With an attorney’s sense of risk and an entrepreneur’s sense of the future, Ryan helps clients develop the confidence and agility to execute amid quickly evolving global challenges. Adept at translating trends into management competencies, Ryan has helped hundreds of professionals at all levels navigate the emerging demands of sustainable business, ESG, and social entrepreneurship. Ryan also has a broad base of experience in sustainability consulting of all stripes—whether helping a public companies cope with ESG survey fatigue, turning a greenhouse gas inventory into customer-ready narrative, or helping private equity impact investors develop a deal flow strategy. 

Prior to Korn Ferry, Ryan directed the Center for Sustainable Business Practices at University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business, a perennially top-5 ranked Green MBA. There, he led a high-impact consulting practice advising Fortune 500 clients, mission-driven unicorns, and social ventures on sustainability and business issues. He also led the effort to integrate sustainability into the core curricula of the MBA and undergraduate business programs.  Before Oregon, Ryan was a dean at the Presidio Graduate School where the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society program named him one of its Faculty Pioneers, honoring cutting-edge business scholarship and teaching about society’s grand challenges. 

Prior to his time as business faculty, Ryan was a litigator for almost 10 years. His practice areas included securities, governance, intellectual property, toxic torts, environmental law, consumer protection, and private attorney general actions.

Ryan is a graduate of Yale University (BA), Boston University School of Law (JD), and Presidio Graduate School (MBA).  He serves as the board chair of Multiplier, a 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor and incubator supporting more than 50 social entrepreneurs, and is a member of the California Bar Association.