MEET OUR FOUNDERS
Craig Hatkoff
In 2009 he co-founded the Disruptor Foundation with Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, father of disruptive innovation theory. Hatkoff is the chief curator of the annual Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards which he created in 2010 in collaboration with Professor Christensen. In 2017 Hatkoff brought the Disruptor Awards to Hiroshima, Japan for the first ever Disruptive Innovation Awards held overseas.
Craig started his career in real estate after business school in 1978 at Chemical Bank where he became one of the pioneers of the real estate securitization industry. He left Chemical in 1990 to co-found Victor Capital Group, a leading real estate merchant bank. He was a co-founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee at Capital Trust, a NYSE company, formed in 1996 with financier Sam Zell that became one of the real estate industry’s largest mezzanine lenders. He left Capital Trust in 2000 to pursue his passion for entrepreneurial and creative endeavors focusing on the field of disruptive innovation. He formed Turtle Pond Publications LLC, a private entertainment and media company that successfully invested in a number of start-ups including Tribeca Enterprises and Fillpoint LLC, a leading video game distribution and e-commerce company. Turtle Pond is today a leading publisher of children’s books through Scholastic Books, specializing in children’s non-fiction picture books based on famous animals with remarkable stories that illuminate resilience and emotional learning for grades K-6. Hatkoff has co-authored with his daughters a series of best-selling children’s books, including the New York Times #1 best-seller Owen & Mzee.
He currently serves or has served on the Boards of Tribeca Film Institute, the Child Mind Institute, the Wild Bird Fund and the Borough of Manhattan Community College Foundation. He served on the Board of Capital Trust and is currently a Director of two NYSE public companies, Taubman Centers Inc. and SL Green Realty Corporation.
Craig graduated from Colgate University in 1976 and received his MBA from Columbia University 1978. He is currently Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School where he created and teaches the course on Disruptive Innovation.
RABBI Irwin Kula
Rabbi Irwin Kula is a disruptive spiritual innovator and rogue thinker. A 7th generation rabbi he is Co-President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership a do-tank committed to making Jewish a Public Good. A thought leader on the intersection of innovation, religion, and human flourishing, Irwin has worked with leaders from the Dalai Lama to Queen Noor and with organizations, foundations, and businesses in the United States and around the world to inspire people to live with greater passion, purpose, creativity and compassion.
Named one of the leaders shaping the American spiritual landscape, he received the 2008 Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award for his work “toward equality, liberty and a truly inter–religious community” and has been listed in Newsweek for many years as one of America’s “most influential rabbis.” He is the Co-founder and Executive Editor of The Wisdom Daily.
A popular commentator in both new and traditional media, Irwin is the author of the award-winning book, Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life (2006), creator of the acclaimed film, Time for a New God (2004), and the Public TV series Simple Wisdom (2003), and is co-founder with Craig Hatkoff and Clay Christensen of the Disruptor Foundation.
CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN
Professor Christensen holds a B.A. from Brigham Young University and an M.Phil. in applied econometrics from Oxford University where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He received an MBA and a DBA from the Harvard Business School, where he is currently the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration. He also is a Senior Lecturer in Radiology at the Harvard Medical School. He is regarded as one of the world’s top experts on innovation and growth. Christensen founded a number of successful companies and organizations which use his theories in various ways. These include: Innosight, a consulting firm helping companies create new growth businesses; Rose Park Advisors, a firm that identifies and invests in disruptive companies; and The Christensen Institute, a non-profit think tank whose mission is to apply his theories to vexing societal problems such as healthcare, education, and economic growth. Professor Christensen is the best-selling author of eleven books and several hundred articles, including the New York Times best-selling, How Will You Measure Your Life?. The Economist magazine named The Innovator’s Dilemma as one of the six most important books about business ever written. A biannual poll of thousands of executives, consultants and business school professors in 2011 and again in 2013 named Christensen as the most influential business thinker in the world. He received the 2015 Edison Achievement Award for his significant and lasting contributions to innovation. Professor Christensen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He worked as missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Republic of Korea from 1971 to 1973 and continues to serve in his church in as many ways as he can. He and his wife Christine live in Belmont, MA. They are the parents of five children and grandparents to six grandchildren.