Driven to Lead

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Theodore “TJ” Perlick Molinari, Chief Executive Officer of Perlick Corporation, shares leadership lessons from a fifth-generation family-owned manufacturing company with more than a century of history. Perlick, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has helped shape the beverage refrigeration, beer dispensing, underbar, and premium residential refrigeration cat...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Brook Jay, Founder and CEO of All Terrain, shares lessons from building one of the first women-owned experiential marketing agencies in the United States. Brook founded All Terrain in the late 1990s, before experiential marketing was widely recognized as its own category and went on to work with major brands by helping them create meaningful live experi...

In this conversation, Wayne Brannon interviews James Keyes, a seasoned executive and author, discussing his experiences in leadership, the importance of embracing change, and the lessons learned from his time at Blockbuster. Keyes emphasizes the need for confidence, preparation, and clarity in navigating uncertainty in business, while also sharing insights from his new book, 'Education is Freedom....

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Jeroen Kraaijenbrink shares his journey from academia to consulting and now to leadership coaching and mentoring, where his work focuses on helping leaders move beyond traditional, ego-driven models of leadership toward what he calls “eldership.” Jeroen describes eldership as a more mature, responsible, and integrated form of leadership — one that looks...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Sebastian Di Grande, CEO of PCX Markets, shares leadership lessons from a career that has taken him from global consulting and digital transformation to a mission-driven effort to protect nature from plastic waste. Sebastian discusses the scale of the plastic sustainability challenge, including the reality that only a small percentage of plastics are re...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Chad Altbaier, Co-CEO of Standard Fiber, shares a powerful story about being accelerated into his first CEO role during a period of disruption, pressure, and uncertainty. Chad explains how he was originally recruited as Chief Commercial Officer with the expectation that he might eventually step into the CEO seat, but that transition happened much faster...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Fay Niewiadomski, Founder and CEO of ICTN, shares a powerful story about courage, identity, and the decisions that shape a life. Fay reflects on a defining moment from her years in Beirut, when she was serving as dean of a university during a long period of civil war. One morning, she arrived at the beautiful office that had become a symbol of her profe...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Eric Corey Freed, Director of Sustainability at Cannon Design, shares a powerful story about how sustainability can become much more than an environmental initiative. Eric describes working with a major children’s hospital in California that had asked for help developing its first sustainability plan. What began as a conversation about recycling, enviro...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Stephen Pridmore of Crenlo Engineered Cabs shares a powerful leadership story from an earlier chapter in his career, when he was serving as COO of a manufacturing company facing major post-COVID challenges. With several operations under financial pressure, supply chain disruptions affecting the automotive industry, and one large manufacturing unit losin...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Danny Schnaars, CEO of AmeriGlobe tells a leadership story about how a customer-facing product demonstration sparked an idea from someone in another industry, creating a potential major growth opportunity. The leadership lesson is that innovation does not always start in the boardroom. It often starts with people close to the customer noticing something...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, our guest Rich Brady, CEO of the Society of Defense Financial Management, shares lessons from a 32-year career in the United States Marine Corps, his current work leading a professional association serving defense finance and accounting professionals, and a deeply personal story of resilience after losing his wife in 2022. Rich explains how Marine Corps disciplin...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Michael Swigunski—Founder of Dividends Capital, in St. Louis, Mo.  — shares the details of his journey in building, growing, selling and buying remote online businesses.  Mike is living this reality himself by building multiple six, seven & eight figure remote companies while traveling to more than 100 countries.  Mike shares hard lessons around validating co...

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In this episode of Driven to Lead, Bryant Grigsby — CEO & Board Member of PDV, Silicon Valley, CA — shares his experience of being acquired by a much larger firm in the medical technology space.  Not only is the new parent company (INDO -MIM) much larger, it is also a non-US company twelve time zones away.  Bryant describes the process leading up to the merger as being one where both INDO -MIM...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Johnathan Grzybowski — Co Founder & CMO of Penji in Philadelphia, PA — shares his experience bootstrapping his business from scratch and growing into an Inc. 5000 player.  Leveraging and coordinating creative talent from around the world to provide the Penji subscription service, his team consistently delivers high-quality creative ideas and assets, with high...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Siobhan James-Alexander — CEO of One Communications, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands — shares her experience around a business transformation during of a difficult period of deep headcount reduction.  Siobhan talks about the challenges for a leader to show genuine compassion and support for those who must leave the team, while also providing encouragement and hope...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Scott Summerville, former President & CEO of Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Chicago, IL — shares his experience of leading his business through the recent COVID crisis.  With the team suddenly working remote and uncertainty abounding with respect to every topic — about the pandemic, about which colleagues have been directly effected, about project statues an...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Kendra Reichenau, CEO of Heartland America, Chaska, MN — shares her experience of being a new CEO and experiencing a business crisis with little or no experience with cash flow management.  With no money in the bank, and no reports tracking cash inflows and outflows, she was flying blind. Rather than becoming frozen by a lack of knowledge or embarrassment, she im...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, John Walsh, Founder & CEO of Endera out of Ottawa, OH shares his perspective about what it takes to survive in a crisis scenario during COVID.  John talks about how he was looking the death of his company right in the face with only a few weeks of cash remaining and a capital market that was very difficult to motivate at that time.  That said, John and his te...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Janet Grondin — CEO of Stellar Solutions out of Los Alamos, CA — shares her perspective about taking full responsibility and ownership as a leader for problems that sometimes occur within our organizations.  Janet talks about the testing and validation necessary to execute complex space projects, and about how even the most rigorous processes can still have issue...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Gino Barbaro — Co-Founder of Barbaro 360, LLC and Jake & Gino, LLC out of St. Augustine. FL — shares his perspective about a strong positive association with money and delivering powerful educational insights about how we all should leverage coaching to improve our lives.  Gino talks about what it takes to be a great teacher & leader using an example of h...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Marti Nyman, President & CEO of New Wave Design out of Eden Prairie, MN - shares his beliefs and values relative to the people in his organization and why it makes so much sense as a leader to show them how much they truly matter.  This conversation goes beyond making statements about how much you care about your staff, and demonstrates real leadership in rea...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Francis Pierrel, CEO & Partner at LR Paris Inc. out of NY, shares his perspective about making your focus on your customers the paramount issue in your business and your brand. You’ll truly enjoy this conversation that has many great leadership insights.  Francis talks about the many global iconic brands he has worked with and the power of staying true to who...

In this episode of Drive to Lead, guest Omer Brookstein, tells a story about how to drive strategic alignment regarding innovation and the need for  standardization.  Both with his company and across client organizations, Omer describes his leadership to bring multiple potential solutions into a more unified set of executional elements.  The key to his success was a focus on the customer and on th...

In this episode of Driven to Lead, Michael Pine, CEO of Pine Health Strategies, NY, NY talks about his long, successful career as a Chief Business Officer (CBO)  in the pharmaceutical and bio-tech arena.  His work to support both buy-side and sell-side interests in more than 60 deals distinguishes him as one of the most experienced CBOs in the therapeutic space.  Michael relates a story about how...