Speaker
JD began his professional career with an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy by the U.S. Secretary of the Navy and was one of 37 Distinguished Graduates. He became a qualified submarine officer and served on three submarines during the Cold War. In 1986, he joined Exxon and served in various executive management positions including supply, distribution, transportation, plant and fleet operations, and product pricing. As a crisis leader, he successfully supervised an 850-person team and a fleet of 125 ships and aircraft, as they cleaned over 1,000 miles of Alaskan shoreline after the Valdez oil spill. At Exxon, JD received a Community Service Award from the Mayor of San Ramon, another Community Service Award from the Chairman of the United Way of San Francisco, and a special services medal from President of Exxon USA.
In 1995 JD joined Ernst & Young LLP and became managing partner for global supply chain, outsourcing and systems implementations projects. His clients included Royal Dutch Shell, Phillips Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, the Singapore Ministry of Defence, Maybank, and Wal-Mart.
In 1998, he became director of the energy, chemical, and utilities industry sector for Asia and moved to Singapore, where he grew the business six-fold in two years. He then became the CEO for Ernst & Young Consulting Singapore, then CEO for Capgemini Ernst & Young for South East Asia, where he was responsible for all IT and management consulting services. In this capacity, he served as a key advisor on innovation and economic development for the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office as well as numerous national statutory boards and government ministries in Singapore, Malaysia, and China. At Ernst & Young, was the first non-Shell employee to receive the Shell President’s Award, was designated as one of Ernst & Young twenty-five global subject matter experts, was honored as the IT person of the week for Channel News Asia and nominated for the CNBC Asian CEO of the year. He received numerous commendations from the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office for innovation leadership, another for services to the country, and one from the President of Maybank (Malaysia) for transformational leadership. During his tenure with E&Y, JD led eight corporate turnarounds, four global systems implementations, the Exxon-Mobil merger visioning, and Shell global financial outsourcing programs.
In early 2000 JD broke his neck and nearly died, causing him to reevaluate his life. After recuperating, he retired from the corporate world in 2003 and shifted his focus to promoting human potential and social awareness. He founded The Messinger Group where as a television show creator, producer and host, his first show placed #1 in the ratings and was the world’s first entrepreneur reality TV show. He then became a CNN radio host and his show, Global Evolution, was listened to in over 100 countries.
In eleven days in May of 2012, JD wrote his first book (11DaysinMay.com), which won five awards and hit #1 on Amazon in science and religion, spirituality, self-help, and personal development. Using 11 Days in May, he then created the world’s first fully interactive multi-media eBook and won the 2012 Publishing Industry Innovation of the Year Award and the 2013 Global Gold medal for innovation.
JD’s mission is to show each of us that the power of possibility lies within—and in so doing, has lead teams to more than five worlds’ first innovations. He lives in The Woodlands, Texas, has been married to Marianne for over 35 years, and has three children, Madison, Taylor, and Grant.