Kwame Christian

One of the world’s top negotiation experts, Kwame Christian is a best-selling author, top podcaster, keynote speaker, Forbes contributor, business attorney, and founder and CEO of the American Negotiation Institute (ANI), a global consulting firm that specializes in providing training, coaching and education on applying the foundations of negotiation to any difficult conversation in life or business. With expertise in the areas of negotiation, DEI, leadership, sales and conflict resolution, ANI helps organizations and individuals turn their most challenging conversations into opportunities for achieving meaningful and measurable results. Under Kwame’s leadership, ANI has coached and trained Fortune 500 companies on applying the fundamentals of negotiation to corporate success. He is the originator of the Compassionate Curiosity Framework™ and has spoken and conducted workshops around the world.

Some of Kwame’s engagements include Fortune 1000 and strategic clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Target, NASA, Apple, Intel, Honda, Owens Corning, and Workday, Inc.

Following the incredible success of his viral TEDx Talk (more than 409,000 views), Finding Confidence in Conflict, Kwame Christian launched a successful career as a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and Forbes contributor. His first bestseller, Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life was released in 2020, followed by a second bestseller, How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race: Practical Tools for Necessary Change in the Workplace and Beyond, in 2022. Kwame also hosts the podcast, Negotiate Anything, tackling subjects ranging from buying a car, salary negotiations and managing conflict with difficult people to raising funding for business start-ups. Launched in 2016, Negotiate Anything is the #1 negotiation podcast in the world, with more than five million downloads and listeners in over 180 countries. Kwame is also a regular contributor to Forbes, where he lends his expertise on a range of topics, including negotiation, conflict resolution, leadership, sales, and communication.

Kwame is a practicing attorney, working with businesses and their owners to get better deals, solve complex problems, and overcome legal challenges. He is also a popular LinkedIn instructor, teaching over a dozen courses in his areas of expertise. Kwame previously taught negotiation, communication, and mediation advocacy at the university level, including The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, the top-ranked law school dispute resolution program in the country.

Kwame earned his law degree, masters in public policy, and bachelors in psychology from The Ohio State University. He received the John Glenn College Young Alumni Award (2020) and Moritz College Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award (2021), which makes him the only person in the history of The Ohio State University to win alumni awards in consecutive years from both the law school and the masters of public affairs program. He was also named among Columbus’ 2022 40 Under 40 award recipients.

Outside of the professional arena, Kwame is a devoted family man, proud father of two boys, and a serious chess nerd having played over 20,000 games and earning a ranking in the 99th percentile on Chess.Com.