A graduate of Messiah University and Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, with an MBA focused on strategy and operations and an MS focused on technology and innovation, Blair Merlino is a 6-year U.S. Army combat veteran, with most of that time spent in Special Operations. He has spent the last decade building sustainable strategic products and driving operational excellence across a range of industries.

Immediately before co-founding the 9point8 Collective, Blair was Chief Operating Officer of Cogo Labs, a venture capital fund startup incubator. Responsible for all strategic operations, Blair created Cogo’s operating model and built their talent and executive selection and training programs. Prior to that, he spent time at Deloitte Consulting, where he worked on commercial and government accounts, managed teams across a wide range of business, and helped launch internal products at the Deloitte Global level.

A resident of Bozeman, MT, Blair serves as a frequent panelist and speaker on technology products and scaling ventures through flexible operations, and is an active mentor to high-school and college students, An avid hiker and mountain biker, you’re most likely to find him taking work calls or coding our new software products outdoors. His dog, Grom, likes to join him for those activities as well.