Episode 136: Torian Richardson on Leadership, Purpose and the “Real A.I.”

Torian Richardson’s inclusive why is to inspire the genius in others to live valiantly so that potential is turned into impact. Over the past 20 years as an international thought leader whose expertise rest in analytics, culture and people development, strategy and stewardship, he is a lifelong learner through experience and immersion living and working on four continents and journeying through over 70 countries.

Born at South Chicago Hospital of a family rooted in Chicago's Southside, he is the product of a working-class broken home and lived west on 87th street from Southside’s Gresham to Justice to the Aurora/Naperville area. But what really shaped him was not only life in these diverse neighborhoods but growing up in a well-intended yet abusive family during his formative years.

Torian was able to transform a lackadaisical attitude into earning an NCAA athletic scholarship and losing it. Once he buckled down and fought his way to being a first-generation college graduate; earning a Bachelors of Business Administration in Finance from Benedictine University and a Masters of Public Administration in International Development from Tsinghua University in Beijing to most recently

graduating from Harvard Business School.

In the United States, he has held a variety of corporate leadership roles in finance, education, and transportation with general management responsibilities of over $80M in P&L leadership. Additionally as a Chairman of the Board for www.globalminded.org as well as a consultant with HBS Club of New York. In Africa, as the Business Solutions Director, he was responsible for successfully building educational technology and service businesses throughout the African continent. Living in China for four years, Torian became an entrepreneur founding Guanxi Universal as well as lecturing at University of International Business and Economics (Beijing) and Changchun Finance College.