Mark Thompson

Business adviser, Concerned citizen, Entrepreneur, Investor, Life mentor, Parent, Philanthropist, Social entrepreneur, World traveler, Writer/Editor

The American Management Association featured Mark on their 2018 cover as the #1 executive coach for leadership growth and transformation, with coaching relationships with unicorns like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Lyft cofounder Logan Green and Pinterest cofounder Evan Sharp, and World Bank CEO Dr. Jim Kim. He is Charles 'Chuck' Schwab's first Chief Customer Experience Officer and was Executive Producer of Schwab.com with $3.5 trillion in assets. He helped start the Realtime Venture Design Lab at his alma mater, Stanford University, and was a cofounding board member of Esurance (sold to Allstate), Interwoven (sold to HP), Integration (sold to Silicon Labs), Smule.com (Tencent & Bessemer). He was a former member of the Board of Best Buy, Korn Ferry and Securities Governors of the World Economic Forum. Mark is New York Times bestselling author of Admired, which unlocked the traits of Fortune's Most Admired Companies and Gallup's Most Admired People for individual organizational leaders. He also authored with the bestselling sequel to the classic, Built to Last, with Jerry Porras and Now, Build a Great Business with Brian Tracy. Forbes listed him as one of America's venture investors with the 'Midas' Touch. Among personal passions, Mark has coproduced Broadway plays with 11 Tony nominations and 5 Tony's, including StickFly with Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys and Peter and the Starcatcher with Disney.

In partnership with Amex, we've issued a challenge to share journeys to Hell and back in 3 minutes on video. I'm in search of your best ideas on new ways to inspire action. How to Make It Happen.

Leaders can scale organizations only as fast as they can scale themselves. We studied how high impact people define success, drive growth and lead transformation in 110 nations, and Mark personally interviewed 891 of the world's leading CEOs, scientists, poets, Nobel laureates, Presidents, Olympians...we found that everyone in the world regardless of age, gender or culture defines success one of three ways. We call them ThoughtStyles. I'm passionate about finding out how people value themselves and make themselves (and their companies) valuable to others. Despite all odds, how do you find a meaningful mission to lead your transformation?

Executive Coach, New York Times Bestselling Author & Speaker, Venture Capital Investing

When my mother was ill and our family faced bankruptcy, I was left as a teen to support our family and the grandparents who had developed dementia. I'd be awakened in the middle of the night to screams from my mentally retarded and epileptic brother -- and I'd have to give him CPR while he foamed at the mouth and beat me with bloody fists. None of the people in my early life could grow or heal. They couldn't create value or feel valuable in any way they had hoped. I'm sure this lead to my lifelong obsession with building a vibrant family and community (and investing in growth companies) that are Built to Last and can reach their full potential. Even more important, I've spent a lifetime learning what success means and costs from some of the world's most powerful people. There is no universal definition of success: we must each find its meaning.

Broadway musical production and video editing