In the course of representing approximately 1,000 startups and two dozen public companies over a 37- year career as a corporate lawyer, John Montgomery noticed a direct correlation between the courageousness and trustworthiness of a leader and the magnitude of success of her or his business. In short, leaders who lead from the heart have an evolutionary advantage, which he explored Great from the Start: How Conscious Corporations Attract Success.

In 2010, John became an executive coach to help the founding teams of his startup clients realize their full leadership potential. Over the next decade, John transitioned out of corporate law into executive coaching and also became an adjunct executive coach with the Center for Creative Leadership. John provides executive coaching and strategic advice to CEOs and their executive teams at public companies such as Salesforce, Workday, Rambus, and Cisco and at venture capital financed emerging companies such as Viridian Therapeutics and TRex Bio.

Prior to starting the Center for Global Consciousness in 2017, Montgomery co-founded Chrysallis, a behavior change company, in 2010 (acquired by Aduro in 2016). Montgomery also founded Startworks Ventures, a benefit capital firm that provided seed capital to new businesses in the emergent sustainable economy from 2007 to 2021.

In his career as a corporate lawyer, Montgomery founded Montgomery & Hansen, a prominent Silicon Valley corporate law firm (now M&H, LLP). He also founded Lex Ultima, PC, which provided legal services to benefit corporations until he graduated from the practice of corporate law at the end of 2021. He served as a co-chair of the legal working group behind California’s historic benefit-corporation legislation and was a leading authority on this new corporate form. He was a co-founding director and President of the Benefit Company Bar Association, co-founding director and Secretary of the Conscious Leadership Guild, and co-founding director of the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers. 

Montgomery also served on the advisory boards of B Lab Europe, Reporting 3.0, Vista Caballo, Epoch Pi, and Trimergence to help develop new approaches to capitalism and leadership. He previously served as a member of the Corporations Committee of the Business Law Section of the California State Bar and was a Governance Fellow with the National Association of Corporate Directors. 

John was also a partner with NOW Partners, a global management consulting firm dedicated to creating a regenerative economy, and co-authored Net Zero Business Models: Winning in the Global Net Zero Economy in 2023.

John holds a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from the University of Redlands, a J.D. from Northwestern College of Law, Lewis & Clark College, and a B.A. in Studio Art from Stanford University. He still paints and loves open water swimming in Tomales Bay.