Lead With We

Stacey Pool became Chief Marketing Officer at the fast casual restaurant chain Noodles & Company just before the pandemic started. In this episode Stacey shares how she’s leading this purposeful company through these unprecedented times. We talked openly about how COVID has taught us to be vulnerable as leaders, the balancing act of looking out for the wellbeing of our employees while still provid...

Bragg Live Foods has been in the natural foods space for over a century. Now the family-owned original health food company is a movement for healthier and happier lives with CEO Linda Boardman at the helm. In this episode Linda and I spoke about how she’s leading the company at such a pivotal time in its history, especially given the explosion of clean food and her personal passion for health and...

Dan Widmaier is a bioengineer who’s taking on the fashion and beauty industries. As the Co-Founder and CEO of Bolt Threads, he’s ushering in a new era of regenerative lab grown materials that can help us reverse course when it comes to the health of our planet. In this episode Dan and I talked about the science behind Bolt Threads’ patented materials, and how they’re being adopted by big brands li...

As we witness the acute effects of climate change and economic inequality, business needs radical reshaping. Andrew Winston has advised countless companies on how to create positive impact, and in his new book, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, he charts a way forward for the future. In this episode Andrew and I talk about what it means to be net positive...

Business has the power to tackle the existential problems we face in today’s world, but first we must redirect market forces to support companies creating positive change. And that’s why I’m so excited to share my conversation with Wayne Suiter Matamoros, Managing Director of Product and Experience at Unreasonable Group, which runs a business accelerator called Unreasonable Impact focused on just...

It’s hard to overstate Paul Hawken’s contribution to transforming the relationship between humanity, business and the natural world. His books and leadership have built the foundation and laid out the roadmap for how we work together to address the climate crisis. It was a privilege to speak with him about his new book: Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation. In this episode of...

Common Future is a mission-driven non-profit organization that has diverted nearly $300 million into marginalized communities through grants and low-barrier loans since 2001. And they just received a game-changing gift from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott. It was a pleasure to chat with CEO Rodney Foxworth on the precipice of this new chapter for Common Future. We spoke about his plans for building...

Deanna Bratter heads up sustainability at the world’s largest public benefit corporation: Danone North America. It’s a $6 billion food and beverage company with a massive portfolio of well-known brands. It was so refreshing to get Deanna’s perspective on finding the intersections between purpose and profit when advocating for change within a behemoth organization. We also spoke about the responsib...

Rachel Lincoln loved fashion, but she didn’t love how she saw the industry treating workers and the planet. So she joined a small California-based activewear brand prAna and worked her way to Director of Sustainability where she is now transforming the entire industry through the Responsible Packaging Movement (RPM). RPM is a coalition of pre-competitive brands who share knowledge and practices th...

Whether you know it or not, JUST Capital is playing a crucial role in business by supplying the economy with critical knowledge that holds companies accountable based on what they hear directly from the American public and how the American public believes they should behave. In this episode, JUST Capital CEO Martin Whittaker and I had a thought-provoking conversation around the present and future...

Diversity, equity and inclusion should be top of mind for any business leader, but we don’t often think about age when it comes to DEI. In this episode of Lead With We, I’m sharing a conversation with AARP’s Jean Accius, who shared some fascinating research about how businesses benefit from a multigenerational workforce. We talked about why age diversity is a competitive advantage, how businesses...

As CEO at Urban Remedy, Paul Coletta is pushing back against our industrialized food system by trying to cracking the code to bring ultra fresh, clean, and convenient food to consumers at scale.  In this episode of Lead With We, Paul and I chatted about their “progress not perfect” approach, taking an omnichannel approach to brand building, nurturing culture, reimagining change with innovative par...

As a college student, Ryan Lupberger wanted cleaning products that were actually clean. But even nontoxic brands used wasteful plastic packaging. So he decided to create the eco-friendly, zero-waste cleaning brand, Cleancult. In this episode of Lead With We Ryan shares how focusing on product efficacy helped everything else fall into place, partnering with CarbonFund to ensure operational sustaina...

