Niko Canner

Business adviser, Connector, Consultant, Entrepreneur, Idea generator, Startup

Niko Canner is founder of Incandescent, a firm engaged in research, advising and venture development, all anchored in the question of human enterprise: how people achieve large purposes, individually and collectively. Niko co-founded the consulting firm Katzenbach Partners and became Senior Partner at Booz & Company following the sale of Katzenbach to Booz in 2009. Niko was most recently a member of the Management Committee of Bridgewater Associates, before founding Incandescent in 2013. Niko was named one of ten “new gurus” by Fortune magazine in November 2008 and was featured in Fortune’s 2009 “40 Under 40” issue. He advises CEOs of global corporations, founders of startups, and leaders in the foundation and non-profit sectors. Much of his work has involved tackling macro questions, on a national and global scale, such as developing the strategy for launch of the State of the USA national indicators system, envisioning the thirty-year future for the field of public health with the leadership of Columbia University’s Mailman School and working with Rockefeller Foundation on how to move the needle on youth employment in the US. Niko studied economics and poetry at Harvard and philosophy at Oxford University on a Marshall Scholarship. He initiated and co-leads China 2024, a twenty-year longitudinal study of the development of business leaders in China, is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and serves on the Advisory Council of Acumen. Niko is an investor and board member in several early-stage companies.

Figuring out how to organize ventures in all sectors that expand the space of human possibilities

We are currently witnessing the equivalent of the Cambrian Explosion in terms of phylum-level variation in organizational forms.

Innovation, Leadership, Organization, Social enterprise, Strategy

giving baths and changing diapers.