Sam Ford is Co-Founder of Innovation Engine. He has worked on innovation approaches, engagement and storytelling strategies, and cultural intelligence initiatives with a wide range of organizations across multiple industry sectors, including consulting clients that have ranged from Lowe’s Hardware, WD-40, and the U.S. Department of State to Microsoft, University of Southern California, and WNYC. 

As Director of Cultural Intelligence, Ford co-created an organic growth initiative for Paramount at the book publisher it then owned, Simon & Schuster. As VP of Innovation & Engagement, he oversaw innovation projects and partnerships across subsidiary companies owned by Univision. And, as a director for NYC strategic communications firm Peppercomm, he helped lead innovative communications strategies for clients ranging from Whirlpool, TJMaxx, Food Network, and MINI to EY, Siemens, Steelcase, and Lincoln Financial and was named Digital Communicator of the Year and a Social Media MVP by PR News in 2014 and Bulldog Reporter Social Media Innovator of the Year in 2011.

Early in his career, Ford helped establish and run the MIT Convergence Culture Consortium research group. He has served as a research affiliate with MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing and as a Knight News Innovation Fellow with Columbia Journalism’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, the latter of which resulted in work that received the inaugural Research Prize for Professional Relevance from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in 2018. He has published more than 25 pieces of academic research, including being co-author of the NYU Press book Spreadable Media, named one of 2013’s Best Business Books by Strategy+Business.

Ford began his career as a journalist and has written for publications like Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Inc., Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Slate, and Knowledge@Wharton. He has spoken at a range of conferences–from South by Southwest to Front End of Innovation to the National Association of Television Programming Executives. His work has been featured not only by APM Marketplace, BBC World Service, Fortune, Forbes, The Financial Times, and Investor’s Business Daily but also Bored Panda, the comic strip Nancy, the New York Times crossword puzzle, and as an answer on Jeopardy! He holds a Master’s of Science in Comparative Media Studies from MIT and a Bachelor of Arts in News/Editorial Journalism, English, Communication Studies, and Mass Communication from Western Kentucky University.