
Gifford has been an organic dairy farmer, a blacksmith, an author, an innovation consultant, software CEO, an angel investor and currently president of Pinchot University. He has published three books. Intrapreneuring, which introduced a new way of fostering innovation by creating space for innovators to express their entrepreneurial spirit within existing organizations, was a bestseller in 15 languages. The Intelligent Organization, written with his wife, Libba, takes self-organization a step further, to include the everyday work of ordinary employees.
Pinchot & Company, which he runs with his wife Libba, has served half of the Fortune 100 and helped them to launch over 700 new products and businesses. In 2008, Executive Excellence named him number 32 on the top 100 leadership thinkers. He has a Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa from the University of Puget Sound. In 2009 he was awarded the Olympus Lifetime Education Award and in 2010 he and his wife were named Purpose Prize fellows.
In January 2014 BGI became partners with OSR (Organizational Systems Renewal) and CIE (Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship). Together, under the umbrella of Pinchot, a university for the common good, they offer an innovative MBA, a MS in transformational leadership, certificates and entrepreneurship programs that prepare learners to address the challenges of the future.
In 1965 Gifford graduated from Harvard University with an honors degree in Economics, then completed his coursework for a Ph.D. in Neurophysiology at Johns Hopkins University.