About Chris
Chris Kane envisions all that your company can become. He maps out the path and provides insights and tools you’ll need to get there. And he guides you through the rocky terrain – where each decision might determine your company’s future – so he can celebrate your success with you.
As a CEO and consultant, Chris has led companies through game-changing evolutions including rapid, sustainable and profitable growth, complex operations management, strategic planning, shifting leadership dynamics at all levels of the organization, and highly successful exits. Chris draws on these experiences – the wins, the setbacks, the deep commitment to learning – in service of his coaching and facilitation work with individuals, teams, and companies.
Leaders turn to Chris to broker a better relationship between the C-suite, board members, and private equity companies. They trust him to provide incisive and objective advice on growth strategies, team development and market position. They are persuaded by Chris’ conviction that healthy cultures and strong business outcomes are inextricably linked. That psychological safety and performance-oriented cultures matter now more than ever. That, at the end of the day, your people, and how they learn to work well together, makes all the difference.
Team Building - Chris identifies talented individuals and integrates them into collaborative, high-performing teams
Culture is Business - Chris promotes company cultures marked by psychological safety, mutual respect, and shared success
Sustainable Growth - Early-stage to middle-market companies poised for rapid, sustainable and profitable growth benefit from Chris’ keen business acumen, strategic planning, team development and thoughtful financial analysis
Successful Exits - Chris strategically guides leaders through the complex decision-making processes and sustained execution required to drive excellent outcomes for all stakeholders.
Want to Learn More?
- Chris’ model of leadership is bound by organizational structure and a keen focus on the health of your organization’s culture.
- Chris’ ongoing commitment to learning means he’s present. He listens. And he engages.
- Chris’ vision is grounded in genuine empathy for a company’s leaders as well as its front-line workers.
Chris’ Journey
To know Chris is to know just how interesting his journey – in life and business – has been. And to realize the many ways that journey makes him a valuable resource for his coaching and facilitation clients today.
Chris spent his earliest years in Senegal and Jamaica as the child of Peace Corps volunteers. His formative years in the DC area at assorted private institutions made him an astute observer of organizational rules and interpersonal dynamics. After college, determined to chart his own course, Chris turned to an employment agency to secure his first job packing medical supplies in a warehouse, followed by an unexpected promotion to a position as a senior laboratory technician in the same organization. He then spent 6 months living off the land in a NOLS outdoor leadership program before returning to California to become an erstwhile wilderness guide, while “earning a real living” by joining and ultimately partnering to run Palo Alto’s leading outdoor retailer.
As Chris moved into the corporate world, his ability to synthesize information and experiences, rooted in trust-based relationships, always won the day. You may want to ask Chris about the lessons he gleaned over eleven years by starting out as the Senior Director of Marketing for a medical services company before being promoted to VP of Government Affairs, then COO, and finally CEO, hand-picked by the leadership of the acquiring global healthcare firm. From there, his experiences transitioning to the new Japanese ownership, where he resonated with their core philosophy-patient-first stewardship and responsible growth.
Or consider his next (and most recent) chapter as a healthcare services CEO. Chris could share how he transformed a physician practice management company from $48M in revenue and negative $5 million in operating cash flow, with inefficient operational structures, to a healthy, $200M+ revenue, strongly profitable, patient-oriented organization that experienced multi-year 10%+ annual organic growth complemented by disciplined M&A activity, leading to a highly-successful exit in just six years.
Through experiences that have ranged from rock-bottom failures to highest-flying successes, Chris has refined his leadership philosophy and distilled his business learning. He has become a trusted and reliable partner to leaders, teams, companies, and organizations across multiple industries. Indeed, Chris’ unique combination of history, smarts, curiosity, and perspective makes him an especially unique asset for any client seeking to realize their highest potential.
Chris has been married for over 21 years, the father of two wonderful teenagers, and the family has a “small zoo” of pets at home. Chris is a mission-minded person who has always had a heart for the unfortunate, be it children, families, animals, or world events. He does his best to help people and animals from afar through active philanthropic efforts, with an emphasis on stewardship efforts for African elephants and rhinos and has at times throughout his professional journey been able to lend a hand in person. He loves cooking, cycling, the ocean, traveling to learn from and experience new cultures, and any other excuse to spend quality time in the kitchen, or outdoors.