Dr. Chris Meek has spent more than thirty years in the financial services industry, with a career that has taken him across some of the world’s most respected institutions, including Goldman Sachs, State Street Global Advisors, S&P Global and Morningstar, Inc.
While working at the American Stock Exchange running floor trading for Goldman Sachs, a company where he spent 16 years as a volatility trader, risk manager, and trader on the Institutional ETF Desk, he was at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001 and considers himself exceptionally fortunate to have been among the survivors who were able to escape the aftermath of the collapse of the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center.
Understanding that he and others in the finance sector had a vital role to play to ensure that terrorism didn’t shut down the cornerstone of American freedom which is our financial markets, he and his colleagues spent 20-hour days after the attacks purchasing the technology required for individuals to work in remote and new locations, setting up a T1 line, and connecting with each of his team members to make sure that they were ready to return to work, in an effort to help keep the nation moving forward.
Because of his experiences on September 11, 2001, he knew that his calling in life was going to evolve. In honor of the opportunities that he had been given to make a difference in the lives of others as a survivor, he was inspired to give back to the men and women who were eventually sent overseas to serve our country in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of SoldierStrong, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that focuses on helping America’s veterans take their next steps forward in life after service through the donation of revolutionary medical technologies to Veterans Affairs medical facilities and individual veterans across the country. To date, SoldierStrong has donated more than $5.5 million in medical technology to benefit the lives of injured veterans.
He has been recognized for his work in philanthropy with the President’s Call to Service Award (2011), March of Dimes Franklin Delano Roosevelt Outstanding Corporate Citizen Award (2012), Syracuse University’s Orange Circle Award (2014), the American Council For Technology – Industry Advisory Council’s “Game Changer” Award (2020), as a member of the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide (PREVENTS) Task Force (2020) and named a “Face of Philanthropy” by the Chronicle of Philanthropy (2021).
He holds a BA in economics and political science from Syracuse University, an MBA in financial management from Pace University in New York City, an MPA from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and a doctorate in organizational change and leadership from the University of Southern California.
Dr. Meek has served as an adjunct professor at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on nonprofit management and board governance.
He is the host of the Next Steps Forward with Dr. Chris Meek podcast which airs weekly on VoiceAmerica – Live Internet Talk Radio’s Empowerment Channel and focuses on personal empowerment, commitment to well-being and leadership through adversity. Since 2020, he has hosted leaders from the worlds of mental health and anti-human trafficking advocacy, leadership, business, sports, entertainment, faith, medicine, politics and public policy to engage in thought-provoking discussions to help the audience take the next steps forward in their own journeys to better themselves and their communities.
He chronicles his own experiences with resiliency, empowerment and leadership through adversity in his first book Next Steps Forward: Beyond Remembering, The Power of Action, released in 2022. He released his second book, Everyday Triumphs: Extraordinary Stories of Hope, Resilience, and Impact, in 2025; and his third book Keeping Our Nation’s Promise: 9/11 and the Stories that Still Shape Us, in 2026.
Meek is the executive producer of The Heroism and Resiliency of 9/11, a documentary film directed by Michael Gier, and narrated by Gary Sinise. Released in 2026, the film earned Documentary of the Year honors at the CENFLO Film Festival, Best Feature Documentary Award at the New York Movie Awards, the Silver Award for Feature Documentary at the London Movie Awards, Best Documentary Feature at the New York City Independent Film Festival, and Film of the Year at the Beaufort Film Festival.
Previous
