Chris Crawford

Chris Crawford serves as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for The True Life Companies (TTLC), with an extensive proven career leading businesses to build value and improve profitability. He has consistently helped firms identify and realize the drivers of shareholder value allowing for scalability, maintaining brand strength and identity, and establishing operational excellence.

In the year 2000, after 20 years in varying leadership roles, Chris founded ClearPath Business Advisors, a management consulting and M&A advisory firm. Through ClearPath, Chris has brought strategic financial and operational expertise to businesses to increase value, help companies develop strong organizations and culture to support planned growth, and to negotiate mergers and acquisition. In 2020, through ClearPath, Chris and his team helped struggling businesses refocus their resources to survive and thrive beyond the pandemic. With his partners Chris has led many major successful M&A sale transactions from 2016 through 2021, including the sale of Mann Packing to Del Monte Fresh in 2018.

Previous leadership roles include companies such as The North Face, where he served as CFO and VP of Operations. Prior to that he served as Chief Administrative Officer and Operational CFO for Canadian owned CFM-Majestic. He also served as CFO and In-House Legal Counsel for Vermont Casting. During his tenure with Vermont Casting, the company went from near bankruptcy and $35 Million in sales to a highly successful business with $65 Million in revenue before being ultimately acquired by CFM-Majestic with consolidated revenue of $225 Million.

Chris is experienced at creating and nurturing key relationships with equity and debt capital sources that can help companies grow and optimize performance and shareholder value. He incorporates a collaborative approach to team leadership and problem solving, with a commitment to understanding business goals, designing solutions and delivering precision in execution that leads to sustainable growth and value.

Chris obtained his CPA after working for Arthur Anderson in Los Angeles and his JD from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. A long-time resident of the Bay Area in California and now living in Denver, Chris enjoys spending time with his two daughters, and participating in a range of philanthropic endeavors. He is Treasurer and Board Member for Teen Esteem, a non-profit operating through schools in the Bay Area to help kids increase self-respect, establish goals, and realize the consequences of their decisions in relation to the achievement of those goals. He also helps raise funds for the National MS Society and other organizations serving the most vulnerable.