Our People, Our Purpose, Our Passion
David D. Knapp, Ph.D., is the Founder and Principal of Marathon Leadership® LLC in Thornton, Colorado, which specializes in leadership and organizational development. With over 30 years of experience in the corporate boardroom and the university classroom, Dr. Knapp’s passion is helping clients improve their communication and leadership skills through the practical application of the most current research findings in those areas.
Dr. Knapp’s diverse professional career – which includes stints as the Manager of North American Learning & Development for an international IT consulting firm, a college professor, a certified personal trainer & running coach, and a professional actor – gives him a broad range of experiences from which to draw. His educational background is also varied and includes an M.A. in Performing Arts from Emerson College in Boston and a Ph.D. in Human Communication Studies from the University of Denver.
As President of Marathon Leadership, Dr. Knapp has worked with local, national, and international organizations in nearly all areas of organizational development, including:
As a nationally recognized keynote speaker and author, Dr. Knapp has published a number of scholarly journal and popular magazine articles. But he is best known for his 2024 book:
He also co-authored a chapter in the book:
Finally, Dr. Knapp remains a competitive age-group athlete. He has completed over 100 full marathons and numerous other running events, including triathlons, up to the half-Ironman distance.
Dr. Knapp collaborated with a large regional communications company to guide a group of over 40 mid- to upper-level managers through the decision-making process for several critical business decisions, including the implementation of a new service for its customers. For the implementation, the group had to consider two diametrically opposed courses of action: a more conservative but technologically inferior approach that would cost far less but provide fewer services to their customers, and a more risky but technologically superior approach that would cost the corporation over $300 million to implement. Due to the high risk involved in the decision, the managers were reluctant to make a decision, thereby delaying a critical strategic initiative that was crucial to the company’s competitive future.
Results: Based on the decision-making process David helped facilitate, the managers chose the more risky and more expensive option. While the implementation did indeed cost the corporation well over $300 million, it is still considered one of the company’s greatest success stories, with articles touting the implementation’s success appearing in regional and national publications.
An international IT consulting firm asked Dr. Knapp to revamp their North American employee mentoring program. The original program, which had been mandatory for all employees, was highly bureaucratic, structured, and too closely tied into the company’s performance management plan. David redesigned the program, changing nearly every aspect of it in the process, including making it voluntary, with a new focus on development and away from performance management.
Results: In its first year, the program attracted nearly 25% of the North American staff who reported greater satisfaction and rewards from their mentoring relationship now that they, not the company, were in charge of how the mentoring relationship developed.
A regional accounting organization asked Dr. Knapp to work with 55 business and government professionals from different organizations on improving their communication skills by better understanding their own communication styles, as well as those of their co-workers.
Results: In post-session evaluations, 40 of the 55 participants responded that the work with David had been “highly valuable” to their careers, and the other 15 reported that it had been “valuable.” Furthermore, all but one of the participants indicated that they would like to work with Dr. Knapp in the future, while all 55 participants said they would recommend David’s work to others.
