Meet Adam

For the past twenty years, Adam Kaufman has been serving, calling on, and marketing to many of the most successful and influential leaders in the U.S. and abroad. He has earned the trust of CEOs, investors, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and nonprofit leaders. This professional life has created a platform from which he has been able to observe the most effective leaders and what motivates these accomplished people of influence: their leadership styles, their challenges, their worries, and their motivations.

Adam has been an advisor to JumpStart’s CEO and President for five years and is a partner in Palo Alto-based Ovo Fund, a seed-stage venture fund. Adam previously served as the Carol A. Melton Executive-in-Residence at Washington, D.C.-based PathNorth. He loves helping leaders grow their companies and is a board member of South Dakota-based Biltmore Trust Company and an advisor and board member to several entrepreneurs.

Previously, Adam served as president of Healthnetwork Foundation for a decade, providing facilitated access into top hospitals for high net-worth families worldwide. Additionally, he led a fast-growth business which reached #10 on Cleveland’s Weatherhead 100 list.

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CONTACT ADAM
 
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SPEAKING

Adam brings a fresh perspective to the leadership conversation, helping audiences discover ways they can harness the incredible power of relationships. Drawing from extensive experience as both a business and a non-profit leader, investor, and an advisor to dozens of executives and successful entrepreneurs, Adam uses his personal story to authentically present on a variety of topics, including:

  • How to build relationships in the Digital Age

  • Relationship Equity

  • Meaning and Purpose as a Business's Higher-Calling

  • Entrepreneurship

  • Earning Trust and Delivering Value

  • How the Most Successful People Navigate Curves in the Road

Adam is recognized as a discerning conversation leader—including virtual conversations on Zoom and other platforms—and has a passion for getting inside the mind (and heart!) of his subjects.

PAST SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS:

Oberlin College, Auburn University, George Mason University, Holy Spirit University, The Summit of Minds (Chamonix, France), Young Presidents’ Organization, Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Chief Executive’s Organization, Legatus, Vistage International, Rotary Club, YES Foundation, America’s Future Foundation, Start Up- Scale Up

WE’RE ALL BORN INTO SOMEONE ELSE’S STORY

At Up2, we believe that every leader’s journey is shaped not only by their own choices but also by the stories they inherit. Adam shares the deeply personal audio below of his late father, William Reed Kaufman, speaking at an Alcoholics Anonymous conference—an honest and vulnerable moment that has profoundly influenced his own path. By acknowledging the beauty and the brokenness of the story he was born into, Adam has learned to lead with greater empathy, humility, and strength.

In sharing this, our hope is to encourage other leaders to reflect on their own inherited stories, to see them not as limitations but as powerful foundations for deeper self-understanding, authentic connection, and meaningful leadership.

Contact Adam