A former Presidential Speechwriter for Bill Clinton, John Pollack works as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits and public sector leaders. Earlier, he worked as a speechwriter on Capitol Hill, as a foreign correspondent in Spain, and as a project manager at The Henry Ford — a museum of American innovation. Throughout his career, John has pursued insight and understanding by venturing off the beaten path, intellectually and otherwise. In this spirit, his worldview has been informed by living and working in Africa and Europe, installing seismometers in Antarctica, hitchhiking across Australia, exploring the Caucasus and skippering a boat he built of 165,321 corks down Portugal's Douro River.

John graduated with distinction from Stanford University, has studied at the School of Visual Arts, and was twice selected as a Wertheim Scholar at The New York Public Library. A winner of the O. Henry World Pun Championships, his books include The Pun Also Rises, Cork Boat, The World on a String and Shortcut: How Analogies Reveal Connections, Spark Innovation and Sell Our Greatest Ideas.

As a consultant, John Pollack helps people tap the full potential of language to articulate ideas, reveal truths, and persuade others to action. His fluency flows from working in journalism, politics, nonprofits and the corporate arena — and from his empathy and creativity. His services include strategy, speechwriting and analogy workshops that increase organizations' creative metabolism. A talented public speaker, John has delivered presentations at Google, the New York Public Library, the 92nd Street Y, marketing firms, conferences and leading universities.