Chris Laping

Chris Laping brings more than 25 years of information technology and business transformation experience to his newly released book, People Before Things, which is focused on change leadership. Chris enjoyed 14 years as a Chief Information Officer across three different brands and the work of his teams has been spotlighted in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, and CIO Magazine among others. His book explores the connection of the human experience to the outcomes of change and transformation initiatives and the role leaders play to pave success.

Most recently, Chris was the Senior Vice President, Business Transformation and Chief Information Officer at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, where he was a highly contributing member of a management team that completed a successful turnaround of an $8 stock to $89.

Chris has received several awards for his work in the IT industry including The Economist’s Top 5 Social Business Leader and InformationWeek’s Social Business Technology Leader. He has also been named as a ComputerWorld Premier 100 IT Leader and has received three InfoWorld 100 awards. The work of his teams has been spotlighted in three books: The Engaged Leader, Mobile Mind Shift, and Implementing World Class IT.

Chris is originally from Jacksonville, FL. He received a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems at Florida State University and his Master of Business Administration at the University of Florida.