John McDonald

John McDonald has over 25 years of experience as an organization builder and innovator, most recently as Head of Strategy and Initiatives for the Tulsa Innovation Labs. He helped create NEXT Studios, one of America’s first Benefit (B) Corporation innovation studios. He was the founder and CEO of ClearObject, the fastest-growing technology company in Indiana for 5 years in a row, which successfully exited to private equity in 2019. Prior to that, He served as CEO of Chicago-based startup CloudOne, and at IBM, where he led technical sales for their software development tools product line.

He is a founder and board member of the Indiana Technology & Innovation Association, a board member of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, of the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center, of TechPoint, and of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce. At Purdue University, He is an instructor for the Certificate Program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, a member of the Dean’s Council for the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, and a member of Purdue’s President’s Council and RB Stuart Society.

A graduate of Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis, he studied business management and computer science before receiving degrees in Software Development and Computer Information Technology from Purdue University at West Lafayette, where he was also the Student Body Vice President and Treasurer. He was honored as Purdue’s Distinguished Technology Alumnus in 2007 and Lawrence North’s Distinguished Alumnus in 2017.