Innovation and the Digital Enterprise

Edward Wagoner, CIO of JLL , acknowledges what many C-suite executives do not: leaders are human. In his 26 years at JLL, Edward has seen tremendous company growth—investment in data and proptech, the purchase of two AI companies, and a serious effort to recruit the highest-level data scientists—and he’s had to grow as well.  In this episode, Edward talks about innovating the ways that we wor...

AeroPay founder Dan Muller embraced Chicago’s supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem to build his innovative payment processing business in 2017, and he is looking to return the favor. This week’s episode offers an insightful conversation about finding the resources and community needed to materialize an idea, the often-fraught scaling period of a company, and the importance of advocating for fellow...

How do we learn from our failures? Kayne Grau, CEO of Uptake, reflects on the highs and lows of his career in this week’s episode dealing with authenticity, leadership, and staying open-minded in your career path. He shares advice to his younger self about finding balance and embracing the lessons that emerge in difficult moments.  Before joining Uptake, Kayne had a long career building brand...

Sometimes a simple desire to give back can lead to unexpected places. That’s what happened when Jay Rudman decided to help other entrepreneurs in the Chicagoland community after selling his last business. What started as a semi-formal coaching relationship with the founder of Topstep, eventually led to Jay stepping in as Chief Growth Officer and eventually CEO, a role he held until recently. ...

In his role as Vice President of Enterprise Architecture and Technology Strategy at Aon, Mohan Putcha’s job is to be ahead of the curve in spotting technology trends and understanding how they’ll impact the industry.  It is also about leveraging those trends to deliver better service for Aon’s clients and internal teams, not just in theory, but in practice. Which is why Mohan’s team has taken...

Technology is about solving problems and building solutions. This week’s guest, Sandee Kastrul, recognized the overlap in competencies needed for both technology and community leadership when she co-founded i.c.stars. This week she talks with Pat and Shelli about teaching technology with systems thinking, a community-lens, and an orientation of ‘how can I help’ versus ‘what can I get’. For more th...

Rand McNally’s Chief Technology Officer, Steve Caudill joins Pat and Shelli this week to talk about building and maintaining the culture of a startup inside a well-established brand with a 165-year history. They cover a range of topics including recruiting talent in a highly competitive market, creating tight feedback loops between customers and engineers, and structuring product development...

What does change management look like in a world of constant, rapid change? Allen Smith, CIO at Baker Tilly, believes keeping up with the pace of change today requires rethinking change management as a discipline, including the rigid processes and communication protocols from traditional waterfall development. Allen joins Patrick and Shelli to talk about the increasing overlap between our personal...

At TransUnion, creating innovative products, building talent, and delivering excellent customer experiences start with an environment where trust is possible. Swati Shah, U.S. Markets CIO, talks with Patrick and Shelli this week about what cultivating that trust looks like for the organization.  She also describes the various programs in place to support continuous learning for cross-function...

Experiencing a sudden 90% revenue drop is a formidable challenge for any business. When SpotHero found themselves there at the start of the pandemic, the team took it as an opportunity to pause and rethink their business.  In this episode Matt DiBari, Chief Product Officer at SpotHero, talks with Patrick and Shelli about how creative thinking and a strong team foundation allowed SpotHero to w...

While eye-popping capital rounds make headlines, sometimes smaller is better when it comes to venture fundraising. Will McGivern-Smith, Chief Strategy Officer of TrueData joined Patrick and Shelli to discuss what questions to answer for your business when considering venture capital. Understanding the type of company you’re building, the problem you’re solving and the total addressable market is a...

Timothy Alvis is the Chief Product Officer at SPINS and has over 20 years of experience marrying product, consumer needs, and business outcomes. He joined the podcast today to offer his tips for product teams and why they should focus on understanding problems rather than coming up with solutions.  Having started his career as the founder of multiple gaming companies, Tim also discusses the c...

Founders looking to secure funding face a long, arduous process. Founders of color can find it almost impossible and often receive significantly less money than their white counterparts. Desiree Vargas Wrigley believes that the tech ecosystem in Chicago needs to do more to support and nurture the untapped potential of Black and Latinx founders. Desiree is our guest this week on Innovation and the...

