Chris Thompson joined Knight Foundation in January 2019.

Previously, Chris served as vice president of product marketing at communications technology company Plantronics, where he drove strategies that helped organizations transform their communications and collaboration practices. Prior to joining Plantronics, Thompson held executive positions in business strategy and marketing for major technology companies including Cisco, Network Associates, Nortel and Gartner Group.  He is an industry thought-leader on collaboration technology and business strategy and is a regular speaker at prominent events including CEBIT, Cisco Live, Gartner Symposium, Mobile World Congress, Morgan Stanley Global Technology Summit, Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, SXSW and the World Economic Forum.

Thompson has lived in the Bay Area for 26 years; he is a native of Toronto, Canada.

Thompson earned a Bachelor of Arts in macroeconomics and a Master of Business Administration specializing in management of innovation and new technology, both from McMaster University in Canada. He serves on the Board of Trustees for the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis and for the Phi Delta Theta Canadian Foundation.