Fearless Creative Leadership

Gerry Graf is the Co-Founder of Slap Global . They describe themselves as a business accelerator fueled by creativity. Gerry is best known as the founder of Barton F. Graf 9000 - which he built into one of the most acclaimed advertising agencies in America. Business Insider named Gerry "The Most Creative Man in Advertising". Newsweek called him one of the "New Don Drapers". PBS featured Barton as...

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Gerry Graf is the Co-Founder of Slap Global . They describe themselves as a business accelerator fueled by creativity. Gerry is best known as the founder of Barton F. Graf 9000 - which he built into one of the most acclaimed advertising agencies in America. Business Insider named Gerry "The Most Creative Man in Advertising". Newsweek called him one of th...

Michael Korda is the Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Simon & Schuster . We could spend this entire episode talking only about the highlights of Michael's life. He grew up in 1930s London in a family of movie industry icons. As you'll hear, he became close friends with Graham Greene, traveled to Budapest to attend the Hungarian Revolution, and joined the RAF. He did all this before he turned 25. At Sim...

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Michael Korda is the Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Simon & Schuster . We could spend this entire episode talking only about the highlights of Michael's life. He grew up in 1930s London in a family of movie industry icons. As you'll hear, he became close friends with Graham Greene, traveled to Budapest to attend the Hungarian Revolution, and joined the RAF....

Justin Thomas-Copeland is the CEO of DDB , North America. He's a dynamic, charismatic leader with a long history of building successful businesses and creating change. It would be great if the state of society allowed us to end the story there. But for all of his many, many accomplishments, Justin's appointment generated attention because of one characteristic that is incredibly rare among CEOs of...

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Justin Thomas-Copeland is the CEO of DDB , North America. He's a dynamic, charismatic leader with a long history of building successful businesses and creating change. It would be great if the state of society allowed us to end the story there. But for all of his many, many accomplishments, Justin's appointment generated attention because of one characte...

Khurrum Malik is the Head of Global Business Marketing at  Spotify , which makes him and his team responsible for bringing the company's benefits to listeners and advertisers alike. It also places him at the border crossing of creativity and technology. The pressure from both sides of those territories is relentless. And you can't manage them alone for long without being run over. Science versus u...

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Khurrum Malik is the Head of Global Business Marketing at  Spotify , which makes him and his team responsible for bringing the company's benefits to listeners and advertisers alike. It also places him at the border crossing of creativity and technology. The pressure from both sides of those territories is relentless. And you can't manage them alone for l...

Hashem Bajwa describes himself as a creative leader that uses imagination, intuition and inclusivity to create experiences that bring people together. He's done that at Goodby Silverstein, at Droga5, and for the last six years at Apple, where he was Director of Strategy, working with Angela Ahrendts to reimagine Apple retail, including the Apple Store. I've spent a lot of time over the last few ep...

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Hashem Bajwa  describes himself as a creative leader that uses imagination, intuition and inclusivity to create experiences that bring people together. He's done that at Goodby Silverstein, at Droga5, and for the last six years at Apple, where he was Director of Strategy, working with Angela Ahrendts to reimagine Apple retail, including the Apple Store....

Laura Holson , of The New York Times, is a brilliant and award-winning feature writer and visual editor who has written extensively about Hollywood, Silicon Valley, as well as powerful figures in finance and politics. Our conversation covered a lot of areas. Her love of and approach to writing compelling stories. Why and how she created The Box Session salons which pull together extraordinarily cr...

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Laura Holson , of The New York Times, is a brilliant and award-winning feature writer and visual editor who has written extensively about Hollywood, Silicon Valley and powerful figures in finance and politics. Our conversation covered a lot of areas. Her love of and approach to writing compelling stories. Why and how she created the Box Session salons wh...

Jesse Joeckel is the Founder, Owner and Designer at Whalebone Creative . Based in Montauk, New York, Whalebone describes itself as a lifestyle brand that's built around art, design, and surf culture. They sell super soft t-shirts, hoodies, hats and more, and they've been doing so since 2010. And they have become the definition of a very, very cool brand. Over the eleven years since he started Whal...

