Winston
Lord
Founder, Lord Advisory; former Chief Evangelist for OpenTable
Winston Lord is a trusted advisor to C-suite executives, former Cabinet Secretaries and elected officials, Hall-of-Fame athletes, and entrepreneurs. He served on the board of multiple non-profits, including D.C. Central Kitchen, The Washington Ballet, Urban Alliance, and E.L. Haynes Public Charter School. He mentors emerging leaders from the Aspen Institute Food Leaders Fellowship and Conscious Venture Lab.
Mr. Lord founded Venga, a SaaS CRM platform company that used data to help businesses better understand and engage with their customers. After raising three rounds of capital and growing it to profitability, Venga was acquired by Fortune 500 company Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) for 6x investor return.
Following Venga’s sale in 2019, Mr. Lord served as OpenTable’s first Chief Evangelist, spearheading special projects to establish OpenTable as the global leader in hospitality. Major initiatives included authoring Road to Extraordinary: Lessons from Hospitality Titans series, and creating In it Together, a global community and forum of over 500 restaurant operators during the pandemic.
In the early 2000s, he directed a coalition of business and philanthropic leaders, including President Biden’s Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, General Colin Powell and Atlantic Media’s Chairman Emeritus David Bradley, to return Major League Baseball (MLB) to Washington, D.C. after a 34-year absence. He served as the top strategist, chief spokesperson, and a principal liaison to the MLB, national and local elected officials, business and civic leaders, and regional communities in that effort. The Nationals came back to Washington in 2005.
After baseball’s return, Mr. Lord was a Principal at Portfolio Logic, a private equity firm founded and led by Jeff Zients. He identified and co-led due diligence on portfolio companies, primarily in business and healthcare services.
Mr. Lord started his career at Stevens Reed Curcio & Company where he rose from intern to First Vice-President at this full-service political media firm. He led the strategic development, execution and production of television and radio ads for over 50 Presidential, Gubernatorial and Senatorial campaigns and won 19 national advertising awards.
Mr. Lord is married to Stephanie, an international development and affairs leader. He is the father of Levi, Winston, Xavion & Tyson (his latest startups) and two rescue dogs Mei Li and Kimchi. He herds six sheep and two horses. Mr. Lord connects with leaders who share his passion for building businesses while fostering an inclusive culture and set of loyalty values for teams.