Next Wave Leadership Podcast

Troy Blackwell is the Chief Operating Officer at NuVinAir® Corporate, where he's responsible for providing leadership and vision for the company's operational customer programs, national accounts, operational controls, and franchisee success. He has nearly two decades of automotive leadership experience and previously worked at AutoNation, where he spearheaded a major brand extension for the large...

Dr. Bruce Gewertz is the Surgeon-in-Chief, Chair of the Department of Surgery, Vice Dean of Academic Affairs, and Vice President of Interventional Services at Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles. Under his leadership at Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Gewertz has added to the Department of Surgery's academic stature by targeted recruitments across all specialties, more than doubling clinical revenues and...

Shuchi Sarkar is the Chief Marketing Officer at Creo, a company that produces natural and more sustainable cannabinoid ingredients through a fusion of technology and the ancient process of fermentation. She is an accomplished marketer with over 25 years of broad experience at leading tech companies like HP, Compaq, Motorola, and Ogilvy Advertising.  Before working with Creo, Shuchi was the Global...

Nyika Allen is the Director of Aviation for the City of Albuquerque, where she is responsible for the management and oversight of Albuquerque International Sunport and Double Eagle Airport. She is the first millennial to lead a city department and the first woman to serve as Director of the Department of Aviation. Under Nyika's leadership over the past two years, Albuquerque International Sunport...

Allan Silva is the Founder and CEO of Truedragon, a team coaching company that creates business growth by helping global business executives and senior product and engineering leaders build and align winning teams. Allan is also the Founding Partner of Riverene, a leadership and organizational development consultancy. His recent clients include Lucasfilm, ILM, Sonos, Atlassian, GRAIL, Airbnb, Sale...

Chris Calvosa is the Vice President of Global Sales and Institutional Partnerships at VisionSpring, leading all sales and business development activities. Currently, he manages teams in seven countries to help provide affordable eyeglasses and optical accessories to people throughout the world. Chris has over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, branding, and business development, and has l...

Dave Stangis is the Founder and CEO of 21C Impact, an advisory services company for the 21st century. He currently advises leading companies on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) technology as well as reputation and resiliency strategies. Before 21C Impact, he served as the Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President of Public Affairs & Corporate Responsibility at Campbell Soup Company....

Denise Tran is the CEO of Bun Mee Vietnamese Sandwich Eatery, a gourmet, fast-casual restaurant that blends Vietnam's street food concepts with modern interpretations and fresh, local ingredients. After practicing law in Seattle, Denise decided to transition and open Bun Mee in 2011. Within months of opening the doors, many of their menu items landed on San Francisco's best lists.  In 2019, Bun Me...

Avital Ungar is the Founder and Owner of Avital Tours, a company that is dedicated to providing story-driven culinary experiences. While living in Paris and the quaint town of Aix-en-Provence in Southern France, she became serious about the finer points in life and is now a certified sommelier (with a little help from  Wine for Dummies , naturally). While attending UCLA, Avital studied Art History...

Dr. Michael Nurok is the Director of the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit at Cedars-Sinai and practices clinically as an intensivist and cardiothoracic anesthesiologist. Previously, he served as faculty at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard, and the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Nurok also created a dedicated orthopedic intensive care unit at the Hospital for Spe...

Joe Diliberto is the President and Owner of Sandler Training in Oakland, providing training, coaching, and consulting services to clients across a wide range of industries. He has over 30 years of experience in his field and is an expert in sales, sales management, business development, and negotiation skills. Before establishing Sandler Training, Joe held executive-level management positions at F...

Bill Press is the Senior Vice President of Engineering at Iterable, a growth marketing platform that enables brands to build stronger relationships with their customers and create lifetime value as a result. He received a Ph. D. in Computation and Neural Systems from Caltech and has over two decades of experience as an engineer and leader in enterprise and on-demand software. Before his current ro...

Dr. Vivek Moitra is an Allen I. Hyman Professor of Critical Care Anesthesiology at Columbia University Medical Center. He specializes in intensive care and anesthesiology and has been the Division Chief of Critical Care Medicine for the past 5 years. Additionally, Dr. Moitra has an MHA focused in Health/Health Care Administration/Management from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health....

Brenda Castillo-Garza is the Regional Director at MidPen Housing Corporation, an organization that provides safe, affordable housing and other services to low-income residents in the Bay Area. Brenda is a native of San Jose and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology from UC Santa Barbara. She went on to earn a Master's Degree in Education and Counseling from San Jose State University and started...

Jasmin Saidi-Kuehnert is the Founder, President, and CEO of the Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute (ACEI). She has dedicated the last 30 years to international education, sharing her knowledge as a published author and speaker on world education systems. As an advisor, Jasmin helps institutions and organizations navigate emerging markets, credential evaluation standards, and global pathway...

Erika Andresen is an attorney with over 14 years of experience in government and corporate regulatory/compliance law and investigations. After working pro bono for veterans, she felt motivated to join the military and has spent the past eight and a half years in public service as the active duty officer for the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps.  Erika specializes in the law of armed confli...

Bill Roth is the Director of Cloud Economics at VMware and has over 30 years of experience in the enterprise software industry. He has also worked as a technical evangelist, operating executive, and journalist in addition to running product management organizations and holding CMO positions for startups. During his career, Bill has worked for several startups and bigger companies alike, including...

Simon Chan is the Founder of MLM Nation, the #1 network marketing podcast on iTunes, where he's interviewed over 500 top income earners.  He jumped into network marketing in 2003 and has since built a million-dollar business with over 200,000 distributors. In 2013, Simon retired from building MLM to become a full-time business coach, speaker, and online marketer. He uses online duplication—the sam...

Jenny Coupe is the VP of Revenue Marketing at ActiveCampaign, with over 25 years of experience in B2B marketing. She specializes in building demand generation programs that create predictable revenue by leveraging the power of data. Jenny has worked at several startups and larger companies like Silicon Graphics. Before joining ActiveCampaign, she was VP of Global Customer Acquisition at SOASTA, wh...

Cory Levenberg is the founder of 42, Inc., an IT consulting firm focused on providing companies with strategic technology solutions. He is also a part of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, where he chairs the Accelerator Program and coaches young businesses. Cory's most recent endeavor is building free-range artisanal enclosures for charity. Yes, we're talking about chicken coops.  In this episode…...

Shannon Adkins is a thought leader and the CEO of Future State. Future State is a women-led, women-owned, and employee-owned consulting company that guides their clients throughout their journeys of transformation. Shannon worked for startups and tech companies, as well as corporate America, got her MBA, and started a family all before returning to a company where she knew she could fully realize...

Dov Pollack is an executive coach and leadership consultant at Next Wave Leadership , a company that provides their clients with self-reflection tools to gain clarity about their strengths and become more effective leaders. Their clients include Charles Schwab, Premier Nutrition, Slack, Sonos, Twilio, and MidPen Housing. Dov's unique approach to coaching frees leaders from their limiting beliefs i...