Ken Davenport

The CEO

I co-founded Mission Edge in San Diego in 2012, and I've run it ever since. We're a nonprofit that handles the HR, accounting, and administrative work other nonprofits need to function. Running an operations organization teaches you quickly where pressure comes from, and how much of it lands on things nobody in the room can control.

The entrepreneur

Before Mission Edge, I'd been building companies since the early 1990s, in healthcare technology and data-management consulting. That's where I learned that a plan is a guess, and the leader's job is how you respond when it doesn't hold.

Veterans

Since 2010 I've worked with veterans in transition: as a Boots to Business facilitator with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University, teaching entrepreneurship at military installations overseas, and as a coach at The Honor Foundation for transitioning special-operations veterans. Sitting with people at a crossroads changed how I think about leadership.

Stoicism

I came to Stoicism during Covid, looking for something that would hold under uncertainty. It held. It's the reason I write.

What I try to practice

Humility and authenticity. I don't always get there. The practice is in returning to them.