The Big SHFT: Michael Crooke, Sustainable Business Maverick

Michael W. Crooke’s résumé reads like a young achiever’s dream bio. The former Navy SEAL (underwater demolition team) holds a Ph.D. in management and has held senior executive roles at a number of companies in the outdoors industry, including Yakima, Kelty Packs, Pearl/Izumi and Patagonia, where he was CEO from 1999 to 2005.

It was Crooke’s time at Patagonia — the company founded by legendary environmentalist/businessman Yvon Chouinard — that taught him about value-driven leadership, a model that has informed his work ever since. Now a professor at Pepperdine University, Dr. Crooke coordinates the school’s new Socially, Environmentally and Ethically Responsible (SEER) Business Practice Program, teaching future titans leaders how corporate responsibility makes good business sense.

SHFT Originals

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