Mark Thompson

Authority on Leadership & Business Strategy
Senior Executive Coach
Bestselling Author of Admired

New York Times bestselling author Mark C. Thompson is a leadership coach 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 founders Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Tony Robbins and Charles Schwab, for whom he 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; 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” achieve long-term success and growth as well as the qualities that are common to “Most Admired Leaders”.

Mark was Charles Schwab’s former Chief of Staff and Chief Customer Experience Officer, and the Executive Producer of Schwab.com which today has assets over $3 Trillion. He is a co-founding advisor of Sir Richard Branson’s Entrepreneurship Centres.

Dr. Thompson is an expert on executive leadership, business strategy, and innovation who has spent over 25 years leading teams and building companies from the ground up. He delivers actionable, valuable and practical advice for leaders at all levels of an organization.

Videos: Watch Mark Thompson Speak >>
Topics: Talks & Conversations with Mark Thompson >>

Past Hosts Include:

Shire
KPMG
Recticel
Walgreens
World Bank Group

Pfizer Europe
American Express / Google Nest
Cisco
Coca Cola

Rave Reviews About Mark Thompson

“

I can't express enough how moved I was by your presentation. Consider my mind blown. When I'm having a rough day I would love to think of how you got us back in the right place. In admiration of you my friend!

- Shire

”

More rave reviews

"Mark was with us today at a meeting that was a kickoff of our business planning process. We wanted to send a message to our bottling partners and our own teams about the need for change and the importance of looking at innovation from a process standpoint. I think also that the material shared by Mark was very well received and people were excited about his comments. I think this will make our meeting go much smoother as we look to promote change in our business."

-Coca Cola

"You rocked it! Thanks Mark--hope you had a good flight home--you, too, were FANTASTIC! Look forward to seeing you again soon!"

-Cisco

"More companies around the world are incorporating strategies and approaches honed in Silicon Valley to their industries. Mark was instrumental in helping me develop and adapt my experiences and learning to transform a century-old company known for its service, into one that was leveraging leading-edge digital technology to strengthen and expand its brand. Mark's encyclopedic knowledge, ability to define practical strategies and connections to like-minded individuals was critical to our journey together."

-American Express / Google Nest

"Mark demonstrates a rarely seen balance of business acumen, emotional intelligence, authenticity, and warmth that makes his approach to coaching so valuable. The resulting work is truly groundbreaking and results are easily measurable."

-Pfizer Europe

"Mark's advice and coaching have been invaluable to us at the World Bank Group. He has the unique ability to sort through complexities and get to the essence of any situation, and his recommendations are always practical and spot on. With his humility and empathy, he establishes deep connections with our leaders from many different cultures and backgrounds. I am grateful for all his generous efforts in support of our organization--we have benefitted greatly from his impressive experience, management insights and his natural enthusiasm for our work. Having a great leader work with our leaders has been a great gift to all of us."

-World Bank Group

"Mark has a unique coaching style that builds a partnership of trust, that includes a provoking and creative process that increases self-awareness and emotional intelligence. His "been there and done that" experience improves one's leadership skills and performance to increase impact and influence. Mark has the ability to develop an energetic, and positive environment that is contagious. This environment creates a win-win strategy for success."

-Walgreens

"It's been terrific to have you with us, you found the topics, the images and stories, and the very words that we needed to hear from an outsider, all this in a warm and very inspiring way. I found the participation and engagement very high during your speech, and everyone was so complimentary after. We are now gathering specific feedback from all participants on each segment. As soon as available, we will email it to you and get in touch. Again my personal thanks for your contributions."

-Recticel

"Your presentation was fantastic and was quite well received based on the feedback I have been receiving. Thank you also for taking the time to join us and our attendees at our reception--I know they enjoyed connecting with you in a casual setting. Thanks again!"

-KPMG

Collapse rave reviews

Getting It Done: Six Keys to Passionate Collaboration | Cisco Partner Summit [2:41] - Get Sharable Link

Getting It Done: Six Keys to Passionate Collaboration | Cisco Partner Summit [2:41]

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Now

Steve Job's Innovation Secret (that's not in the book or the movies!) | [2:59]

Talks & Conversations with Mark Thompson

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Business Transformation: Drive Change and Create a Culture of Innovation

As a 20-year CEO and entrepreneur, Mark shows you first-hand to disrupt your competitors, deepen customer relationships, ignite employee and team engagement, accelerate internal processes and DRIVE CHANGE like never before. Mark coaches world-class growth companies on the front lines that have struggled with change — sharing the essential differences between those that failed and those that transformed entire industries with disruptive innovation and growth:

Enable your teams to not only embrace change, but lead business transformation
Operationalize innovation while still meeting the demands of Wall Street
Remove the fear of failure for disruptive ideas
Create incentive systems that reward those that challenge “business as usual”
Empower employees at every level to make change happen

Building a Most Admired Brand through Customer and Employee Engagement

Leaders of the World's Most Admired Companies know that the Customer Experience IS the brand! Customer engagement is not about transactions, it's about RELATIONSHIPS - acting as though you’d put your own money on the line in your customer’s company. Based on his global research at Stanford, Dr. Thom ...

