Microsoft chairman brings 50 years of enterprise leadership, entrepreneurial experience, and dedication to racial equity to Concordance.
Concordance, a CARF accredited, re-entry nonprofit headquartered in St. Louis, announced that John W. Thompson, Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, has joined the organization’s board of directors.
“I am thrilled to join Concordance’s board of directors at such a pivotal moment in their journey,” said Thompson. “Leveraging my experience in helping organizations scale and supporting Concordance as they expand on their mission of providing justice-involved individuals their first real chance is truly a blessing. Concordance has created a model that is helping to solve a systemic issue afflicting our country. As an African American leader, I am committed to supporting a solution that helps justice-involved individuals break the cycle of reincarceration and create a ripple effect in the lives of these individuals, their families, and our communities.”
Thompson’s executive leadership experience includes having served in chief executive officer roles at Symantec and Virtual Instruments, as well as 28 years of leadership at IBM where he held senior roles in marketing, software development, sales, and as general manager of IBM of Americas. John currently serves as chair of the board of Illumina and is the former chair of the board of Microsoft. Thompson earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Florida A&M University and earned his master’s degree in management science from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
“I am deeply humbled that John has joined our board of directors,” said Danny Ludeman, Concordance Chairman & CEO. “His commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout his career coupled with his expertise in developing strategic growth is a unique combination that is extremely valuable to our organization. We are so fortunate for John’s leadership as we expand our model nationally, bringing healing and hope to justice-involved individuals across the country.”
In addition to serving on Concordance’s board of directors, Thompson currently serves as a campaign co-chair for Concordance’s First Chance campaign. The First Chance campaign is a $100 million national fundraising effort to scale the Concordance Re-Entry Model to 11 additional U.S. cities by over the next five years and increase the number of participants served in the St. Louis Region annually.