John Rossman

John Rossman has spent his career at the intersection of bold strategy and disciplined execution — and he's learned, from the inside, what separates organizations that win from those that merely survive. As the executive who launched and scaled Amazon Marketplace — now responsible for more than half of all units sold on Amazon — Rossman didn't just witness one of the most disruptive business transformations in modern history. He engineered it. That experience forged a conviction he has carried through every engagement since. Great outcomes don't happen by accident. They happen by design. 

Today, John Rossman is the leading authority on high-stakes decision-making in an AI-driven era. Through his firm, Rossman Partners, he advises C-suite leaders navigating the decisions that define their organizations' futures — from major technology transformations to AI strategy to cultural reinvention. His clients have included T-Mobile, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Walmart, Microsoft, Nordstrom, and dozens of enterprises. 

Prior to founding Rossman Partners, he was a Partner at Arthur Andersen and later spent twelve years as a Partner at Alvarez & Marsal, one of the world's premier turnaround and restructuring firms. He has served in senior advisory and interim executive roles, including as CIO and senior technology advisor at the Gates Foundation and senior innovation advisor at T-Mobile. He is the bestselling author of four books: The Amazon Way, Think Like Amazon, The Amazon Way on IoT, and Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper-Digital Era. The Amazon Way has been translated into 13 languages and remains one of the most widely read business leadership books of the digital era. He also writes The Digital Leader: A Big Bet Briefing, a popular Substack newsletter read by executives navigating transformation in the AI era. 

Rossman is not an academic. He is not a pundit. He is an operator who has done the work, led the teams, made the high-stakes calls, and helped hundreds of organizations find the clarity and courage to do the same. His keynotes are known for their rare combination of intellectual rigor and immediately actionable frameworks — content that leaders are still referencing and applying long after the event ends. 

He has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, BBC, and GeekWire, and has delivered hundreds of keynotes for organizations including Citibank, Microsoft, Nordstrom, Starbucks, Fidelity, Novartis, Chick-fil-A, and Verizon. John Rossman holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Oregon State University. If you want him to open up, ask him about water polo, his family, or his French Bulldog, Bossman Rossman.