Rick Miller is a business advisor, leadership coach, college professor, global speaker, and author. For over 30 years, Rick served as a successful leader in roles including president or CEO in a Fortune 10, a Fortune 30, a startup, and a non-profit. Rick currently helps leaders at all levels grow into their true power and potential as CEO at Being Chief LLC and as an adjunct professor at Bentley University’s McCallum Graduate Business School.
His books, Be Chief: It’s a Choice, Not a Title and Casey’s Kite, offer simple and powerful leadership lessons for all ages. Rick’s proceeds from both books go entirely to charity. Be Chief proceeds are donated to Easterseals to support their programs for veterans, and Casey’s Kite proceeds are donated to Family Reach to support their work with families who have kids undergoing cancer treatment.
Rick is often called a Chief not because of his many high-ranking titles, but because of his ability to bring out the best in others—and in himself. Primary among Rick’s toolkit is his Power Compass, a road-tested sustainable growth model he created over the course of his successful career, which he freely shares with the world and uses with his clients. The Compass helps people build their clarity, energy, impact, influence, and confidence.
Rick has been in demand for the past fifteen years as a confidential adviser to many of today’s most senior executives and is extensively connected within the global business and leadership communities.
Few career business executives have proven they can deliver sustained next-level revenue and profit growth at different companies, of different sizes, in different industries, and in tough times. Fewer have a track record of growing leaders as a primary strategy. Fewer still are servant leaders who have demonstrated an ability to help other senior leaders grow their businesses and experience personal growth by drawing on first-hand experience from the front lines. And just a very few can also translate lessons from business into memorable leadership lessons that can help learners at any age.
Rick Miller is one of the very few.
Rick began his career in 1980 as a sales trainee in the tech industry working for Sperry Corporation. There he learned important lessons about relationships, accountability, and constant change. Rick developed skills as a turnaround specialist and rose to serve as a Division VP/GM for the North America Division.
Rick left Sperry in 1995 to serve as a Corporate Officer at AT&T, running a “long-lines” unit—he was AT&T’s first outside recruit for that position in 100 years. Rick’s team tripled the growth rate to 15% and held it for three years as they built a robust $5B unit. Rick was then promoted to President of Global Services.
In 2000, Rick was recruited by the internet start-up, Opus 360, to serve as President and COO. During the market crash of 2000, Rick’s team completed a successful IPO while dramatically increasing revenue and profit.
Then in 2002, Rick was recruited as the first hire of a newly appointed Lucent Technologies CEO to turnaround sales at the $21B telecommunications provider. After the company returned to profitability, Rick was asked to serve as President of Lucent’s Government unit, which became the fastest-growing unit at Lucent for the next three years.
Since 2008 when he founded BEING CHIEF LLC, Rick has worked confidentially with senior leaders across many industries including hi-tech, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, automotive, media services, financial services, and in non-profit organizations. The result is always growth.
Rick also has a long track record of community service. He founded a non-profit organization, The Balance & Stretch Center, to help other non-profits be more effective. As President and CEO, he led the development of products used by other non-profits to help children with diabetes. He served on the Board of Trustees of the Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, where he raised millions of dollars. He has spent countless hours volunteering at the Barton Center for Children with Diabetes, teaching business leadership at Syracuse University’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans and working with therapists stretching the muscles of children with cerebral palsy in a heated pool at a Rehabilitation Center.
Rick enjoys learning something from everyone he meets, and feels he has something to share with everyone in return.
Rick earned a bachelor’s degree from Bentley University and an MBA from Columbia. He currently lives in Marblehead, MA.
Click the years below to expand:
HONORS
Academic All-America – College Sports Communicators Academic All-America® Hall of Fame Class of 2023
ARTICLES
Easterseals and Author Rick Miller Forge Strategic Partnership PR Newswire, April, 2020
Real Leaders – Collection of articles
ARTICLES
A New Year’s Exercise – Confidence, Power, and Values Leader-Values.com, January 2019
PODCASTS
A New Direction with Jay Izso, January 2019
The Authors Read Podcast, January 2019
Becoming Your Best, January 2019
ARTICLES
“Self-Made” is BS Lead on Purpose, December 2018
Viral Engagement on a Global Scale Forbes.com, December 2018
Connect Without The Water Cooler Home Business, December 2018
Viral Engagement on a Global Scale StrategyDriven.com, December 2018
Do You Know When to Quit? The Answer Lies in These Two Costs Business 2 Community, December 2018
Unhappy, Unproductive Employees? 10 Easy Ways to Create Viral Engagement HT Daily Advisor, November 2018
Interview: Rick Miller Author of ‘Be Chief: It’s A Choice, Not A Title’ Blog Critics, October 2018
Why Organizations Need To Shift From Top-Down To Side-To-Side Focus Tanveer Naseer’s blog, October 2018
What Is Power, Really? Forbes.com, October 2018
5 Ways A Leader Can Learn More About Themselves Skip Prichard’s Leadership Insights, October 2018
What Does It Really Mean to Be Chief? Forbes.com, October 2018
These 5 Elements Measure Your Real Power as a Business Leader Small Biz Club, September 2018
The CEO’s Challenge with Change The CEO Magazine, September 2018
The Power in Vulnerability Great Leadership, September 2018
Confessions from a Fortune 50 Expert: Five Lessons I Learned from a Six-Year-Old CEO World Magazine, September 2018
The Power Inside Each of Us ThinDifference.com, September 2018
What Does Sustainable Growth Really Mean? Forbes.com, August 2018
Working in the Key of Change Bentley Magazine, May 2018
CEOs to employees: Take a vacation, already FierceCEO.com, April 2018
PODCASTS
Barb Adams Live, December 2018
Eternal Leadership, December 2018
Leading While Green, December 2018
Recalculating on Radio, December 2018
This Week in America, December 2018
Mastering Your Money, December 2018
Price of Business, December 2018
Integrate & Ignite, December 2018
Secrets of Success, November 2018
Get Down to Business, October 2018
The Kathryn ZOX Show, October, 2018
Vanderbloemen, October 2018
Money For Lunch, September 2018
Unhurried Living, September 2018
The Impact Entrepreneur, September 2018
Everyday MBA, September 2018
How To Be Awesome At Your Job, August 2018
School for Startups, October 2018
Central Valley Business Times, October 2018
Change Creator Podcast, October 2017
ARTICLES
Sustainability Needs Leaders Motivated by a Compelling Purpose GreenBiz.com, February 2017
ARTICLES
Leading in a Storm Empower Me Magazine, November 2016
The 5 Elements of Effective Leadership MWorld, The Journal of the American Management Association, September 2014
10 Ways to Build an Adaptive Culture in Your Organization Vistage.com, October 2013
How a Growth Roadmap Drives Financial and Personal Growth in Turbulent Times The Wealthy Business, October 2013
So You Want to Be a CMO Direct Marketing News, September 2013
There are Marketers and Chief Marketers: Which are You? CommPro Marketing August 2013
How Coachable Are You? MSN Business, April 2012
Need to Meet Rick Miller Thomson Reuters, Buyouts, April 2012
Coach Offers Body Language Tips Small Business Opportunities, April 2012
10 Strategies Improve Culture and Performance The Business Edge, April 2012
Choosing Resilience Program USA Today, March 2012
4 Steps to Sell Your Way to Success 1 To 1, March 2012
Connect for Results: Try Unconventional Thinking Personal Excellence Magazine, February 2012
Leading Innovation: AT&T’s First Shared Office Harvard Business Review, October 2011
Leading Turnarounds: How Lucent Fights Back Success Today, October 2011