Christian O. Petersen

Vistage Chair, CEO mentor, and AI strategy practitioner.

I chair a Vistage peer group for CEOs in Silicon Valley's mid peninsula. Twenty-five years of building and scaling companies as a founder, CEO, board chair, and senior executive at organizations from early-stage startups to Fortune 500. I work with CEOs and senior leaders who want a trusted advisor who has made the same decisions you're facing now.

Book a 30-minute intro call
No pitch. We'll talk about where you are, what you're navigating, and whether you would be a good fit for my CEO peer group.
Christian O. Petersen
25+ years
Founder, CEO, board chair, and C-suite executive roles
Startup to F500
CloudMade, Brandworkz, Comcast, Neuralogics, and more
AI Transformation
Currently leading AI strategy and transformation, not just advising on it

25 years making decisions with real consequences

I've spent 25 years building and leading companies, and I've made most of the mistakes a founder and executive can make. Twenty-five years gives you a lot of material to work with.

I've hired too slowly and fired too late. I've over-engineered products that needed to ship. I've watched good strategies fail because the org wasn't ready to execute them. That experience is what makes the conversations I have with CEOs useful, because I'm not pattern-matching from research. I'm drawing on decisions I've lived with.

At Comcast's Silicon Valley Innovation Center, I drove $40M+ in monthly value creation and led a $64M internal capital raise to build their streaming platform, navigating a full industry shift from traditional TV to streaming before most organizations had accepted the shift was coming.

At CloudMade, I joined as Co-founder and Interim VP Product with a specific mandate: build the product function and develop the founder into the leader the company needed. I mentored and coached a first-time founder into the VP Product role, and after the Valeo acquisition, he became President of CloudMade. That's one of the outcomes I'm most proud of in my career.

At Brandworkz as Chairman, and across several advisory relationships with growth-stage companies, the pattern I kept seeing was the same: leaders who were strong enough to get to a certain level, then stuck there not because their strategy was wrong, but because how they led hadn't evolved. That's the gap I work in.

Today I'm Group CTO at Neuralogics, leading AI strategy and transformation across a multi-company SaaS portfolio. Most of the AI conversations at the executive level right now are still abstract, about potential, about readiness, about risk. What I deal with daily is more specific: which AI investments actually grow revenue, which ones create a growing org debt, and how to build a board-level case for choosing the right ones. That's the perspective I bring to the group.

Group CTO: Neuralogics
AI strategy, platform transformation, M&A integration across SaaS portfolio
Sr. Director: Comcast SVIC
$40M+ monthly value creation, $64M internal capital raise, streaming platform
Co-founder: CloudMade (acq. Valeo)
Mentored first-time founder to VP Product, he then became President post-acquisition
Chairman: Brandworkz
CEO and executive coaching, board leadership, organizational development
Vistage Chair: Christian O. Petersen

The most valuable input you'll get comes from your peers

The core of what I offer is a Vistage peer advisory group of CEOs and business owners, typically 12 to 16 people, no competing industries, full confidentiality. The format works because the people in the room have skin in the game. They're accountable for the same decisions you are. They've made the same hiring mistakes, carried the same ambiguous board relationships, and lost sleep over the same cash flow timing problems you have. That shared context produces a quality of feedback that consultants, coaches, and advisors, including me, can't manufacture.

What I bring is different. I recruit members, which means every CEO and business leader is selected to be non-competitive and to bring value to the group. I facilitate the process, which means the quality of the conversation depends on how well I run it. And I meet with each member individually every month, where I bring my own operating experience and a current, practitioner's view of AI strategy directly to their situation.

Peer group in session
Vistage peer advisory group
12 to 16 CEOs and business leaders. No competing companies. A monthly full-day session structured around getting honest input from your peers who understand the weight of the decisions you're carrying.
1:1 executive coaching every month
A dedicated monthly session with me. I won't tell you what to do. I'll ask the questions that help you figure out what you already know you can and want. My job is to be a multiplier: to help you become a better version of the leader you already are.
AI strategy: from someone doing it now
Most AI advice comes from people who have read about it. As Group CTO at Neuralogics, I'm currently leading AI transformation across a multi-company SaaS portfolio. That means I can tell you what's working, what's failing, how to drive growth with AI, and what questions your board will ask.
2.2x
Vistage members grow their companies 2.2x faster than their peers. That's not a claim, it's a Dun and Bradstreet study across decades of member data.
Is this group right for you?
CEO, president, or business owner of a $5M to $150M company
Based in the mid peninsula, from San Mateo to San Jose
Ready to work on the business, not just in it
Open to honest challenge, not just encouragement
Willing to give as much as you receive
Navigating AI transformation without a clear path forward
This group is now forming. If you fit the profile, the next step is a 30-minute conversation.

What to expect in 30 minutes

Most executives who reach out are carrying one of three things: decisions they can't talk through internally, a leadership challenge that's taking up more of their time than it should, or challenges around ensuring their business takes full advantage of AI. The call is 30 minutes. I'll ask what's actually going on, tell you how I work, and give you an honest read on whether there's a fit for you and for the peer CEO group.

Where you are
Tell me what's on your plate. Not the polished version, the actual version. That's the only way I can give you a useful read in 30 minutes.
How this works
I'll describe the Vistage peer group structure, what monthly 1:1 CEO and executive coaching looks like in practice, and where the AI strategy work fits in. It's more specific than most people expect.
Whether there's a fit
Peer groups only work when the membership is right. If I don't think you're the right fit for the group forming now, I'll say so. If the group isn't the right fit for what you're dealing with, I'll say that too.
Book your call
Via Calendly. Typically available within the week.
Christian O. Petersen

AI Growth: a developing point of view

I've been publishing on AI strategy since the early days of enterprise AI adoption, writing for C-suite and senior leaders in midsize enterprises who are accountable for AI outcomes but don't have a dedicated AI organization behind them. The same problem shows up constantly: leaders who understand AI is important but can't get a straight answer on what to actually do with it.

These articles are the working foundation for a book on AI Growth. The thinking has evolved as the field has, from foundational strategy through to agentic AI and connected intelligence. The CEOs and business owners in my Vistage peer group are the real-world test of whether these frameworks hold up.

AI
AI Growth: Lead, Innovate, and Drive Impact with Artificial Intelligence
Book in development. 32 published articles. Written for C-suite and senior leaders in midsize and large enterprises. Publication targeted for 2027.
All 32 articles by theme