Sam Ford is Chief Partnership Officer for MI2. In this role, he oversees the communications strategy and execution for MI2 across all channels, support of partnerships with strategy partners, and oversight of MI2’s membership programs. Sam is also Founding Partner of the strategy firm Innovation Engine. From MI2’s founding until the end of 2024, Sam served as MI2’s Director of Strategic Communications. Sam’s prior work includes in-house roles at Paramount, Univision, Peppercomm, and MIT, leading innovation initiatives. He also helped launch the nonprofit AccelerateKY in 2021 as a result of Kentucky becoming the first U.S. state to go through the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program and which took on as one of its first major projects supporting the concept, formation, and launch of MI2.

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Sam is co-author of the 2013 NYU Press book Spreadable Media, voted one of Strategy+Business 2013 Best Business Books and a “Top 10 Best Marketing Book You Read This Summer” by Advertising Age, and chosen by NYU Press as one of their top books of the decade in 2020. Sam currently serves on the boards of Kentucky-based nonprofits Kentucky to the World, Canopy, and Employward.

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