Tl,dr
Trained as a strategist, by nature an optimist; that’s channeled through photography, writing and future design.

I’m a co-founder and partner at enso, where we help companies design positive futures.

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I grew up in a small village in Southern England, where we had one shop, a three digit phone number, and four TV channels. Life was about exploring fields, rivers and woods, mostly by bike, with my brother. That sense of exploration has never left me.

My dad ran a small business, and this being the Thatcherite 80s, I grew up with the sense that business is how interesting, creative, fun things happened. I studied economics, law, corporate finance, and my first job was in a Boston-based strategy consultancy, helping companies start and scale new ventures. That job continued the exploration theme, but now it was countries, companies and emerging technologies. I was based in Boston, London, Tokyo, and then LA, where I fell in love with the climate, and the spirit of optimism that’s inherent in California.

Once I got to LA, I found the world of social innovation, which I saw (and continue to see) as the most exciting space in business: solving globally important challenges, rather than just seeking profit. I joined GOOD Magazine, which was bringing energy to the world of social innovation. Big companies started asking us to help them do well and do good; I co-founded a spin-off agency, GOOD/Corps (2009), and we helped Pepsi develop the Pepsi Refresh Project. This became an HBS case study, and attracted other great partners, like Starbucks, Google and the Gates Foundation.

When it became clear that an agency and a media company couldn’t easily co-exist, Kirk Souder and I started enso (2012), to continue the work of helping companies align business success and social impact. Google became our first client and a tremendously supportive partner, asking us to work on a host of fascinating things; that work led to more amazing, ambitious, mission-oriented partners looking to do optimistic, positive things in the world.

In enso’s ~dozen years of work, I’ve become really interested in a few continuing themes. The most pervasive is fostering optimism as the precursor to progress, in my own life and in the world. Another is how companies can build shared missions rather than solo missions, particularly through the power of story and shared narratives. Another is building belonging, within companies, communities and countries — and with nature — which I see as a root-source solution for most of what ails us.

I’ve come to believe the idea that ‘the words we speak are the house we live in’ (thanks, Hafiz), and I think of my role as channeling pragmatic optimism into designing better futures.

Outside of enso, I’m involved in a few things: I somewhat-often write for Fast Company, I’m a Gates Foundation Goalkeeper, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a board member of Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.

I live in LA, with the wonderful @kerrykb.

I’ll send remarkably infrequent email updates on my book, Find The Light.
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