The Fort Ticonderoga Association board of trustees recently elected John Werner, of Brookline, MA & Jacobi Point in Bolton Landing, NY to serve as a trustee. John is the founder of Ideas in Action, Inc., the Managing Director at Link Ventures and Chief Network Officer, and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Cogo Labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“From its establishment more than a hundred years ago, Fort Ticonderoga’s success has depended on the stewardship of great leaders with varied backgrounds who share a devotion to our mission of education and preservation,” said Sanford Morhouse, Chair of The Fort Ticonderoga Association board of trustees. “John brings to the Association an extraordinary network, inquisitive mind, and leadership in next generation technology. We welcome John to our leadership team and look forward to him making a big impact on Fort Ticonderoga today and into the future.”
John Werner has created a career out of bringing ideas, networks and people together to generate powerful results. Before joining Link Ventures & Cogo Labs, John’s deep curiosity and penchant for problem-solving led him to a diverse set of roles spanning many fields and interests. Previously, John was a VP at a Y Combinator augmented reality startup based in Silicon Valley. He also served as the Head of Innovation and New Ventures at the MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture Group, and the Managing Director of Emerging Worlds SIG, where he led the launch of collaborative innovation centers in Mumbai, Nashik, and Hyderabad.
John also channels his passion and curiosity into cultivating platforms for thought and exchange. He is the Founder & CEO of ARIA, a community focused on the potential of augmented reality and the Blockchain+AI+Human, which takes place at MIT and the World Economic Forum with MIT Professor Sandy Pentland. John also founded Ideas in Action Inc., a non-profit that creates and produces TEDxBeaconStreet, whose talks have accumulated over 250 million YouTube views. He was also a co-Founder of Citizen Schools, an advisor for PhotoButler, Vestigo Ventures and Founders Forum (Boston Advisory), a MIT Connection Science Fellow, a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and a graduate of Hamilton College.
“I am proud to support such an incredible cultural destination, museum, and learning campus,” said Werner. “I learned about Fort Ticonderoga in grade school as one of the strategic keys to the North American continent in the 18th-century, hosting significant influencers such as Benjamin Franklin, Henry Knox, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Fort Ticonderoga is one of the first U.S. acts of historic preservation and I am proud to support the great team that is preserving the collections and 2000-acre landscape. I see it’s best is ahead!”
“In recent years Fort Ticonderoga has experienced significant growth in national educational reach, expanded visitor experience, and regional economic impact,” said Beth Hill, Fort Ticonderoga President and CEO. “Today, we are pressing forward into a transformative chapter to take Fort Ticonderoga to new heights, engage visitors in new meaningful ways, and give global access to our collections and educational resources. John will greatly expand our capacity to develop lasting partnerships and explore creative ways to utilize technology to support our mission of preservation and education.”
Two additional members also joined The Fort Ticonderoga Association board of trustees earlier this year: Dr. Richard Longstreth, a renown architectural historian and professor at George Washington University, where he directs the program in historic preservation; and Andrea McDonald, Program Director for College for Every Student, a nonprofit organization that raises the academic aspirations and performance of low-income youth so that they can prepare for, gain access to, and succeed in college.
The Fort Ticonderoga Association owns and operates Fort Ticonderoga a non-profit educational organization, museum, and historic site. The board of trustees includes up to 25 members from across the United States and represents a variety of disciplines.
Fort Ticonderoga: America’s Fort™
Welcoming visitors since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga preserves North America’s largest 18th-century artillery collection, 2,000 acres of historic landscape on Lake Champlain, and Carillon Battlefield, and the largest series of untouched Revolutionary War era earthworks surviving in America. As the premier place to learn more about our nation’s earliest years and America’s military heritage, Fort Ticonderoga engages more than 75,000 visitors each year with an economic impact of more than $12 million annually and offers programs, historic interpretation, boat cruises, tours, demonstrations, and exhibits throughout the year, and is open for daily visitation May through October. Fort Ticonderoga is supported in part through generous donations and with some general operating support made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
America’s Fort is a registered trademark of the Fort Ticonderoga Association.
Photo: The Fort Ticonderoga Association board of trustees recently elected John Werner, of Brookline, MA & Jacobi Point in Bolton Landing, NY to serve as a trustee. John is the founder of Ideas in Action, Inc., the Managing Director at Link Ventures and Chief Network Officer, and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Cogo Labs in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo Credit: John Werner Photography.