Lisa Mehling is the owner of Chelsea Pictures , who last month were named the winner of the Palme D'Or as the Production Company of the Year at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Lisa doesn't like to talk about herself. But her journey is an important one to understand as we struggle to build a society that supports all people. The single biggest decision we make in our lives is this. How wi...

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Lisa Mehling is the owner of Chelsea Pictures , who last month were named the winner of the Palme D'Or as the Production Company of the Year at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Lisa doesn't like to talk about herself. But her journey is an important one to understand as we struggle to build a society that supports all people. The single biggest d...

Nancy Reyes is the CEO of TBWA\Chiat\Day New York and Chris Beresford-Hill is the agency's Chief Creative Officer. None us succeed alone. And the bigger the ambition, the more we need other people to reach it. The age of the iconic, solo, white male leader are almost behind us. Not a moment too soon. Welcome to the age of leadership partnership. And if you think what came before was challenging, w...

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Nancy Reyes is the CEO of TBWA\Chiat\Day New York and Chris Beresford-Hill is the agency's Chief Creative Officer. None us succeed alone. And the bigger the ambition, the more we need other people to reach it. The age of the iconic, solo, white male leader are almost behind us. Not a moment too soon. Welcome to the age of leadership partnership. And if y...

Will Travis is the Founder of Elevation Barn . They describe themselves as a global network united to elevate each other's clarity of purpose for personal, business and philanthropic goals. Will works with individual leaders. And I think the conversation about individual purpose is really important. Businesses talk a lot about purpose. Most do very little about it. They pre-sell or post rationaliz...

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Will Travis is the Founder of Elevation Barn . They describe themselves as a global network united to elevate each other's clarity of purpose for personal, business and philanthropic goals. Businesses talk a lot about purpose. Most do very little about it. They pre-sell or post rationalize. But very few change the way they spend money as a result of thei...

David Kolbusz is the Chief Creative Officer at Droga5 in London. He's worked for many of the most iconic agencies in the advertising industry. BBH, Goodby Silverstein, Wieden & Kennedy and Droga. Most of the time, he's found a great fit. Occasionally, he hasn't. But at every step of the way he's brought a distinctive perspective and point of view. David talks about the fact that he does not consid...

Edited highlights of our full conversation. David Kolbusz is the Chief Creative Officer at Droga5 in London. He's worked for many of the most iconic agencies in the advertising industry. BBH, Goodby Silverstein, Wieden & Kennedy and Droga. Most of the time, he's found a great fit. Occasionally, he hasn't. But at every step of the way he's brought a distinctive perspective and point of view. David...

Stephanie Mehta is the Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company . They study, explore, analyze and report on innovation like no other media brand. Stephanie has been a writer almost since birth. Like the rest of us, she's learned how to lead through trial and error and experience and asking and listening. Leadership used to be a two dimensional, top down, hierarchical practice. I say. You do. Today, it is...

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Stephanie Mehta is the Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company . They study, explore, analyze and report on innovation like no other media brand. Stephanie has been a writer almost since birth. Like the rest of us, she's learned how to lead through trial and error and experience and asking and listening. Leadership used to be a two dimensional, top down, hierarc...

Faith Popcorn is a futurist. To many of us she is the original and still the best. She told Kodak about digital imagery, Ford about electric cars and Coke about bottled water before any of them existed. In the 1980s she told P&G that everything would be home delivered. In every case they either laughed or threw her out of the room. That's the price of forecasting change. The ability to see the fut...

Edited highlights of our full conversation. Faith Popcorn is a futurist. To many of us she is the original and still the best. She told Kodak about digital imagery, Ford about electric cars and Coke about bottled water before any of them existed. In the 1980s she told P&G that everything would be home delivered. In every case they either laughed or threw her out of the room. That's the price of fo...