Dr. Mark C. Thompson is based at Stanford University in Silicon Valley and serves as adjunct faculty at Harvard’s Institute of Coaching. He is a New York Times bestselling author and expert on executive leadership, transformational growth and team innovation for the world’s fastest growing, most innovative companies—from LYFT CEO & Cofounder Logan Green, Pinterest Cofounder Evan Sharp and World Bank CEO Dr. Jim Kim, to VIRGIN’S Richard Branson, APPLE’s Steve Jobs, Tony Robbins and Charles Schwab, the US$3Trillion investment firm for whom Mark served as the world’s first CXO—Chief Customer Experience Officer.

Forbes Magazine says Mark has the ‘Midas’ touch as a sought after coach, speaker and venture investor. His New York Times bestselling books include: ADMIRED: 21 Ways to Double Your Value; Now Build a Great Business with BRIAN TRACY; and Success Built to Last – Creating a Life that Matters. Mark is also an Innovation Leadership columnist for Forbes.com, Inc.com and FastCompany.com. His most recent bestseller ADMIRED is a primer on how the world’s “Most Admired Companies” drive change and achieve long-term growth.

For the US$3Trillion investment firm, Charles Schwab, Mark is former Chief of Staff and the world’s first CXO—Chief Customer Experience Officer, and the Executive Producer of Schwab.com. He is a co-founding advisor of Sir Richard Branson’s Entrepreneurship Centres. Mark is a founding advisor of the Stanford Realtime Venture Design Lab, and served as a visiting scholar at his alma mater, Stanford University, and adjunct faculty at Harvard’s McLean School of Medicine Institute of Coaching, World Economic Forum, World Business Forum, and John F. Kennedy University.

A successful venture capitalist over the last two decades, Mark was as an early investor in companies like Facebook, Netflix and founding board member of Esurance. He has been a Board Member for many well known technology, biotech and retail companies, including: Best Buy, Korn Ferry, and Interwoven (now owned by HP). He was the Chairman of the Board for Rioport, which popularized the MP3 player prior to Apple’s iPod.

Dr. Thompson holds a Masters Degree in Media and Symbolic Systems with honors from Stanford University and a doctoral degree in Education, Organizational Change & Leadership from USC University of Southern California.