Sam Ford
Sam Ford, a Kentucky native, works on models, strategies, and implementation for media innovation, audience engagement, cultural intelligence, and storytelling experimentation.
Sam began his days in newspapers writing a pro wrestling column for rural Kentucky news outlets. He has written about pro wrestling in Harvard Business Review and Fast Company, and his work on the subject has been featured on Elle, America with Jorge Ramos, The Washington Times, Nikkei, Les InRocks, and various other books and publications. He taught semester-long courses on pro wrestling at both MIT and Western Kentucky University and has published a range of academic essays on the popular performance art. Sam has been a licensed pro wrestling manager in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and participated as a performer for the independent Kentucky wrestling organization Universal Championship Wrestling.
While at Simon & Schuster’s Tiller Press, he helped publish legendary pro wrestling commentator Jim Ross’ book Under the Black Hat and worked with Ross on his follow-up 2024 book with BenBella Press, Business Is About to Pick Up, which commemorates Ross’ 50 years working in the wrestling business.
Sam is also a fellow with Accelerate Kentucky, a research affiliate with MIT’s Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing, a Knight News Innovation Fellow with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, and co-author of the 2013 book Spreadable Media, with Henry Jenkins and Joshua Green. He co-founded Innovation Engine, a strategy firm that helps organizations across sectors unlock new value. He is also a Board Chair at Kentucky to the World. Find out more at his site.
On Wednesday, June 11 2025, at the Speed Art Museum, you can meet Sam in person when he’ll co-host a one-of-a-kind event Spectacle of Excess: Wrestling as American Performance Art.
Step into the world of suplexes, over-the-top personas, and body-slamming storytelling as Kentucky to the World brings you this unique live experience featuring WWE legend and OVW operator Al Snow in conversation with Sam Ford, board chair of Kentucky to the World and the only person to have taught a course on U.S. professional wrestling at MIT.
