Richard N. Foster

Innosight Lead Director

Dick Foster is lead director of Innosight's Board of Directors. He is also the managing partner of Millbrook Management Group, LLC. Prior to forming Millbrook, Dick was with McKinsey & Company for 31 years, 22 of which were as a senior partner and director.

Dick’s most recent position at McKinsey was as the leader of McKinsey’s Private Equity practice. Prior to that Dick co-founded the firm’s high-technology practice in the late 1970s, the chemicals practice in the early 1980s, and the healthcare practice in the late 1980s. Dick also led McKinsey’s worldwide knowledge development efforts from 1995 to 1998. While at McKinsey, Dick served more than 50 leading global companies primarily in healthcare, electronics and chemicals. He devoted most of his time to the top management of a Fortune 50 healthcare company where he was a lead external advisor from 1990 to 2003.

Dick has written two best-selling business books: Innovation: The Attacker’s Advantage (1986) and Creative Destruction (2001). Both books focus on the relationships between technological change, innovation, and capital formation and destruction. The Attacker’s Advantage is credited with the first exploration of the microeconomics and competitive implications of the concept of Technological Discontinuities, the difficulties they present for defenders and the opportunities they present for attackers. Dick’s phrase “create, operate and trade” first appeared in the book Creative Destruction. In 1999 to 2000, Dick led the Study Group on National Innovation and Economic Power which led to the publication of Technological Innovation and Economic Performance (Steil, Victor, and Nelson, editors, Princeton University Press, 2001).

Dick is a member of the following boards:

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, Executive CommitteeW. M. Keck Foundation, Executive Committee
• Presidents Circle of the National Academies, Co-chair
• Policy and Global Affairs Committee of the National Research Council
• Council of Foreign Relations (Membership Committee)
• Trust Company of the West, a wholly owned subsidiary of Société General
• Athenahealth, a public healthcare company
• Member of the Advisory Council, TEDMED
• Yale School of Medicine, Dean's Advisory Board
• Harvard School of Medicine, Policy Advisory Committee
• Lux Capital, Venture Partner
• Mansa Healthcare Capital, Partner
• Health Point Capital, Advisory Board Member

Dick is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a long time participant in the Highlands Forum (Department of Defense) and the St. Michael’s Forum (US Intelligence Science Board).

Dick is a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Yale School of Management. He received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees from Yale University in Engineering and Applied Science.

Publication Highlights

Creative Destruction, Doubleday Business (2001).