Chris Walters

Chief Executive Officer

Chris Walters has been Chief Executive Officer of Avantax since January 2020, when he was named to lead the firm (then Blucora) after serving on its Board of Directors since 2014. 

Before joining Avantax, Chris was a Senior Partner with Activate, a consulting firm focused on accelerating the growth of technology, media and digital businesses, as well as advising investment companies. From 2015 to 2018, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Encompass Digital Media, a global technology services firm supporting the aggregation and distribution of video content for hundreds of media companies and sports leagues.

Chris joined Encompass from The Weather Company, owner of The Weather Channel, where he served as the Chief Operating Officer from 2012 to 2015. Between 2008 and 2012, he served in a variety of leadership roles at Bloomberg L.P., most recently as the Chief Operating Officer of the Bloomberg Industry Verticals Group, responsible for operations, strategy, business development, and expansion of the premium web-based subscription businesses including the launch of Bloomberg Government, a disruptive service delivering comprehensive information and analysis about legislative, regulatory, and spending actions of the U.S. Federal government. Earlier, Chris was a partner at McKinsey & Co., advising technology, media, entertainment, sports and investment companies.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration of the University of Vermont and an MBA from The University of Chicago.