Adjunct Professor of Innovation at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, and Adjunct Professor of Executive Education at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. 2007 – 2019, he served as Clinical Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Kellogg. Wolcott won Teacher of the Year from Kellogg’s EMBA program in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017. Visiting Fellow, Imperial College London. Author, with Kaihan Krippendorff, of the award-winning, Amazon best-selling book PROXIMITY: How Coming Breakthroughs in Just-In-Time Transform Business, Society, and Daily Life (Columbia University Press, 2024), nominated for the Thinkers50 “Breakthrough Idea of 2025” award. Co-founder and chair of TWIN Global (www.twinglobal.org), a global community of over 3,000 innovation leaders from over 30 countries and across sectors (business, government, the arts, academia, defense). Board member of strategy consultancy Clareo; leadership transformation platform Abroad.io; and global non-profit Cure Blindness Project (Himalayan Cataract Project). Advisory board member: Open Innovation Lab of Norway, MagicCube, MarketEngine and other ventures. Contributor for Forbes on the impact of technology on business, society and humanity. His book, Grow From Within: Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation (McGraw-Hill, 2010) has been published in Chinese and Japanese. Wolcott’s work has appeared in publications such as MIT Sloan Management Review, strategy+business, The Harvard Business Review (online), The Wall Street Journal. Early stage investor in over 40 companies and funds including digital healthcare fund 7wire Ventures; crowd funding leader Indiegogo (www.indiegogo.com); controlled-environment agriculture and space pioneer Interstellar Lab (www.interstellarlab.com); no-code enterprise leader Unqork (www.unqork.com); women’s online health specialist Alpha Medical (www.helloalpha.com); student loan innovator Lumni (www.lumni.net); digital education leader Kiddom (www.kiddom.co); transaction security technology firm Magic Cube (www.magiccube.co); UK-based consumer credit platform Updraft (www.updraft.com); UAE-based consumer financial services platform Sav Technologies (www.sav.money); mental health platform Silver Cloud Health (acquired by Amwell); ClearCare Online (acquired by Battery Ventures); and international art show EXPO Chicago (acquired by FRIEZE, www.expochicago.com). BA, European and Chinese History; and an MS and Ph.D., Industrial Engineering & Management Science, Northwestern University.
