CEOs You Should Know - Southern California

In the latest episode of CEOs You Should Know, Jane Wells interviews Meryl Kern, the CEO of Liftique, a company Kern describes as a "brand-new triangular offering for women to look, live and feel their best life." Started in 2017, Liftique grew quickly, thanks to the wide variety of services and offerings for women using the latest technology for minimally invasive proceedures for the face, the bo...

If you've ever needed to order flowers online, chances are, you've heard of The Bouqs. Launched in November 2012, The Bouqs is an online market place created by two friends who noticed several problems within the floral industry and decided that they could do better. John Tabis and his partner, Juan Pablo Montufar, set out to create an online experience that brought the farm-to-table philosophy to...

In the latest episode of CEO's You Should Know, Steve Van Doren, the CEO (or Chief Entertainment Officer) for Vans, joins KFI's Jane Wells to talk about the unique shoe company that grew from surfers and skaters all over the world know and love. First started by his father and uncle in 1966, Vans grew from a small family operation into a $3 billion juggernaut and pop culture icon - success that St...

Nick Desai the CEO of Peatos joined KFI's Jane Wells to talk about his innovative new company that's taking on the junk food snack industry by offering a much healthy alternative to other types of snacks. Desai describes his product as a crunchy puff snack (like Cheetos), made with peas instead of corn. The snack was born out of Desai's many visits to his grandparents' home in India, where he says...

Meet Tom Ripley, the Chairman and CEO of Lids, the popular retail chain of stores primarily known as the #1 seller of hats. With nearly 1,200 stores located across North America, the chain brings in just under $700 million in revenue. KFI's Jane Wells spoke with Ripley and asked him about his time as CEO of Lids - a whopping 90 days after his company acquired Lids earlier this year. "We acquired F...

CEOs You Should Know returns with Therese Tucker, of Blackline. KFI's Jane Wells spoke with Tucker about her journey her love of programming, why she left her previous job to start Blackline, and how it was challenging to find the right people to build her business. "I worked at a much larger company and it was not a great environment in terms of wanting to promote women. I didn't see much of a ca...

The founder of Hudson Jeans, Peter Kim, joined KFI's Jane Wells to talk about how he went from working for his family's business to building Hudson Jeans into one of the most popular clothing companies in business today. But Kim says it wasn't an easy path to success. "I had a lot of trouble with school, and I ended up not doing well in school. I ended up getting into a lot of trouble as a youth,"...

Eno Polo, the president of Havaianas joined KFI's Jane Wells for an interview about how he's turned his company into the No. 1 sandal brand in Europe and how he plans to import that success here to the United States. Havaianas is a Brazilian flip flop company that has sold almost 250 million pairs of flip flops - which is about 10 pairs every second! Havaianas are already hugely successful around...

In 1988, Wing Lam and his brothers Ed and Mingo, joined forces to open the very first Wahoo's Tacos in Costa Mesa, California with the goal of creating a menu that reflected their unique heritage. Drawing on influences that ranged from China to Brazil and Baja California, the bold fresh flavors found on their menu reflect the Lee brother's memories of growing up in Brazil, surfing in Baja, and wor...

"Chronic Tacos is unique, customized, fast-casual Mexican food," is how Michael Mohammed, the CEO of Chronic Tacos describes his food to KFI's Jane Wells. Mohammad says that he and his brothers were looking for a good investment and when they discovered the taco shop in Vancouver, they felt like they saw a good opportunity. "Randy, who is one of the founders, called me up, and said, 'Hey, I want t...

Eric Shanks, the CEO and Executive Producer of Fox Sports sat down with KFI's Jane Wells to talk about what it's like to oversee all entities within Fox Sports. "It's irreplaceable content," No matter how bad the AL Central in Major League Baseball does, they're not going to cancel it," Shanks says with a grin. "There were 166 canceled shows last year that were scripted or reality. But you know wh...