as CEO of Holland-Mark, he worked with a range of startups and enterprise scale businesses on growth and turnaround strategies by leveraging innovation best practices and achieving organizational alignment. In 2012, he became Chairman Emeritus of Holland-Mark and took a position as SVP, Strategy at Scholastic Corporation in New York to help turn around its crown jewel Book Club division. After helping lead a revamp of the business and its return to positive growth, he left in early 2014, to explore the world of higher education and technology innovations that might help improve its price/value equation while helping their students transition to the real world. That led him to the Harvard Innovation Labs, where he served as managing director until May, 2019. He then left Harvard to co-found one eighty, a global innovation consultancy focused on helping companies and countries better compete by creating cultures of innovation. In addition to his role running one eighty, Chris is an author of several books and speaks around the world on a range of topics covering innovation, technology, and humanity. He received a BA from Connecticut College, an International MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business, and sits on several boards. His board work includes Grand Circle Corporation, the Leadership Council of the MGH Cancer Center, The Rose Kennedy Greenway Leadership Council, the MassArt Corporate Advisory Council, the Greater Boston Food Bank, Pillar Ventures, and Now + There, a nonprofit public art organization. Chris can be reached at chris@chriscolbert.com and through www.chriscolbert.com.Read more about this authorRead less about this author