Krishna Narayan

Krishna Narayan is a founder, operating executive, entrepreneur, engineer, and former U.S. Air Force officer with four decades of experience turning complex technologies and ambitious ideas into operating businesses, commercial products, and measurable results. His career spans startups, Fortune 100 companies, government, research, defense, healthcare, education, industrial markets, and emerging technologies.

Krishna previously served as Vice President and General Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he led a 300-plus-person division with full profit-and-loss responsibility. During his leadership tenure, revenue grew from $220 million to $449 million, operating income increased from $16 million to $38 million, and cash flow expanded from $18 million to $41 million.

Earlier, as Vice President and Partner at DiamondCluster International, he advised major corporate and public-sector organizations on growth strategy, operational transformation, technology integration, and new-business development. He began his career as a U.S. Air Force officer and Flight Test Engineer and served 11 years on active duty, supporting mission-critical defense and command systems.

Across NSC Partners and Island Innovation, Krishna has developed and led ventures spanning mobile applications, educational platforms, healthcare technologies, agriculture, and digital marketplaces. Under NSC Partners, his teams developed 40 mobile applications, including the early digital-health R&D work presented on the Applied Innovation page. Island Innovation later developed 10 additional mobile applications and web-based education platforms. Several applications were featured and promoted by Apple, and education platforms were adopted by the U.S. Department of Education. On Maui, he also led the planning, development, fundraising, construction, and operational launch of a vertically integrated cacao farm and chocolate-manufacturing venture.

His current interests include AI-enabled products, emerging technologies, and the commercial and organizational challenges involved in turning rapidly evolving technical capabilities into valuable businesses. He welcomes board and strategic advisory conversations where his experience building products, scaling operations, working with enterprise customers, and leading complex organizations can help founders build stronger companies. He served as Board President of Pineapple Hill Land Owners’ Corporation.

Krishna holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering with Honors from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an ALM in Government from Harvard University, and an MBA in Strategy, Operations, and Entrepreneurship from Carnegie Mellon University. He resides on Maui, Hawaii.