David Crosswhite

David Crosswhite is a 25-year veteran and pioneer in the field of new venture development and building innovation capability within Fortune 500 organizations. David’s work addresses issues that range from innovation strategy to new product and pipeline development to new business models. It includes a heavy component of organizing for innovation capability for large and midsize organizations with legacy issues and cultures that stand in the way of innovating in a disrupted environment.

David was an early partner at Strategos, a global growth and innovation consultancy, where he eventually took on the role of Managing Director. He was Chief Operating Officer of Strategos from 2004 through 2010. David worked with B2C and B2B organizations across industry sectors to help them drive their growth and innovation agendas. His application of innovation and new venture development techniques and capability-building spans many industry sectors including consumer durables, CPG, retail, financial services, and pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. He was responsible for many of the firm’s most prominent client relationships and outcomes.

Since his tenure with Strategos he has been working across additional industries and organizational profiles including not-for-profit healthcare and professional services firms – both industry environments experiencing extensive disruption. His mostrecent work focuses on the development of new business models in the face of digital disruption – helping Global 1000 organizations go on offense rather than play defense in their current environment.

David co-authored The Innovator’s Field Guide, published by Wiley and Sons in 2014, “A Solution for a Lack of Breakthrough Innovation” – Strategy & Leadership, August 2014, and multiple other articles on the topics of growth through innovation. His work in the field is well documented in multiple Harvard Business School and Corporate Executive Board case studies that chronicle the strategic innovation and organizational capability-building efforts in global consumer goods companies and national retailers. He is an Adjunct Faculty at Notre Dame (Mendoza Graduate College of Business) and has been a Guest Lecturer at The University of Chicago (Booth) and The Loyola (Quinlan) Graduate Schools of Business.

David earned his MBA at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and holds a BS in Engineering from Lehigh University.

He is the President of the Board of Trustees of The Cove School in Northbrook, IL, a K-12 school dedicated to leading and pioneering the education and overall development of children with special learning needs.