Craig Wortmann General Information

Description

Mr. Craig Wortmann serves as Venture Partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital. Craig Wortmann is a Clinical Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and the Founder of the Kellogg Sales Institute. Craig designed, developed and teaches the award-winning course called Entrepreneurial Selling, recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the "Top Ten" courses in the U.S. He also teaches a communications course that helps people 'show up, stand out, and break through' in all forms of communication. Prior to Kellogg, Craig also developed Chicago Booth's Building Leadership Capital course, a four-day, in-depth executive education series he has brought to senior executives worldwide. At Chicago Booth, Craig was the recipient of the 2012 Faculty Excellence Award, given to the professor who has had the greatest positive impact on the students. Craig is also the author of "What's Your Story?", a book that looks at how leaders and sales professionals use stories to connect, engage and inspire. In his book, Craig demonstrates the powerful impact stories have on the three most common performance challenges - leadership, selling and communication. Craig's writing efforts also involve his work as a regular columnist for INC.com on the subjects of sales and entrepreneurship. Craig has been a sales person and entrepreneur for more than 25 years. From IBM Corporation as the #2 performer in his year-long classical style sales training class, to a Dean Witter company covering three-quarters of the country selling to large retailers, Craig is an expert in all things sales. After earning his MBA from Kellogg in 1995, Craig joined the Forum Corporation and quickly became the firm's new product launch and client recovery specialist. In 2000, Craig was recruited to join start-up WisdomTools as its CEO which he sold to a larger firm in 2008. Craig founded Sales Engine Inc., a tools and services firm based on the belief that a company should treat sales as the engine of their business. As a professional speaker and sales advisor, Craig helps to develop the knowledge, skills and discipline necessary to build a successful sales engine. In 2009, the venture backer's behind interactive marketing and web strategy firm, ClearGauge, sought Craig to become CEO while running his Sales Engine firm. Craig executed a turnaround by building a sales engine, cutting significant costs and developing a new web presence. ClearGauge was then acquired by a larger agency. In addition to running Sales Engine and teaching full time, Craig has partnered with the Pritzker Group helping to advise its portfolio companies on growing sales. Craig also sits on the board of Innovative Health, a Phoenix-based reprocessor of medical devices.