Craig Hatkoff

In 2009 he co-founded the Disruptor Foundation with Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, father of disruptive innovation theory. Hatkoff is the chief curator of the annual Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards which he created in 2010 in collaboration with Professor Christensen. In 2017 Hatkoff brought the Disruptor Awards to Hiroshima, Japan for the first ever Disruptive Innovation Awards held overseas.

Craig started his career in real estate after business school in 1978 at Chemical Bank where he became one of the pioneers of the real estate securitization industry. He left Chemical in 1990 to co-found Victor Capital Group, a leading real estate merchant bank. He was a co-founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee at Capital Trust, a NYSE company, formed in 1996 with financier Sam Zell that became one of the real estate industry’s largest mezzanine lenders. He left Capital Trust in 2000 to pursue his passion for entrepreneurial and creative endeavors focusing on the field of disruptive innovation. He formed Turtle Pond Publications LLC, a private entertainment and media company that successfully invested in a number of start-ups including Tribeca Enterprises and Fillpoint LLC, a leading video game distribution and e-commerce company. Turtle Pond is today a leading publisher of children’s books through Scholastic Books, specializing in children’s non-fiction picture books based on famous animals with remarkable stories that illuminate resilience and emotional learning for grades K-6. Hatkoff has co-authored with his daughters a series of best-selling children’s books, including the New York Times #1 best-seller Owen & Mzee.

He currently serves or has served on the Boards of Tribeca Film Institute, the Child Mind Institute, the Wild Bird Fund and the Borough of Manhattan Community College Foundation. He served on the Board of Capital Trust  and is currently a Director of two NYSE public companies, Taubman Centers Inc. and SL Green Realty Corporation.

Craig graduated from Colgate University in 1976 and received his MBA from Columbia University 1978.  He is currently Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School where he created and teaches the course on Disruptive Innovation.