Josh Linkner
At an age when most pre-teens were still finding their way to Geometry class, Josh began performing in public as a jazz musician. He was 13, and he’s been improvising ever since. The improvisation has continued in the business world, where Josh has founded and built four highly-successful technology companies over the last 20 years.
As the founder and CEO of ePrize, he has led a revolution by dislodging the old guard and dominating the industry through disruptive innovation and creativity. ePrize has produced over 5,000 industry-leading interactive promotions across 36 countries, for 74 of the Top 100 brands including Coca-Cola, at&t, The Gap, Procter & Gamble, Disney, Dell, adidas, Citibank and Microsoft.
ePrize has won dozens of awards including Red Herring’s Top 100 Technology Firms in North America, Inc. 500 (five years in a row), #1 fastest-growing on PROMO 100, Fast Company’s Fast 50 Reader’s Choice, and 101 best places to work in Michigan.
Josh is a highly sought-after keynote speaker, and is a frequent source-for-comment among top business, technology and marketing media. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, AdAge, Entrepreneur, AdWeek, and Inc. Magazine. Josh has won several business, technology, and design awards including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Crain’s 40 under 40, Automation Alley’s CEO of the Year, and the Detroit Executive of the Year. He is the author of two books, Leaning Forward (2007) and Disciplined Dreaming (coming in Feb 2011 from Jossey-Bass/Wiley).
You can still catch Josh improvising today; both playing jazz professionally in smoky jazz clubs and inspiring thousands worldwide on igniting their creativity.