Keith Ferrazzi
Keith Ferrazzi is one of the rare individuals who discovered the essential formula for making his way to the top -- a powerful and balanced combination of marketing acumen and networking savvy. Both Forbes and Inc. magazines have designated him one of the world's most "connected" individuals.
As Founder and CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight, he provides market leaders with advanced strategic consulting and training services to increase company sales and enhance personal careers. Ferrazzi Greenlight strategically leverages the insight of its executives, whose careers span the highest echelons of corporate America, along with principles from Ferrazzi's best-selling book, Never Eat Alone.
Widely recognized as a thought-leader among his peers, Ferrazzi is a frequent contributor to CNN and CNBC. He has authored numerous articles for leading business and consumer publications, including Forbes, Inc, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, and Reader’s Digest. An early leader in the quality movement, Ferrazzi was the youngest examiner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. He has been named a "Global Leader of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum, one of the top "40 Under 40" business leaders by Crain's Business, one of the most distinguished young Californians by the Jaycees, and one of the most creative Americans in Richard Wurman's "Who's Really Who". Ferrazzi's extraordinary rise to prominence, which includes a stint as the youngest Chief Marketing Officer in the Fortune 500, has even inspired a Stanford Business School case study.
As CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight, he draws upon a rich professional history to help guide organizations and business leaders worldwide. Ferrazzi was previously Chief Marketing Officer at Starwood Hotels, he oversaw marketing activities for global brands including Sheraton, Westin, The Luxury Collection, St. Regis, and W Hotels. Ferrazzi also served as Chief Marketing Officer for Deloitte Consulting, a leading global management consulting firm, where he developed and managed the industry's first globally integrated marketing organization. His creative marketing strategy drove the ascent of Deloitte's "Consulting" brand recognition from the lowest in the industry to a primary position and spurred the highest featured growth rate in the industry.
Ferrazzi actively supports numerous civic, charitable and educational organizations. He serves on the Yale University Board of Alumni Governors and the Board of Trustees of the Kiski School in Pennsylvania and is also a Fellow of the Berkeley College at Yale. Additionally, Ferrazzi founded Big Task Weekend, an executive roundtable that brings together some of the nation’s top leaders to focus on improving the health and wellness of Americans. Ferrazzi’s interests also include studying the relationship between leadership success and spirituality. He received a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
“Identify the people in your industries who always seem to be out in front, and use all the relationship skills you've acquired to connect with them. Take them to lunch. Read their newsletters. In fact, read everything you can. Online, there are hundreds of individuals distilling information, analyzing it, and making prognos-tications. These armchair analysts are the eyes and ears of innovation. Now get online and read, read, read. Subscribe to magazines, buy books, and talk to the smartest people you can find. Eventually, all this knowledge will build on itself, and you'll start making connections others aren't.”
“Success in any field, but especially in business is about working with people, not against them.”