Kaihan Krippendorff is the founder of Outthinker, a global think-tank of chief strategy, growth, and transformation officers and executives from large public, private, and Fortune 500 companies.
He is a top-rated keynote speaker, Senior Fellow at Wharton, former McKinsey consultant, and author of bestsellers Outthink the Competition, Driving Innovation from Within, and Proximity. Thinkers50 and Global Gurus recognize Kaihan as one of the top 20 business management thinkers in strategy and innovation.
Kaihan hosts the Outthinkers podcast and The Chief Strategy Officer Podcast. His ideas are frequently published in Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and other leading media outlets.
Known for his practical tools and insights, he teaches at Wharton, NYU, Florida International University and delivers workshops for some of the world’s most recognizable companies including Aetna-CVS, JP Morgan, Lockheed Martin, Bank of America, Procter & Gamble, IBM, and Yahoo!. His work has created in excess of $3.0 billion in new annual recurring revenue.
Kaihan holds a doctorate in economics and business and engineering degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering, Wharton, Columbia Business School, and London Business School.
With a mother from Bangladesh, father from Germany, and wife from Latin America, Kaihan is a global citizen who brings a holistic, diverse, and worldly perspective to everything he does. He is a passionate cook and lives in Seattle with his wife, three teenage kids, two cats, and a dog.




Kaihan shows how large organizations, not just startups, can be a place where entrepreneurs innovate, build, and adapt for the future.
Kaihan shows how large organizations, not just startups, can be a place where entrepreneurs innovate, build, and adapt for the future.