Mark C. Thompson

One of the most successful senior business communication executives and angel investors of our time, Mark C. Thompson has been a board member and advisor to Global 1000 companies and is Charles Schwab's former Chief Customer Experience Officer, Chief Communications Officer, and Chief of Staff. During his tenure, the company's customer assets grew ten-fold to more than $800 billion dollars in over five million client accounts and continue to grow during the greatest economic storms in history. Thompson created the Schwab Leadership Series and worked face-to-face with many of the world's best global leaders and entrepreneurs—from Richard Branson and Steve Jobs to Warren Buffett, AG Lafley, Herb Kelleher, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Ford CEO Alan Mulally, and Zappos founder Tony Hsieh.

Thompson did research for Jim Collins and Jerry Porras on Built to Last and Good to Great; during his presentations, he shows how to implement the principles discussed in Good to Great. Along with Jerry Porras and Stewart Emery, he co-authored the bestseller Success Built to Last. By focusing on Collins' five levels of leadership, Thompson coaches leaders to get things done fast.

In 2010, the American Management Association published Thompson's best-selling book—Now, Build a Great Business. He also edited two books for Harvard Business Press—Weathering the Storm and Crisis as Opportunity.

Today, Thompson is an expert advisor on Level V Leadership and Built to Last, transforming how leaders inspire managers to boost sales, innovation, and lead change in a volatile world. In addition, Thompson is Chairman of the American Express Leadership series for Peter Drucker's Leader to Leader Institute. He is a member of the Board of Governors for the Institute and is a board member, investor, and advisor to eight companies while serving on the faculty of the World Economic Forum and John F. Kennedy University, and as a visiting scholar at Stanford University.

Thompson is a current member of the Board of Directors and founding investor in Smule.com, one of Apple's top iPhone and iPad applications companies. He was also executive producer of Schwab.com and chairman of Rioport, which popularized the mp3 audio technology now used in Apple's iTunes. He is a faculty member for the prestigious World Economic Forum, a by-invitation-only organization comprised of the top 1,000 executives in the world, and he is the producer and host of the Leadership Dialogue Series sponsored by American Express. Forbes magazine called Thompson "a venture investor with the 'Midas' touch."

Mark Thompson holds an MBA and a master's degree in social media studies from Stanford University, where he became an investor in Facebook, Baynote, CNS Response, Cancer Genetics, and Goldman Sachs Special Opportunities.