Brian Acord

As an Entrepreneur, Brian has been involved in over a dozen startups and rapid-growth opportunities. In addition to a tech training business, a private college, and a Natural Language Processing technology he spun out of the University of Utah, he has also served as Entrepreneur and was on the pre-opening team of Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, launched a services business for United Airlines, and while at Tech Data Corporation participated in a billion-dollar merger with General Electric.

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He has taught entrepreneurship and business courses at BYU and the University of Utah where he was on the initial board of the Pierre Lassonde Center for Entrepreneurship. He currently teaches as part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business program and the Everyday Entrepreneur Program at The Mill at SLCC. The latter in conjunction with Salt Lake County Co-Op’s efforts to teach, mentor, and support underserved communities in the area.

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He is well into his third decade of coaching hockey and lacrosse and serves as a Certified Coaching Trainer for USA Lacrosse. At any given time, he serves as mentor for a steady rotation of several dozen startups, working primarily with non-profit organizations and minority entrepreneurs in all industries.

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Brian was the founder of Young Entrepreneurs of America and has a weekly podcast, Strangers You Know, that shares long-form conversations designed to break the echo chambers created by our social media feeds. Each guest shares personal stories in Honest, Vulnerable, and Bold conversations designed to give listeners a broader perspective of the world in order to bring humanity closer.

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In addition to serving on the Board of Directors for Common Thread, he is also actively involved with the Nomad Alliance and is part of the Immigration and New American Integration task force.