Chris Wilson

History & Education

Chris Wilson has been at the forefront of Direct-to-Consumer marketing for nearly 30 years. He spent the majority of his career at L.L.Bean where, as SVP of Customer Marketing & Technologies, he conceived and led the company’s digital transformation. In one year, Chris shifted the company’s 100+ year marketing focus from catalog to digital – resulting in record new customer acquisition numbers and reduced marketing expenses. Chris built the first product management, data science, and customer experience teams at L.L.Bean – and introduced an Agile software development approach as part of migrating the company’s website and other customer-facing applications to the cloud.

While at L.L.Bean, Chris also held key roles as VP of Ecommerce and Managing Director of the company’s Japan Branch Office. Chris also served as CMO and Chief Product Officer at eBags.com and as EVP/President of the Orchard Portfolio of Bluestem Brands. Chris has spent the last 7 years consulting and leading Linden Creek Technology Partners and for the past five as an Operating Partner at Blackford Capital.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and Philosophy from Bowdoin College and a Master of Business Administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Outside of Work

Chris spends much of his free time in the woods and on the waters of his home state of Maine, where he lives with his wife, Kathryn. A lifelong woodworker, Chris also makes furniture and is in the process of restoring an 1860’s farmhouse.