About Terry R. Bacon

I am a Scholar in Residence in the Korn/Ferry Institute.  I am also president of the board of Music in the Mountains, a summer classical music festival in Durango, Colorado.  For three weeks every summer, Music in the Mountains offers more than forty concerts featuring world-class musicians and sponsors a classical music conservatory.  And I am chairman of the Fort Lewis College Foundation board.  As our mission statement says, the foundation's purpose is to "enrich educational and cultural opportunities at Fort Lewis College by encouraing and stewarding gifts for scholarships, programs and facilities--wise investments in the leaders of tomorrow."   I also serve on the advisory boards of the Durango Arts Center and Friends of the Fort Lewis College Theatre.

I was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1947 and grew up in Missouri and Iowa. I graduated from Treynor High School (in southwestern Iowa) in 1965 and did my undergraduate work at the United States Military Academy at West Point. I was in Company E2 and graduated with a BS in General Engineering in 1969. Shortly thereafter, I spent a year in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division and then several more years as a military intelligence officer. I left the Army in 1974 and went to The American University, Washington, DC, where I received a PhD in Literary Studies in 1977.

I moved to Utah after graduation, taught briefly as an adjunct professor at the University of Utah, and then joined a consulting company, Shipley Associates, where I became the vice president of research and development. I created a number of corporate education programs while at Shipley and co-authored, with Larry Freeman, the Shipley Associates Style Guide, which was published by John P. Wiley & Sons. In 1989, I left Shipley and founded Lore.

Besides providing leadership at Lore and doing a phenomenal amount of client work, I developed dozens of executive education programs and authored or co-authored the books featured on this site. I also continued my own education by studying strategic planning at the Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania), sales management at the University of Chicago, leadership at Stanford University, psychology at Goddard College, and leading professional services firms at the Harvard Business School.

Prior to joining Korn/Ferry, I was the president and CEO of Lore International Institute, which I founded on July 1, 1989. Lore was a professional and executive development consulting firm that focused on the assessment, education, and coaching of professionals, managers, and executives around the world. As Lore grew, we formed a sister company in Europe and eventually had a global network of more than 300 faculty and coaches to serve primarly Fortune 500-type clients. In 2008, we were acquired by Korn/Ferry and are now part of one of the world’s largest talent management firms.

Today, I am principally focused on developing new intellectual property for the Korn/Ferry Institute, giving speeches and presentations on a variety of topics related to my books and articles, and writing more books.  My latest book, The Elements of Power: Lessons on Leadership and Influence, has just been published by AMACOM Books.  It will be followed by Elements of Influence:  The Art of Getting Others to Follow Your Lead (AMACOM Books) in July 2011 and by a new edition of Adaptive Coaching, which will be published by Nicholas Brealey in late 2011 or early 2012.

To learn more about Music in the Mountains, click here.  For more information about Fort Lewis College, click here, and for more about the foundation, click here.  You can learn more about the Durango Arts Center here.

The views expressed on this site are mine and do not reflect the views or opinions of Korn/Ferry International or the Korn/Ferry Institute.