Founder and President of Vertical S.A.

Rodrigo Jordan is the Founder and President of Vertical S.A. He holds a Ph.D. in Innovation from Oxford University and a graduate degree in civil industrial engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC).

Jordan is widely recognized in Latin America for his work in Leadership and Innovation. He is the author of Leadership: From Theory to Practice (Spanish, Prentice-Hall 2008) and he is the host of Leadership in Person, a T.V. show for Canal 13, interviewing Chile’s most important leaders. In addition, he serves as Professor of Leadership in the MBA program at the PUC School of Business. In both 2000 and 2008, he was invited to serve as a judge for the distinguished Rolex Awards for Enterprise. Jordan regularly runs seminars on leadership and the development of high performance teams to a wide variety of clients throughout Latin America and beyond, including extensive work with the Wharton Leadership Ventures program.

Jordan is considered one of Chile’s most accomplished mountaineers, having led several successful expeditions to the Himalayas and Antarctica, including Everest in 1992 and 2004, K2 in 1996 and Mount Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world, where he led a team of 15 to the summit in 2006. In 2008, he participated in two important expeditions to Antarctica (with National Geographic and Explorers Club) and Greenland to document the impact of climate change on the world’s glacial masses. Jordan has authored a number of books and documentaries based on these expeditions including Everest: The Challenge of A Dream, K2: The Ultimate Challenge, Planet Antarctica and One Day in Chile.

Jordan also directs Fundación Vertical, the non-profit arm of Vertical that serves underprivileged students from schools in Chile, as well as promoting the enjoyment, responsible use and conservation of the environment. In 2004, he received the highest honor given by the Chilean Ministry of Education – the Order of Gabriela Mistral – for his contribution to Chilean Education, and in 2008, he was the first non-American to be honored with the Gilbert M. Grosvenor Medal (President of the Board of National Geographic) for contributions to both education and geography.