John Pound is an investor, board leader, adviser, executive, and researcher. His focus is on leadership, value creation and governance. He has invested in, advised, and, as a director, helped to oversee and lead expansions, evolutions and turnarounds at over two dozen national consumer-facing brands and retailers. He has advised for-profit and nonprofit CEOs and boards on vision, value, and governance. Previously, he spent more than 15 years in academia and policy, focused on value, leadership, and governance in public companies.
Pound earned an AB in Political Economy at Harvard and a PhD in Economics at Yale. He spent two years at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a decade on the Harvard faculty, conducting research on corporate governance and financial market regulation. His research led to changes in policy and practice that helped to spur the development of modern activist public equity investing, including deregulation of shareholder communications and nomination of independent slates of directors by large shareholders. He advocated for more engaged, expert, value-focused boards; advised Fortune 50 CEOs and boards on value creation, shareholder engagement, and leadership and board transitions; and helped investors craft strategies to engage constructively with companies. He spoke on governance reform at leading universities, US and foreign government bodies and policy organizations, including the World Economic Forum in Davos, and his research appeared in a spectrum of leading publications including The Journal of Finance, The Journal of Financial Economics, The Journal of Law and Economics, The Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal,
In 1999, Pound established Integrity Brands as a masthead for a program of focused investments in product-led, consumer-facing businesses. Its mission was expert, supportive engagement: to work closely with leaders on both the art and the science critical to value creation. Through Integrity, Pound has invested in and engaged - as a board member, board chair, executive chair, co-chair, and formal and informal advisor - to help drive turnarounds and growth at over two dozen public companies including Gymboree, Cost Plus World Market, Vans, Guess, Christopher and Banks, United Retail Group, Kirkland's, A.T Cross, and others. He has helped build and support vision-driven leadership teams; helped leaders develop and evolve visions and plans and navigate governance and public market challenges; overseen and helped lead financings and distressed financial planning; and led strategic reviews and sale and restructuring processes. Under the Integrity masthead Pound has also made early stage investments in emerging brands; partnered on private equity acquisitions; and, while living in the UK, invested in and worked with heritage English brands.
Pound maintains an advisory practice working with CEOs, founders, and boards on strategy, value creation, and governance. He works with nonprofit leaders also, particularly in education, and has advised various research and teaching programs at the Univesity of Arizona. He is currently affiliated with Eller College's Immersion Learning initiative. He resides in Tucson, Arizona with his family, his rescue dogs, and a rotating assortment of mostly-British vintage vehicles.