Chip Conley

New York Times bestselling author and hospitality entrepreneur Chip Conley founded Joie de Vivre Hospitality (JdV) at age 26 and ran it as CEO for two dozen years. Soon thereafter, the young founders of Airbnb invited him to help transform their promising start-up into the world's leading hospitality brand. During that time, he became known as Airbnb's "modern elder," someone as curious as he was wise. This led Conley to write his fifth book, Wisdom@Work: The Making of a Modern Elder, which makes a compelling case for intergenerational collaboration.

Conley is the founder and CEO of the world's first "midlife wisdom school," the Modern Elder Academy (MEA), in Baja California Sur, Mexico, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, where thousands of mid-lifers globally have made the pilgrimage to learn how to reimagine and repurpose themselves based upon the science of longevity and the art of living. MEA helps its students understand that midlife doesn't have to be a crisis, but instead can be a "chrysalis," a time for shedding and transformation. Conley's seventh book, Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better With Age, chronicles what he's learned from serving MEA students from nearly 50 countries.

Conley holds a BA and MBA from Stanford University and an honorary doctorate in psychology from Saybrook University, which is part of the reason he's been called "crossing guard at the congested intersection of psychology and business." He serves on multiple nonprofit boards associated with regenerative living, intergenerational collaboration and arts and culture.

(Photo: Marc Olivier Leblanc)