Adam Hartung

Adam’s remarkably consistent track record is built on applying his two proprietary frameworks for predicting business success; The Phoenix Principle and the Status Quo Risk Management Playbook.

His keynote presentations and workshops make trends clear and help audiences chart a successful course to a more profitable future in the fast changing world.

For 8 years, Adam was the No.1 Leadership columnist for Forbes.com with over 50 million readers. He wrote the quarterly Strategy & Leadership column for CIO Magazine for 7 years, and he has been a contributing editor for the International Journal of Innovation Science since its founding in 2008. His columns boldly predicted the success of industry changers like Netflix, Amazon.com, Apple, Facebook and Tesla, as well as the too often unexpected negative impact these disruptors had on former leaders like Sears, Tribune, Research in Motion – and many others who were unable (or unwilling) to adapt.

Since the emergence of innovation as a critical part of strategy, Adam’s accurate forecasts about market shifting trends and his predictions for industry leading corporations has made him a frequent press interviewee regarding top tech companies, as well as the automobile, media and retail industry leaders. His insights into business growth and overcoming organizational obstacles have been featured in over 600 journals, including such notables as Inc, Adweek, Fortune, Washington Times – and multiple radio and television interviews.

Since 2004, Adam has been CEO and Managing Partner of Spark Partners, a strategy and transformation consultancy. In 2010, Adam became the founding CEO of Soparfilm Energy, a corporation that invested early in fracking for oil and gas production. Additionally, Adam has been Audit Chair for a NASDAQ traded tech company, and on the Board of Directors at several successful privately held companies, including Crosfield Electronics and Benchmark Technologies in the U.K., Biometric Access Corp. and Apex Interactive in the U.S. Adam is a Certified Board Leadership Fellow by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) where he is a regular speaker on risk management, and he is a certified financial expert by the SEC. He regularly provides board advisory services on the role of Directors in strategy and leading during periods of innovation upheaval.

Adam was formerly a successful entrepreneur, an executive with PepsiCo and DuPont, and is a Boston Consulting Group alum. Adam received his MBA from the Harvard Business School.