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are powerful tools that companies can leverage to create better customer experiences. However, they traditionally require millions of dollars' worth of investment. Alex Muller believes that every product team, regardless of size, should benefit from the same machine learning capabilities used at the most successful companies in the world. Alex...

Banking has been around for hundreds of years. How do you teach an old dog new tricks? Chintan Mehta , CIO and Head of Digital Technology and Innovation at Wells Fargo, joined Patrick and Shelli to discuss the technological revolution happening right now in banking. He talks about what the next five years look like for innovations such as quantum computing and cultural shifts such as the gig worke...

The Chicago Innovation Roundtable, a group that connects visionary Chicago leaders and the brainchild of IDE host Patrick Emmons, recently wrapped up their yearly Summit. For part 2 of the IDE season finale, Patrick shares some of the thought leadership from the Summit’s brightest stars. Take a listen to the episode to hear from Dick Burke, Adam Kanouse, Thru Shivakumar, Greg Svitak, and Ari Kapla...

In addition to hosting Innovation and the Digital Enterprise, Pat is also the founder of the Chicago Innovation Roundtable, a group that connects visionary Chicago leaders. Recently, the group hosted a summit where leaders could share their insights on what has helped them innovate in their respective fields. For the IDE season finale, Pat shares some of the highlights from the Innovation Summit....

Brian Case is the Chief Digital Officer at GE Renewable Energy. In his field, the COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the importance of switching over to digitization. He is our guest this week on the podcast and chatted with Patrick and Shelli about his approach to leadership. Tune in to the episode to learn more about the importance of a company’s motivation to adopt digital, how repeatability...

With complicated technological tools and processes, companies sometimes fill too many roles with specialists. Generalists are also needed for a fresh set of eyes and to approach problems with outside the box solutions. Dean Haacker prides himself on being a generalist and this skill has served him well as he’s helped reimagine banking while working with CIBC. Dean joined Patrick and Shelli for a w...

Trading exchanges are highly regulated. This makes the implementation of technological changes a tricky proposition. Catherine Clay, Executive Vice President of Cboe Global Markets, has had to pivot and adapt her thinking when it comes to affecting change in a large, regulated corporation. Catherine joined Patrick and Shelli for this week’s episode of Innovation and the Digital Enterprise. She str...

As the CEO of 1871, an entrepreneurial hub of innovation, Betsy Ziegler is an expert in early-stage growth and helps businesses grow from idea to the Fortune 500. For Betsy, one of the most important metrics for success is whether a business adheres to purpose-driven decision making. This week on Innovation and the Digital Enterprise, Betsy joins Patrick and Shelli to discuss how 1871 is supportin...

Democratizing innovation means that experts create tools that allow new industries to utilize technology to make their businesses stronger and more efficient. This leads to happy customers. Happy customers lead to happy employees that feel a sense of purpose and belonging at work. Creating teams that balance accountability and purpose is Eric Rempel’s vision of success. Eric is the Chief Innovatio...

Jennifer Van Camp has worked in research for major pharmaceutical companies for more than 20 years. In her experience, medical research produces extensive data but doesn’t always have processes by which to leverage this information. When she had the opportunity to go on sabbatical, she thought about this problem and came up with an entrepreneurial solution. This week, Jennifer joined Patrick and S...

Sometimes leadership isn’t about being a visionary. Sometimes leadership is about assembling a team of experts and breaking down the barriers to their success. This is the belief of John Kett, CEO and President of IAA. John joined Patrick on this week’s episode of Innovation and the Digital Enterprise for a discussion about the future of the car sales industry, John’s philosophy of leadership, and...

Roger Liew has a track record for leading cutting-edge teams. As the fifth employee of Orbitz, Roger led the team that created the original infrastructure powering orbitz.com. In the years since, he has helped lead many companies and has spent a lot of time leading the next generation of startups as a mentor and board member. On today’s episode of Innovation and the Digital Enterprise, Roger talke...