About COO Forum
COO Forum is a professional peer community and leadership development organization for chief operating officers and operations leaders.
Founded in 2004, COO Forum helps members strengthen their leadership, solve complex operating challenges, and turn business strategy into results.
Members include COOs, presidents, general managers, and other senior operations executives, as well as emerging operations leaders through the Associate Membership. They represent organizations across a range of industries and company sizes.
COO Forum delivers its programs through confidential small-group peer sessions, expert presentations and workshops, one-to-one member connections, and practical resources. In its signature COO Arena, members bring a current business challenge to peers for structured feedback, fresh perspectives, and actionable ideas.
COO Forum serves operations leaders and their organizations across the United States through local chapters and virtual programming. Its purpose is to help operations leaders grow in their roles and build stronger, more capable organizations.
Our Why:
To empower operations executives
to achieve more.
We were founded on a mission to provide operations executives the best peer-based,
professional development experience in the world. By doing so, we help YOU achieve more.
Since 2004
Because you set high standards, so do WE!
Our Values
Maintain Confidentiality always.
Act with Integrity.
Respect each other and our CEOs.
Commit to Self-Improvement.
Support our peers.
Meet our team:
A little about our history:
We were founded in Silicon Valley, in 2004 by Bill Shepard, who served in nearly every C-suite role during his time at Gap, Pacific Linen, NordicTrack, Cole National, and Phillips Electronics. Throughout his own career and professional development journey, Bill always felt that there was no peer-based professional development offered providing the COO with a safe, confidential place to meet and work through the biggest challenges of the role … and that is what led to the creation of the COO Forum!
Since the beginning, the COO Forum has helped thousands of operations executives navigate the challenges of their roles. While business environments, strategies, and technology rapidly change, our Mission remains the same:
Provide Operations Executives the best peer-based professional development experience in the world!
