About
Gregory
W. Slayton
Father of Four Great Kids, Successful Venture Capitalist, Global Philanthropist, Ivy League Professor, Senior US Diplomat, Best-Selling Author, Dartmouth/ HBS/McKinsey/Fulbright
The Honorable Gregory Winston Slayton is an American professor, diplomat, author, businessman, and philanthropist. Hailing from the great state of New Hampshire, Slayton now resides in Dallas, Texas with his wife and children. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Leadership at Peking University Business School in Beijing. Slayton was appointed by President George W. Bush as the United States Consul General and Chief of Mission to Bermuda, a position he held for four years from his swearing in by Secretary of State Rice on August 15, 2005 until August, 2009.
Gregory Slayton was extended twice by the Obama Administration, reportedly the only Bush appointed ambassador to have been thus honored. He also received the Distinguished Foreign Service Award from members of the Congressional Black Caucus and Republican Senate Leadership, the only Republican ambassador in history to have received that award from the CBC. Slayton is an angel investor via his privately held investment company Slayton Capital.
Slayton and his wife, Marina, founded the Slayton Family Foundation in 1999. They also jointly co-authored and edited the Bermuda bestseller Four Centuries of Friendship: US/Bermuda Relations 1609 – 2009 (www.FourCenturiesofFriendship.com) and donated all proceeds from the sale of the book to local Bermuda charities.
In 2012 Slayton authored “Be a Better Dad Today: Ten Tools Every Father Needs” which quickly became a national best-seller in 2013 and is going into its ninth printing. With great reviews from dozens of America’s best-known dads including Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, Governors Jeb Bush and Sam Brownback and Pastors Tim Keller and Luis Palau – “Be a Better Dad Today” has also been featured multiple times on Fox and Friends, Focus on the Family radio and literally hundreds of US newspapers, radio, TV and web stories. The book has now sold close to 1M copies worldwide and has been translated into 15 languages.
The Biography
Gregory
W. Slayton
personal biography
Gregory Winston Slayton is an American author, diplomat, professor, businessman, and philanthropist.
After graduating from Dartmouth College magna cum laude in 1981 Slayton was a Fulbright Scholar to Asia – earning a Masters in Asia Studies in 1982 from the University of the Philippines. He then ran regional programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America for international non-profits such as World Vision International. In 1990 he graduated with honors from the Harvard Business School and then worked for McKinsey and Company for five years. Hired out of McKinsey to help run Paramount’s Technology Group in Palo Alto, California – Slayton remained in Silicon Valley for 10 years as a public and private company CEO and then a venture capitalist. As a CEO he was responsible for a number of successful turnarounds such as Paragraph International and MySoftware. As the Managing Director of Slayton Capital he was on the Board of Advisors of Google and Salesforce.com as well as Bloom Energy.
Slayton continues to work as a venture capitalist through his firm Slayton Capital. He is the Chairman of RecycleNow of Dallas, Texas; and is actively involved with a number of early stage high tech companies. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Leadership at Peking University Business School in Beijing. He teaches at the Harvard Business School and Stanford’s GSB. His most recent book “Be A Better Dad Today!” was published by Regal Publishing for Father’s Day 2012 and has sold more than 1 million copies to date and has been translated into 15 languages including Urdu, Japanese, Bahasa and Burmese.
Slayton founded the Slayton Family Foundation in 1999 and transformed it into Fellowship of Fathers Foundation in 2011. He then founded Family First Global as the international arm of FoFF in 2012. Both are U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit charity service organizations.
Slayton Capital’s
Education & Business Career
Slayton graduated with a degree in economics (magna cum laude) from Dartmouth College. As a Fulbright Scholar to Asia he earned a Masters in Asian Studies and then, at Harvard Business School, a Master of Business Administration degree in 1990. Both Masters degrees were conferred with honors.
In his 20s, Slayton worked in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America managing micro-credit and economic development programs for the poor, and learning four languages in addition to English. Slayton worked for in Asia for two years running an orphanage for street children in Manila. He then worked for three years in West Africa for World Vision International where he started as a program economist and ended as a regional manager. Slayton also worked for two years in South America promoting micro-credit programs for the poor.
In his early 30s after earning his MBA from HBS, he worked for four years with McKinsey and Company in Europe, South America and the U. S., before joining Paramount Pictures as director of its Silicon Valley technology arm.
After leading a number of well-publicized high tech Silicon Valley turnarounds, he founded Slayton Capital, a private venture capital firm with offices in Northern Virginia and Silicon Valley. Slayton has served on the boards of a number of well-known high tech leaders, including the board of advisers of Google.
Slayton’s management style has been featured in a number of national publications over the years. The Wall Street Journal of October 26, 1999, featured Slayton in “Silicon Valley Hybrid: A Boss Who Makes Others’ Ideas Pay Off.” On September 27, 1999, he was pictured with other entrepreneurs on Time Magazine‘s cover story, “GetRich.com: Inside the Secrets of the New Silicon Valley.” A number of Harvard Business School case studies have been written about his work in Silicon Valley.
Slayton has also served as a National Finance Co-Chairman for a number of US Senators including Kelly Ayotte, Susan Collins, John McCain and South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune.
