Leo M. Tilman

President and CEO

Leo M. Tilman is President and CEO of Tilman & Company, a global strategic advisory firm and a thought leader on strategy and risk intelligence. Previously, Mr. Tilman held senior positions with BlackRock, Capitol Peak, and Bear Stearns, where he was Chief Institutional Strategist and Senior Managing Director.

Mr. Tilman is the author of three books – Financial Darwinism (2008), Asset/ Liability Management (Ed, 2003), and Risk Management (2000). In 2010, in collaboration with the Nobel economist Edmund Phelps, he co-authored a Harvard Business Review proposal to create the First National Bank of Innovation. In a 2012 European Financial Review article, he redefined risk intelligence and described it as an essential new competency for companies and investors. He is the creator of the Corporate Risk Scorecard, a “Nutrition Label” for companies (Barron’s, 2013) and co-author of “Brain as a Business Model” (EFR, 2014). Mr. Tilman’s new book on strategy, risk, and leadership – co-authored with four-star General Chuck Jacoby, former Commander of NORAD and US Northern Command – is expected to be published at the end of 2018.

In recent years, Mr Tilman was one of the main architects of a public/private partnership involving The White House Rural Council and the Farm Credit System that brought billions of dollars of private capital to innovative companies and projects (2012-2016). He also served as Lecturer at Columbia University where he taught core curriculum, graduate-level finance (2006-2014). Mr Tilman received B.A. and M.A. in mathematics from Columbia University and executive education in leadership and policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University.

Mr. Tilman’s nonprofit work focuses on foreign affairs, economic development, and education. He currently serves as a board member of Atlantic Partnership, member of the Colorado Forum, trustee of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and an international advisory board member of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University.

Mr. Tilman has been profiled as Business Visionary by Forbes, a distinction given to “influential authors, decision makers, and thought leaders in the field of business.” He was honored by the World Economic Forum among a select group of executives, public figures and intellectuals recognized for “their professional accomplishments, commitment to society, and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.”