Back in prehistory, when he was a teenager, Pound’s father, an experimental physicist (and himself, the son of a mathematician), said to him, "I wish I thought you were going to be an academic, but I think you’ll be a buyer at Macy’s."
His mother, overhearing, was appalled.
His father was just being a good empiricist. He saw that on Saturdays, instead of wanting to pursue sports - or, science textbooks - Pound wanted to go shopping.
He didn't seem to be acquisitive, just fascinated by products. Or, as he would later learn to say, by the design ethos.​
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Pound Sr., a kind and nonjudgmental man, complied. They walked the aisles of retailers together. the dapper bowtied scientist and the gangly hippie son.
Pound grew into adulthood, and seemed to change. He earned a BA at Harvard and a Ph.D in Economics at Yale. (His father said of the latter: "Not a science. Those people can't even get the sign right").
He served for two years at the Securities and Exchange Commission and then, for ten years on the Harvard faculty. He was an authority on activist investing, corporate boards, and value creation, and advised numerous public company CEOs.
The advisory work, however, was an echo, and a harbinger. It was mostly focused on consumer product and retail businesses.
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He left academia; did a stint as an executive at a branded retail conglomerate; and then formed Integrity Brands, to pursue a program of active investments and advisory and board involvements in consumer brands and retailers.
He argued that Integrity's mission combined his passion for products and design, with his academic/intellectual convictions and skills in investment and governace. His father urged him to spend less time trying to rationalize.
Pound has since invested, served on boards, advised CEOs, and helped lead evolutions, realignments, and turnarounds at over two dozen national brands. His involvements have been focused on supporting product-focused leaders, helping them strengthen their visions, evolve plans, build teams, and navigate through the minefield that is governance.
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Over time, Pound's involvements widened. Like everyone, it seemed, in the aughts and teeens, he became swept up in the startup craze, backing a few early-stage brands, coaching (or, more accuratey, trying to coach) founders, and helping to build what are quaintly known as 'entpreneurial ecosystems.' While living in the UK he also became involved with some small heritage brands.
Pound also adapted his experience to advise leaders at nonprofits, and leaders in academia in particular - which he finds to be strinkingly similar to branded specialty retail. He's helped with strategy, program development, administration, and governance. He has been gratified by this work, feeling that it closes a personal and family circle. He knows, though, that his father would shake his head and say, "That's not being an academic." ​
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After 4+ decades, Pound still loves design-driven products, but his guiding passion is working with art-and-science leaders to build great brands, causes, and cultures.
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