Every touchpoint that a customer encounters is defining your brand
Delivering a consistent experience regardless of point of contact or method of communication
A high level of Employee Engagement is critical to achieving Customer Engagement
Knowing what your MVPs (both customers and employees) value is key

Most Admired Leadership: Nobody Does it Alone! Building Great Teams

Mark shares insights into the top leadership qualities of the world’s Most Admired Leaders according to the most engaged employees. In a broad survey of over 10,000 employees in 110 countries, Mark’s research team identified the top eight leadership traits that people want from their leaders. He presents case studies from many of these leaders including his experience working directly with several of them. He outlines how the Most Admired leaders have achieved such enduring success over decades and how they consistently:

Recruit, Build and Retain the highest performing teams
Create a corporate culture that Inspires loyalty and engagement
Face adversity and bounce back from failures
Challenge themselves and their teams year after year to outdo themselves and achieve continuous and long-term growth
Learn what their MVP’s value and what drives them in their lives and work

Fanatic Sales Growth - Success Built to Last Growing from Good to Great to ADMIRED

In this high-impact keynote, Mark reveals the critical drivers behind long-term sales growth and enduring success. He lays out the key factors that differentiate companies that are Good, those that become Great and those that are ADMIRED. How world-class teams generate unstoppable growth Avoiding c ...

How world-class teams generate unstoppable growth
Avoiding common mistakes that cut sales in half
5 Tools To Double Sales: Positioning-Pain-Promise-Proof-Planning
The customer service strategies that drive customer retention
Discovering what your market craves and getting ahead of the curve

Books by Mark Thompson

Admired: 21 Ways to Double Your Value

Success Built to Last: Creating a Life that Matters

Press & Media

Transformational Growth and Disruptive Change - AMA Quarterly

Biography

Mark C. Thompson is a world-renowned authority and top speaker on leadership, driving change and innovation, sales growth, and customer and employee engagement

Mark is an expert on executive leadership, business strategy, and innovation who has spent over 25 years leading teams and building companies from the ground up. He delivers actionable, valuable and practical advice for leaders at all levels of an organization.

Currently a highly sought after executive coach and venture investor, Forbes called Mark one of America’s Top Venture Investors with the ‘Midas Touch.’ Mark was recently featured as one of the “World’s Top Executive Coaches” by the American Management Association and #1 Thought Leader on Innovation and Engagement. He was named one of the “Top 30 Communications Professionals for 2015” by Global Gurus. Mark advises top leaders in Fortune 500 and Global Fortune 1000 companies as well as the executive teams who are leading high growth startup companies in Silicon Valley today.

A New York Times bestselling author whose books include: ADMIRED: 21 Ways to Double Your Value; Now Build a Great Business; 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” achieve long-term success and growth as well as the qualities that are common to “Most Admired Leaders.”

Mark has worked side by side with three of the world’s most legendary disruptive innovators: Steve Jobs, Charles Schwab and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson. He brings insight from decades of experience with these great leaders and research on the culture of companies and brands that achieve the highest levels of employee engagement, customer loyalty and continuous sales growth.

Mark was Charles Schwab’s former Chief of Staff and Chief Customer Experience Officer, and the Executive Producer of Schwab.com which today has assets over $3 Trillion. He is a co-founder of Sir Richard Branson’s Entrepreneurship Centres and an advisor to Virgin Unite Entrepreneurs.

Mark is a founding advisor of the Stanford Realtime Venture Design Lab, and is a visiting scholar at his alma mater, Stanford University. He has served as faculty at the World Economic Forum and World Business Forum, is a member of the Clinton Initiative, and an executive coach for TED Fellows.

A successful venture capitalist over the last two decades, Mark was as an early investor in companies like Facebook, Netflix and 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 the iPod. He is an investor in Cancer Genetics, a leader in DNA-based diagnostics for clinical management of cancer treatment.

Among Mark’s passions are music and Broadway. Mark serves as a founding Board of Directors member for Smule, the top music app company on iTunes which has over 125 million users worldwide. As a Broadway producer, Mark’s plays have earned five Tony Awards and a total of ten Tony nominations, including Peter and the StarCatcher with Disney, and StickFly with Alicia Keys.

Mark lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Manhattan with two extraordinary women – his wife Bonita and their daughter Vanessa.

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