Kai is an author, speaker, and strategy advisor on brand & culture to C-suite executives, startup founders, marketers, and celebrities. He focuses on how to make things sticky, shareable, and culturally-infectious. His work concentrates on the intersection of brand strategy, culture, and consumer behavior. In 2019, his newest book “Follow the Feeling: Brand Building in a Noisy World” was released; the book compresses research on 1,500 fast-growing companies from Disney to Coca-Cola into a new five-part branding system called LAVEC that illuminates shortcuts in creating strong emotional connections between brands, consumers, and communities.

He has been recognized as a leader by Forbes, INC, Adweek, C-Suite Quarterly, and the Advertising Research Foundation. As a scholar-practitioner, he is a lecturer at Columbia University and a strategy advisor. His courses focus on consumer behavior, behavioral science, & persuasion. A frequent keynote speaker at conferences and Fortune 500 companies, Kai has most recently spoken at events for organizations including the American Marketing Association, PR Society of America, Association of National Advertisers, and SXSW. Recently, Kai was named to Thinkers50 Radar 2020 as one of the top 30 thought-leaders to watch in the world.

Specializing in big brand (re)launches, he has worked on the management team for a $100 million media platform (REVOLT), started a tech accelerator for Atom Factory (whose portfolio includes 100+ leading startups from Uber to Spotify), developed strategy for album launches (Meghan Trainor, Kamasi Washington), and managed strategic planning for $100 million integrated marketing campaigns for Bank of America, HP, McDonald's, Bacardi, and L’Oreal.

Kai earned a master’s in strategic communication from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in economics from The University of Chicago. An avid traveler, Kai lived in Germany during childhood and has visited over 20 countries. Photography, art, and running are hobbies. He resides in New York City.

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