I serve as an independent advisor and board member to enterprises focused on health of people and planet, catalyzing value at the intersection of science, governance, and systems-level change. I help founders, leaders, changemakers, and boards steward complexity with clarity, integrity, authenticity, and impact.
Advisory and Board Service
Board Profile
Thane Kreiner, PhD is an independent advisor and board member with decades of experience spanning life sciences, social enterprise, governance, and systems-level change. His work focuses on helping boards and executive teams navigate complexity with clarity, particularly at the intersection of scientific innovation, institutional responsibility, and impact.
Trained as a neuroscientist and chemist, Thane began his vocation in scientific research before moving into enterprise building and governance. He spent 14 years at Affymetrix from inception through rapid growth, including its $96M IPO and expansion to global scale, where he worked across program management, sales and marketing, regulatory, strategy, HR, and executive leadership roles. His early professional years shaped a durable perspective on how innovation moves from laboratory to market and systems-level transformation.
Over time, Thane’s work broadened to include advisory and fiduciary roles across purpose-driven enterprises, venture-backed companies, and nonprofit institutions. Thane has served on corporate and nonprofit boards, advised founders and CEOs through periods of inflection and scale, and worked closely with academic and philanthropic organizations to optimize for impact.
He has held executive leadership roles in corporate and higher education. At Santa Clara University, his work helped connected academic rigor with over 1,000 social enterprises globally. Thane is known for a steady presence in the boardroom, a systems-oriented lens, and a commitment to inclusive, evidence-informed decision-making.
Thane’s advisory and board work is grounded by lived practice beyond institution, through long-term stewardship of land and ongoing creative work in music and writing. These practices inform a consistent orientation toward authenticity, accountability, and care across generations.
Black Corporate Board Readiness
I co-founded Black Corporate Board Readiness (BCBR) to accompany qualified leaders on their journeys to private and public corporate board service. Over 420 Alumni have completed the BCBR program and more than 200 new corporate board seats have been attained.
The BCBR Community Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity accompanies members of the BCBR community on their board journeys. Boardroom excellence benefits shareholders, stakeholders, and society.
Advisory Approach
My advisory and board work leverages a systems-level view of organizations and the ecosystems in which they operate: how strategy, governance, culture, and accountability interact over time. I am most useful in contexts where the questions include what to do, how to decide, who can make strategy happen, and what impact will be generated.
I work with founders, boards, investors, philanthropists, and leadership teams to discern vision for impact, generate frameworks to evaluate underlying assumptions, and focus attention on what matters most to create value for shareholders, stakeholders, and society. I bring a scientific orientation to evidence and learning, paired with a governance lens that emphasizes excellence, ethics, and resilience.
Typically, I engage when organizations are navigating uncertainty and complexity: periods of growth, scientific or technological inflection points, leadership change, or increased public and stakeholder accountability. Clients have included venture capital firms, venture-backed and growth-stage companies, science- and technology-driven enterprises, purpose-driven organizations, and founders seeking to strengthen governance to drive impact.