John Kao

Who is John Kao?

John Kao is an author and strategic advisor based in San Francisco. His work concentrates on issues of innovation and organizational transformation.

Kao was born in 1950 to Chinese immigrant parents. An accomplished jazz pianist, he spent the summer of 1969 playing keyboards for Frank Zappa. Kao studied philosophy at Yale College, received an MD from Yale Medical School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He taught at Harvard Business School from 1982-96, where he specialized in innovation and entrepreneurship. He has also held faculty appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, Yale College, and the Naval Postgraduate School.

His advisory work for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was described in The New York Times as "out of the box".