Rebecca Henderson teaches at the Harvard Business School, but she’s a vocal critic of “business as usual.” In fact, her scholarly research focuses on how we need to change capitalism in order to overcome the myriad of crises humanity is facing, and she recently published a book on the topic called “Reimagining Capitalism In A World On Fire.” Rebecca and I have some things in common, so it was a pl...

Rachel and Andy Berliner started Amy’s Kitchen based on their own need. Like many new parents, they needed some convenient meals after the birth of their daughter, Amy. But they couldn’t find high-quality, frozen, organic vegetarian food in stores, so they decided to make it themselves! In this episode of Lead With We, I spoke with Rachel and Andy about how they helped bring about a major shift in...

When it comes to social impact, Starbucks has been leading the pack for decades. In fact, it’s hard to keep track of all their initiatives, from local community grants to groundbreaking standards it created to source ingredients like coffee beans and cocoa. In this episode of Lead With We I got the chance to chat with Virginia Tenpenny, Starbucks’ Chief Social Impact Officer, who shared how Starbu...

Lots of companies are talking about diversity, equity and inclusion these days, but what does it mean to actually move the needle in those areas? Each of us has a role to play in bringing about a better future, and business leaders are uniquely positioned to create lasting change.  In this episode of Lead With We, I had the privilege of speaking with Michael Muñoz, Global Marketing Diversity, Equi...

Our current food system is unsustainable. Luckily people like Tobias Peggs are re-engineering how food is grown and distributed in ways that are better for people and the planet. Tobias’ company, Square Roots, uses real time data and machine learning to create the right climate conditions for growing produce in refurbished shipping containers situated near local retailers, which drastically reduce...

The modular flooring company Interface has one of the most forward-thinking sustainability visions in the building industry and the private sector in general. Interface’s late founder, Ray Anderson, pivoted the company to an aggressive sustainability path over 20 years ago, and it’s up to Chief Sustainability Officer Erin Meezan to continue and build upon his legacy. In this episode of Lead With W...

I first met Sherry Turkle about ten years ago at a conference where we spent hours chatting about how rapidly advancing technology is changing our relationships to each other and ourselves, and how that affects all sectors of society. It’s something Sherry has spent her life studying as a psychologist and sociologist at MIT. In this episode of Lead With We, I got the chance to reconnect with Sherr...

Natasha Case started in architecture and landed in ice cream after one of her professors compared a project of hers to a layer cake. So she took her creative energy and co-founded the premium ice cream brand Coolhaus with her wife Freya Estreller in 2009. Since then Natasha has used the brand as a platform to inspire other LGBTQ+ millennial entrepreneurs.  I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with...

Jeff Dunn cut his teeth at Coca-Cola and gained even more experience in the food industry with the Campbell Soup Company. But where he found his passion was becoming CEO of Bolthouse Farms, a packaged foods company that grew out of a small Michigan farm in 1915. In fact, that passion led him to buy the company back from Campbell’s after selling it to them in 2012. In this episode of Lead With We,...

Matthew Wadiak went from being a chef to founding Blue Apron, the first meal kit company to go public, and now he’s disrupting food yet again through Cooks Venture. In his newest endeavor, Matthew is pioneering regenerative systems that span the entire value chain of animal agriculture. I learned so much during my conversation with Matthew. Listen to the episode to understand more about the flaws...

Following the company’s 65th anniversary, VSP Global's Chief Marketing Officer Wendy Hauteman decided it was time to craft a new purpose statement. It wasn't a marketing initiative, but rather a way to set VSP up for future growth in an increasingly competitive industry. Wendy and I worked together to bring purpose to life at VSP. Listen to our conversation to find out how she got buy-in from all...

Lynne Twist is one of the most incredible people I know. She became an activist after she was inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s vision of a global society in which no one was left behind, and since then she’s gone on to write her revolutionary book, ‘The Soul of Money’, examining our cultural attitudes towards wealth. Today, Lynne runs the Pachamama Alliance, an organization that connects leaders i...