Keith Ferrazzi is an American author and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight, a

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

-based research and consulting firm. He wrote the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' bestselling books ''Never Eat Alone'' and ''Who's Got Your Back?'' Keith Ferrazzi first created the term co-elevation in 2017, as he was writing the book, Leading Without Authority: How Co-Elevation Is Redefining Collaboration and Transforming Our Teams, with the publisher Penguin Random House.

Early life and education

Ferrazzi was born and grew up in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. He attended

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, where he founded the

Sigma Chi Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...

chapter there, and

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

Career

After graduating from Harvard, he joined management consulting firm

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

as an entry level analyst, and rose to become the company's chief marketing officer (CMO). At age 32, he was hired by

Starwood Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. was one of the largest companies that owned, operated, franchised and managed hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties. It was acquired by Marriott International in 2016. ...

as CMO, reportedly the youngest CMO in the

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

at the time. In 2000, he left to found YaYa Media, an entertainment and marketing company, which he sold to investment company American Vantage in 2003. Ferrazzi left YaYa Media to found Ferrazzi Greenlight, a Los Angeles-based strategic

consulting firm A consulting firm or simply consultancy is a professional service firm that provides expertise and specialised labour for a fee, through the use of consultants. Consulting firms may have one employee or thousands; they may consult in a broad range ...

, and its associated Greenlight Research Institute. The company and institute focus on the importance of positive relationships to business success. Ferrazzi with Kekulov

Books

Ferrazzi has written two networking books that were New York Times bestsellers. His first book, ''Never Eat Alone'', was based on his networking experiences, and was published in 2005. His second book, ''Who's Got Your Back?'', followed up and expanded on the themes from his first book, and was published in 2009. In 2020, he wrote a new book, ''Leading Without Authority''. Keith Ferrazzi discusses how "co-elevation" will transform peers into joint task teammates.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrazzi, Keith Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American business writers American chief executives Place of birth missing (living people) Yale University alumni Harvard Business School alumni