Former CEO, Documentarian and Board Member
Great Falls, VA
Fred Singer is fascinated by moments of great change. In his personal life, that curiosity led him to follow his Harvard Business School classmates for over three decades, recording interviews every five years to identify which life decisions were most impactful. This ongoing project became “5 Big Life Decisions,” a documentary and seminar taught at HBS and presented to companies globally.
In his career, that same curiosity propelled Fred to the heart of the internet revolution. After working at Bain & Co, he became a founder of WashingtonPost.com and a senior executive at AOL as media shifted from print to digital. Later, he worked as the Senior Advisor to Masayoshi Son at Softbank, making media and ecommerce acquisitions in the US, Japan and China. When one of his sons was diagnosed with learning differences, he became obsessed with how little classroom teaching had changed and founded Echo360, an education platform that led a global push to active learning. Separately, Fred serves on a global insurance firm, where he chairs the Sustainability and Governance committee and works to support consumer adaptation to the climate crisis.
Fred earned an MBA from Harvard, and a JD, MA, BComm, & BA in Philosophy from Queen’s University in Canada, where he was raised. He is a proud father of three sons — two Stanford grads (’22, ’25). Outside class you’ll find him offering free swing lessons on the golf course or a drink at the pub watching his struggling Chelsea Football club and wonderful Washington Capitals.
DCI Partner: Beth Singer
