Chip Conley
Founder and Executive Chair at MEA
About
Founder of MEA, the first midlife wisdom school, and former Airbnb hospitality head.
Experiences
- founder at MEARun the world's first midlife wisdom school
I imagined a dozen workshops a year in Baja. Now we offer 120+ public workshops on two campuses.
- BooksWrote 12 reasons life gets better with age
It's my seventh book. I ran from writing until an agent asked me at 37 if I'd write one.
- Innkeeper at The PhoenixKept a rock 'n roll motel going for 39 years
I lent JFK Jr. my cufflinks and babysat Sinead O'Connor's baby there. I retired it on my 65th birthday.
- executive in charge of all hosts worldwide at AirbnbBecame the modern elder to Airbnb's founders
I arrived in my 50s, fresh off selling my company. Brian didn't hire me to scale operations, but soul.
- founder and CEO at Joie de VivreStarted a boutique hotel company at 26
I named it after a Tagore poem about joy and created 52 hotels over two-dozen years, then sold it.
- ProfessionalLeft Morgan Stanley for a quarter of the pay
In my early 20s, banking in New York didn't feel right, so I joined a maverick SF real estate developer.
- Early lifeHid my writing after 8th grade
I told Dad I wanted to be a writer. He didn't seem pleased, so I quit the magazine and wrote in secret.