Jonathan D. (JD) Messinger is a corporate visionary, inspirational speaker, and spiritual mentor. He began his career as a fireman and went on to become the CEO of Ernst & Young Consulting, Southeast Asia, and one of 37 Distinguished Graduates from the United States Naval Academy in the class of 1981. JD is a former nuclear submarine officer and the crisis response leader who helped supervise the cleanup of the Valdez oil spill, SARs, the Hurricane Harvey response, and the 9/11 response teams.

Nominated as CNBC Asian CEO of the Year, he was the Channel News Asia IT Person of the Week and advisor to the Singapore Prime Minister, Fortune 100 companies, members of parliament, and dignitaries around the world on industrial evolution, innovation, outsourcing, and energy policy. He was an advisor to the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) and a founding member of the Asia Pacific Panel of Intellectual Property Advisors.

After retiring from the corporate world, JD shifted his focus to promoting human potential and founded Essence Enterprises, where he developed a dynamic public presence as the creator, producer, and host of television and radio programs. He then promoted human potential through leadership seminars, audio programs, and books. JD is the recipient of many corporate, presidential, and innovation awards, and he is a five-time award-winning, #1 Amazon best-selling author in personal development. His writing has been featured in major publications including The Chief Executive Magazine, Leadership Excellence, Texas CEO, Business Times, New Straits Times, and Far East Economic Journal.

Full Biography

JD began his professional career with an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy by the U.S. Secretary of the Navy. He became a qualified submarine officer and served on three submarines during the Cold War. In 1986, he joined Exxon and served in various executive management positions, including supply, distribution, transportation, plant and fleet operations, and product pricing. As a crisis leader, he successfully supervised an 850-person team and a fleet of 125 ships and aircraft in cleaning up over 1,000 miles of Alaskan shoreline after the Valdez oil spill.

In 1995, JD joined Ernst & Young LLP (U.S.) and became the managing partner for global supply chain, outsourcing, and systems implementation projects. His clients included Royal Dutch Shell, Phillips Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, the Singapore Ministry of Defence, Maybank, and Wal-Mart. In 1998, he became director of the energy, chemical, and utilities industry sector for Asia and moved to Singapore, where he grew the business sixfold in two years.

He then became the CEO of Ernst & Young Consulting for Southeast Asia, overseeing all IT and management consulting services. In this capacity, he served as a key advisor on innovation and economic development to the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office and to many national statutory boards and government ministries in Singapore, Malaysia, and China. During his tenure with E&Y, JD led eight corporate turnarounds, four global systems implementations, the Exxon-Mobil merger visioning, and Shell’s global financial outsourcing programs.

In early 2000, JD broke his neck and nearly died, causing him to reevaluate his life. After recuperating, he retired from the corporate world in 2003 and shifted his focus to promoting human potential and social entrepreneurs. He founded Essence Enterprises and trained 50,000 members of the Singapore Ministry of Defence in crisis response after 911 and SARS. He created, produced, and hosted a hit entrepreneur television show, followed by the CNN radio program Global Evolution, which was listened to in over 100 countries.

In eleven days in May of 2012, JD wrote his first book (11DaysinMay.com), which went on to win five awards and hit #1 on Amazon in science and religion, spirituality, self-help, and personal development. Using 11 Days in May, he then created the world’s first fully interactive multimedia eBook and won the 2013 Publishing Industry Innovation of the Year Award. For the next two years, he crossed the country sharing his story of success, tragedy, and awakening through several hundred events, workshops, and interviews.

JD is currently the Executive Director of the Do More Good® Movement and has been married to Marianne for over 40 years, has three children, and currently resides in Conroe, Texas.