Don Springer has a personal mission to create value that enriches individual lives and transforms organizations. He accomplishes that by leveraging his decades of CEO and Board of Directors experience, combined with the latest research, to provide governance and actionable stakeholder strategies that ignite and accelerate growth.
He has served on the boards of international and domestic technology and service companies, both public and private, as well as non-profit boards. While living in Europe, he served as a board director of companies in the UK, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and Sweden.
Don is presently serving as Chairman of The Colton Group, Inc., a strategic advisory firm for emerging businesses, global companies, and social enterprises. As such, he has provided board governance, growth strategies, and business model innovation for companies serving US, European, and Asian markets. He is also serving as a Director of Elm Analytics LLC, a leading provider of supply chain optimization through data and intelligence.
Additionally, Don is serving as an advisory board member of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance at The University of Texas at Dallas (IECG), which develops thought leadership on governance issues for public and private companies and governmental and nonprofit organizations. He serves on the Institute’s strategy committee, which developed the Governance Capital Model, a new approach to governance in a dynamic, distributed, and networked world. He is also a regular lecturer for the Institute’s Executive Certification Programs in the Governance Capital Model and in Nonprofit Governance.
Prior to his governance and advisory services, Don directly led high-performance growth, strategic repositioning, and innovation for both large and small companies. As CEO, he led companies associated with the Fortune 500, such as a global technology and services subsidiary of Ford Motor Co., a Microsoft VAR, and an EDS EdTech venture. He has also been the founder and CEO of multiple venture-backed startups and emerging businesses and had an early career at Texas Instruments. In addition to $1B+ organic growth, he has $1.3B of M&A experience in various roles encompassing buy-side, sell-side, and integration.
He was a past member of CEO Netweavers, where he founded and chaired the New Business Development SIG. He has also been a past member of Executive Connection Dallas and CEO Trust and a past mentor with the North Texas Regional Center for Innovation and Commercialization.
Don has made keynote presentations and moderated panels for multiple organizations and national associations. He has also been a regular guest lecturer at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, the University of Texas at Dallas Jindal School of Management, and SMU’s Cox School of Business Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship.
