Dan O’Connor

Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow Managing Partner, Front4Ventures Founder, ADLI

Dan O’Connor is the Managing Partner of Front4Ventures and founder of the Advanced Digital Leadership Initiative (ADLI) where he advises retailers and brands and enables leaders for the next generation of retail. In addition, Dan O’Connor is a fellow with Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative where he is working on a workforce 2030.

Dan was also the founder and CEO of RetailNet Group (RNG), a leading advisory and insights firm that works with large scale retailers and brand leaders worldwide. During his time at RNG, Dan was the founding “Dean” of the Retail Leadership Program, an executive education program at UCLA and MIT for rising retail leaders from across 50+ countries.

Dan has extensive experience serving on Board of Directors for companies such as Daymon Worldwide and publicly-traded firms such as Coinstar (NASDAQ), Emak Worldwide (NASDAQ), and DemandWare (NYSE), as well as on the board of Premier Retail Networks, a division of Thomson (NYSE). DemandWare is a fast-growing, cloud-based software platform provider that powers digital commerce for some of the world’s most successful retail brands, including Panasonic, Land’s End, and Adidas.

Earlier in his career, Dan founded Management Ventures, Inc., a syndicated research firm that followed the world’s largest retailers. He sold this company to WPP Group in 2001. Dan started his career as the national director of Touche, Ross & Co.’s (now Deloitte) Consumer Products & Retail Consulting group.

Dan holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Economics from Clarkson University and is a Certified Public Accountant. He is also a board member of the Concord Museum and of Emerson Hospital.