Chris Brown is the Chief Executive Officer at CraftJack. In his role as CEO, he successfully handles the profits and losses of the company and its overall performance including organizational development, operational efficiency, product innovation, digital marketing, and strategic planning.
Chris received his undergrad in Journalism from Michigan State and attended the University of Chicago Booth School of Business for his MBA degree. In 1995, he was instrumental in helping the Chicago Tribune and a small team develop their online presence with live sports coverage and content.
It was early in his career that he began moving away from the editorial side of media and publishing and into the technology and product development aspect. In 1996, he became the Senior Producer for the Tribune Company, Metromix.com where he helped launch the site, led product development, and coordinated content for the arts and entertainment website. For two years he was the Multimedia Director at Rollingstone.com where he continued to manage product development, handle marketing, utilize statistical analysis, and negotiate contracts. In 2002, as Director of Strategic Development at Digital Innovations, he helped develop marketing programs and promotional opportunities with record labels, artists and other partners. For 10 years, prior to joining the team at CraftJack, he held several titles, including Vice President of Strategy and Business Development as well as Vice President of Product Management at Classified Ventures.
Being an effective & successful CEO requires letting go, delegating, & trusting his team as well as being open-minded & empathetic.
At CraftJack, Chris helps to coordinate the building of online products and services that give homeowners what they need which is good quality contractors for home improvements while giving contractors the tools they need to successfully and easily grow their businesses while still being able to focus on what they do best, their trade.
As CEO, he has to translate the consumers’ needs into technology; then go to a sales team and translate the technology so that it can be used to pitch the product, and then go to the finance team to figure out how to increase revenue… and the list goes on.
Moving from product development to management hasn’t been a huge stretch for Brown. He has had to give up some of the product development tasks and trust the team to handle those functions, but on the flip-side, he likes being an effective and successful CEO. This requires letting go, delegating, and trusting his team as well as being open-minded and empathic. It also requires being able to see a problem from multiple perspectives while finding ways to put the many pieces of an elaborate puzzle together. It affords him the opportunity to have input into basically every aspect of the business; technology, finance, sales, marketing, user experience, consumers and more, that goes into making a project and the business successful. A role of this magnitude and diversity might intimidate others, but Chris thrives, and it is what continues to excite him about his work at CraftJack.
Another part of CraftJack that excites him is the amazing team that has been assembled. While they are a smaller company with 40 full-time employees and another 50 contract employees, they are a cohesive group that believes in what they are doing and are provided the tools to do them. Because of that, they not only do their own jobs but willingly jump in to help whenever and wherever they are needed. And, they have fun doing it.
When Chris isn’t at CraftJack, he enjoys spending time with his family and keeping healthy. He enjoys running and is also a musician who plays guitar at live music venues and events.
