John Danner has extensive experience advising and managing both large, complex organizations and emerging startup ventures. His work as a management consultant, entrepreneur, lawyer and public official has centered on helping organizations deal with the challenges and opportunities of unprecedented change in their operating environ-ments. He also teaches executives as well as undergraduate and graduate students from around the world through several university programs and other educational endeavors.
Management Consulting
As a management consultant, he has worked closely with senior executive teams on a broad range of strategic issues in a diverse array of industry settings, from energy and healthcare to consumer products and multimedia. His clients have included Fortune 500 global enterprises as well as high-tech startups; and his work has involved issues ranging from long-range business strategy and diversification initiatives to change management, technology integration, executive training and high-profile project management. He frequently works for clients on an industry-exclusive basis, often over several years.
Among his recent engagements are strategic analysis and advice to several major players in the restructuring global energy and utility markets (including the organization that manages California's electricity grid), business process management innovation for two major regulated infrastructure companies, acquisition integration and strategy for a major food products and service company, and work with a broad range of new ventures on multiple issues regarding their business launches. Throughout his consulting career, he has directed major initiatives at both the business unit and enterprise levels, frequently leading collaborative teams of internal executives and outside advisors. He has worked extensively in both regulated and unregulated business environments, as well as hybrid settings.
Teaching
Mr. Danner currently teaches several MBA courses in venture development and business model innovation at the Haas Business School, University of California, Berkeley. He also recently launched a popular campus-wide undergraduate course on entrepreneurship to address global poverty. While serving as the Dean's Visiting Professor at Princeton University, he created an interdisciplinary course on social entrepreneurship and launched a pilot venture development program for student entrepreneurs.
He serves on the global faculty for an Intel-sponsored global seminar program on technology entrepreneurship and innovation. He also conducts seminars for Haas' international Executive Education program; and serves as a senior moderator of the Aspen Institute Executive Seminar and related programs. In these latter capacities, he has conducted successful seminars for hundreds of senior-level leaders from business, government and the nonprofit sectors around the world.
Other Experience
In addition to his consulting and teaching activities, Mr. Danner's professional career includes prior experience as an entrepreneur, corporate lawyer and senior policy advisor at both the state and federal government levels. He co-founded a national business newspaper covering the U.S. healthcare industry, and a market research company in his college days. His legal work for a leading international law firm included major client representations in electricity, telecommunications, oil and gas, real estate and investment industries. His public service includes work as a senior aide to then-Governor Bill Clinton, and to U.S. Secretary of Education Shirley Hufstedler in establishing the U.S. Department of Education. He has also assisted several foundations in strategic reviews of their philanthropic strategies. Throughout the course of his career, he has been a featured speaker at major conferences on topics as diverse as energy policy innovation and healthcare industry changes to strategic planning models and cash management initiatives.
Education
Mr. Danner holds the J.D., M.P.H. and M.A.Ed. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley; and served as Assistant Editor of the California Law Review. He received his A.B. cum laude in government and economics from Harvard College.
Mr. Danner has been married for 38 years, and has 3 sons. He enjoys travel, cartography and information graphics.
