Transformative CEO™

At The CEO Forum Group, our mission since 2007 has been to “Disseminate CEO Wisdom to elevate business, the economy and society.” Central to that mission is our belief that the most successful CEOs do more than lead organizations—they transform them. Robert Reiss, Founder and CEO of The CEO Forum Group, coined the term Transformative CEO to describe a leader who “creates new value that reinvigorates a company, reinvents an industry or reboots society.” This philosophy became the foundation of his book, The Transformative CEO (McGraw-Hill, 2012), which he co-authored to share the leadership insights of some of America’s most accomplished CEOs.

In 2019, The CEO Forum Group introduced the Transformative CEO Awards, recognizing exceptional leaders whose vision, innovation and accomplishments exemplify this philosophy. In 2020, The CEO Forum magazine, founded in 2010, published its first Transformative CEO Awards edition, establishing a distinctive model in which only CEOs selected for this recognition were eligible for award-related sponsored editorial features. Unlike traditional advertising, this approach gives deserving CEOs an opportunity to share their transformative leadership stories with an influential audience. Today, The CEO Forum magazine reaches 10,000 of America’s leading CEOs, along with all 50 governors and 100 U.S. senators.

In 2021, we expanded this vision by launching the Transformative CEO Summits, bringing together outstanding CEOs to share their wisdom through keynote presentations and intimate, interactive workgroups. These gatherings create something especially valuable: meaningful dialogue and relationships among leaders who can help one another address their most important challenges. Companies offering genuinely differentiated products, services, expertise or solutions can participate as sponsors, including opportunities to serve as workgroup leaders, moderate strategic conversations, demonstrate thought leadership and develop carefully curated relationships with like-minded CEOs.

Transformative CEO is not simply our brand—it is our message, our philosophy and our invitation to companies creating exceptional value. We are open for business to organizations that have something truly important to contribute to the CEO community. Our goal is not to sell conventional sponsorships, but to create strategic partnerships that elevate deserving leaders, connect organizations with CEOs who can benefit from their expertise, and accelerate the exchange of ideas that drive meaningful transformation. Through our magazine, nationally syndicated CEO Show, Transformative CEO Awards, CEO Wisdom Roundtables and Transformative CEO Summits, we offer an integrated platform for companies to build credibility, strengthen executive relationships and help shape the future of business.

Our guiding principle is simple: When companies create extraordinary value, we help connect that value with the CEOs who can turn it into extraordinary impact.