John Griffin
CEO & Founder
John is often described as an idea and bridge-building genius. A natural connector with a vast network of colleagues, partners, friends across the globe. He loves to help and support people and believes strongly that others want to help too and given the opportunity they want to make a difference on what is important. A gifted “option man” he consistently sees numerous solutions to any problem.
His deep sense that everything is possible allows him to support clients to challenge perceived limitations and see the potential of what can manifest. He has an innate ability to observe and scan systems rapidly and see the essence of what is going on and then quickly translate that to how to navigate to innovative solutions.
His strength in being adaptive allows him to move in almost any direction needed bring innovation and his fast intelligence to home in on anything and bring creative and inspiring ideas to it. Committed and loyal to those he works with he brings everything needed in a selfless way to make transformation happen. Most memorable is that he has an engaging and fun hosting quality that welcomes you into this world of optimism and creativity – come play it is cool and fun in this nurturing playground of potential.
John has over three decades of experience facilitating organizational change and building leadership and management capacity with a variety of non-profit, public and private sector clients in over 45 countries worldwide. He is known for supporting individuals and groups to explore and open up what drives’ leadership, change, innovation and collaboration. He is deeply networked in diverse industries and sectors around the globe.
His unique capacity to build bridges and in integrating across fields of practice is as recognized as his proven track record in delivering results. John’s clients have included NASA, the United Nations, Fortune 500 Companies, the World Bank, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and several Government and Community Institutions worldwide.
John has taught both internally in organizations and at some of the premier training centers including Georgetown University, Esalen, Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and Gestalt International Study Center. John has been an advisor on quoted in articles on Nature Conservation for National Geographic and was a co-author of two recent books on Systems Change.
John founded Three Mountain Group (3MG) 25 years ago. Prior to forming 3MG he worked on Wall Street for leading commercial and investment banks, advised for years at the World Bank as a social scientist and then went on to work for both the German and US Governments (USG) as a Nature Conservation Advisor serving as the Senior Biodiversity and Wildlife Conservation Advisor for the USG.
A consistent and major focus for John, after his first trip to Nepal in the mid-80s, has been working to design and support complex conservation initiatives in addition to serving as an international wildlife and biodiversity specialist for the US government, United Nations, the World Bank, the World Wildlife Fund and numerous national governments and local communities. John is grateful for the honor of having had an opportunity to work in some of the most wild, naturally beautiful and remote locations on the planet.
John is passionate about photography and spending as much time in nature as possible. In the last few years, John manifested a life-long passion in photography and established Griffin Galleries, which has become an internationally recognized fine art gallery. (www.griffingalleries.com).
Roughly 20 years ago, John consulted with some leading international forestry and climate change specialists to calculate his “carbon footprint” and then bought a small 100+ acre New England hardwood forest to offset his global travels for his consulting work. The land which has been in a Forest Conservation Management Plan the last 20 years is surrounded on 3 sides by State Conserved Lands and serves as an important Bear wintering habitat.