Why [bon]fire.

[bon]fire is a design consultancy

supporting remarkable clients + projects.

[bon]fire’s clients’ values ground their vision. They are purposefully mission-driven.

Our clients seek to explore, prototype, + innovate. They do so to make a positive impact in the world.

Yet they recognize that there is a need to focus on how we support each other as we advance the work.

And this is what draws [bon]fire to support them.

[bon]fire represents:

the ‘good’ fire that already lies within each of us, both as individuals and as teams.

the ‘good’ fire that we co-create + circle around together to make real what we already know is possible.

[bon]fire represents:

After 30+ years guiding transformative innovation projects,

Christian founded [bon]fire to help leaders, teams + organizations

honor the shared human experience of designing future possibilities together.

Similarly,

Christian founded the [good]men initiatives

to create experiences and conversations

to help men foster lives of purpose and possibility in community.

Previous Experiences.

Prior to founding [bon]fire, Christian served as:

  • Chief Growth Officer — THINK Learning Studio + THINK Global School

  • Principal | Research and Strategy — Roto (design-build studio)

  • Founder — The WONDER Project | + | Co-Founder — Wonder, by Design

  • Director of the Center for Innovation — All Saints Episcopal School

  • Vice President, K-12/University Practice | + | Co-leader, The Third Teacher+ studio — CannonDesign (architects)

  • Founder — Prototype Design Lab

  • Founder — Be Playful Design

  • CEO | President — DesignShare (subsidiary of Fielding Nair International school planners)

  • Director of Educational Research — Huckabee Architects

  • Classroom Educator — Oakridge School, Friendship Public Charter School, Bryn Mawr School (for Girls), Rivers School, Miami Valley School, + Steamboat Mountain School | + | student teacher — American Language School (Japan) + a BIA boarding school (Navajo Reservation)

Personal Life.

Education: Christian received his Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education + his BA in English from Indiana University (Bloomington).

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Event Founder: Christian has (co)founded a range of innovative professional/leadership retreats, including: Hakuba Forum (Japan), RE-ED (Atlanta), Learning off the Grid (Boulder), “Curiosity Lab” (various), Prototype labs (various), + TEDxBloomington (with one of the top-10 most-watched global TEDx talks).

***

Speaker: Additionally, he’s a frequent keynote speaker at US/international conferences + has spoken at 4 different TEDx events.

At home, he is:

  • married to Karla, a life-long education leader;

  • the father to two teenagers, Beckett (class of 2025) + Berkeley (class of 2027);

  • a decidedly ‘amateur’ chicken farmer;

  • a ‘ruck hiker’ who enjoys hiking while carrying a heavy pack so he can get a bonus work-out while wandering around the forest;

  • someone who likes to experiment (aka make honest mistakes) with a variety of building projects in his barn or out on the back property;

  • always dreaming of one day living on 100 acres of woods, a stream, mossy trails, meadows, + a 200-year-old barn with a massive stone fireplace somewhere in rural Maine; this will be [bon]fire’s basecamp one day.

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[good]men