John is the CEO of John E. Colburn Associates and architect of ForumWithin™. He was born and raised in Media, PA, graduated from Dickinson College and Emory University with an MBA. He joined the family insurance business with five employees, evolving into an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) with $400 million in sales and 250 employees. Colburn Insurance provided employee benefits to professional association members. Prior to being acquired by USI, they were the largest privately held provider of member benefits on the East Coast. 

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In 1991, John joined the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) where he was introduced to the principles of forum trust, confidentiality, and executive support. He stepped up to take on most of the leadership roles within the YPO and WPO chapter including Forum Officer four times. John was recognized for his impact on forum in 2014 for International Forum Leadership, winning the Terry Plochman Best of the Best Forum Officer award. As lead on the International Forum Committee, John envisioned going beyond President forums and creating Forums for employees. He developed an employee forum model and for two years worked with YPO creating Forum in Business. 

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In August of 2016, John met with Dan Calista, the CEO of Vynamic, a YPO healthcare consulting company. John shared with Dan what he had done with Forum in Business, and the impact forum could have on his culture. Dan asked “How do we get started?” At that moment, John realized he could pilot this new employee benefit program to create trust among employees and transform cultures. 

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A ForumWithin™ experience is now available for employees to benefit from forum inside their organization.