Chris Lowney chairs the board of CommonSpirit Health, America’s largest nonprofit health system with $33 Billion in revenue and more than 150,000 employees. He is a one-time Jesuit seminarian and later served as a Managing Director of J.P. Morgan & Co on three continents. He is a popular keynote speaker who has lectured in more than two-dozen countries, on leadership, business ethics, decision-making and other topics.
He is the author of six books and has co-authored two more. The bestselling Heroic Leadership has been translated into eleven languages and was named to the recommended reading list of the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. His A Vanished World relates fascinating stories of Christians, Muslims, and Jews in medieval Spain: Chris was featured in the PBS-aired documentary, “Cities of Light,” which echoed many of that book’s key themes. His other works include Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads, which has been called, “a book for the ages.” He won a 2018 Catholic Press Association award for Everyone Leads: How to Revitalize the Catholic Church. His latest work is Make Today Matter: 10 Habits for a Better Life (and World), which won a 2018 Independent Press Award as a “Distinguished Favorite.” The book also won a Gold Medal in the 2019 Illumination Awards.
Chris regularly contributes to Forbes.com on leadership and leadership strategy (his columns can be found here).
His efforts in philanthropy and social entrepreneurship have included helping to launch an innovative collaboration to offer online university education in refugee camps in Africa and elsewhere; he also co-founded Contemplative Leaders in Action, an emerging leader formation program now active in a half-dozen cities; and he founded Pilgrimage for Our Children’s Future, which supports education and healthcare projects among severely impoverished, marginalized communities: to learn more, visit www.pocf.org. Chris also chairs the board of Commonweal Magazine.
He is a summa cum laude graduate of Fordham University, where he also received his M.A. He is holder of eleven honorary Doctoral degrees; was raised in Queens, New York; hates the Yankees; and roots for the Mets without feeling shame.
