Leadership Next

Climate change will force almost every industry to move away from dependence on fossil fuels. Automotive is no exception, where EVs are gaining in popularity in certain sections of the United States and across the globe. This week on Leadership Next, Diane speaks to Bill Nash, CEO of CarMax, one of the nation’s largest car resellers. Nash started his career at electronics retailer Circuit City, wh...

The climate crisis will require a whole host of solutions—spanning technology, investment, and policy. It’s this intersection that is now the focus for Tom Steyer, who’s had a hugely successful career as an investor, and more recently a Democratic political candidate. Through his company Galvanize Climate Solutions, Steyer is now investing in firms on the forefront of the climate fight. On this ep...

Technology has fundamentally altered retail shopping habits, as savvy customers know they can buy almost anything they want with a single tap of their smartphones. But JCPenney, the iconic American department store brand, says customers still value in-store shopping. For Marc Rosen, who had a long career at Levi Strauss & Co. and Walmart before taking over as JCPenney CEO in 2021, customer focus h...

Can lessons learned in the world of sports translate in the world business? Jim Kavanaugh, CEO of the tech behemoth World Wide Technology, ought to know. Long before he cofounded World Wide Technology in 1990, he represented the United States as a member of the 1984 Olympic soccer team. On this week's episode of Leadership Next, Kavanaugh talks to Diane about the AI boom, the benefits of running a...

What does a duck know about selling insurance? Nothing, unless you're Aflac. The famous duck has been the company's mascot since 2000. On this episode of Leadership Next, Diane talks to Aflac CEO Dan Amos about running the company started by his family, shifts in the insurance landscape, and, of course, the duck.    Leadership Next is powered by Deloitte.

Cybersecurity is front and center for business today, regardless of industry. That fact has helped fuel Palo Alto Networks’ growth in recent years. According to CEO Nikesh Arora, this week’s guest on Leadership Next, data security is no longer just a problem for the IT department—it impacts decision-making across all levels of an organization. Diane spoke to Arora about his long career in tech and...

Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops and Raisin Bran. These are just a few of the popular cereals that made the Kellogg Company a global leader in breakfast. But over the decades Kellogg's has expanded far beyond cereal into a snack powerhouse as well, with brands like Pringles, Pop-Tart's and the fan favorite Cheez-It crackers. Trouble is, while its snack business was growing quickly, its cereal business...

Kendra Scott started her jewelry company with $500 in 2002 out of her house in Austin. Today it’s a billion-dollar jewelry brand with both mass-market and premium lines and hundreds of retail stores across the country. On this week's episode of Leadership Next, Diane Brady talks to Kendra Scott CEO Tom Nolan about the company's growth plans, his unlikely path to the CEO role, the process of taking...

Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have become key drivers for trends in the beauty space in recent years. The power of beauty influencers shows no sign of slowing down, according to president and CEO of Sephora North America Artemis Patrick, this week’s guest on Leadership Next. After spending the bulk of her career at the LVMH-owned company, Patrick, who became North America CEO in Ap...

If you shop on the internet, you’ve probably seen Klarna—and its buy-now, pay-later installment offers—when shopping at major retailers like Bloomingdale's, Foot Locker, or Sephora. The company’s plans allow shoppers to break up purchases into four equal payments, with no interest. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski says installment plans fill a gap in the market, allowing customers some payment f...

Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa started Warby Parker as a business school project in 2010. The premise was simple: shake up the old-line optical business by selling frames online, and at a lower price than traditional retail. Today, Warby Parker is one of the biggest players in optical, a robust online business leveraging e-commerce but with a growing retail footprint of some 250 stores as well. O...

GE Appliances started making products for cooking and heating way back in 1907. Today, it’s one of the largest manufacturers of appliances in the U.S. On this episode of Leadership Next, Alan and Michal talk to GE Appliances president and CEO Kevin Nolan about the company’s culture of entrepreneurship, keeping up with changes in consumer behavior, and why “nugget ice” has become a game changer. Le...

Its origin story dates back to the birth of the United States. Today, some 240 years later, Bank of New York—the bank founded by Alexander Hamilton—is a global giant that powers large swaths of the worldwide financial system. On this week's episode of Leadership Next, Alan talks to BNY CEO Robin Vince about cybersecurity, how to build an enduring company culture, and how a 240-year-old firm innova...

In 1922, 25 military veterans came together to start USAA. At the time, military families were having difficulty getting car insurance. Fast-forward to today, and USAA provides insurance and financial services to millions of veterans and their families. This clear mission, says CEO Wayne Peacock, has actually helped the 102-year-old company remain innovative. On this episode of Leadership Next, Pe...

When David Risher became CEO of Lyft in 2023, he realized the ridesharing company had a speed problem. At the time, it took Lyft cars on average four extra minutes to arrive compared to wait times for cars from Uber, its main competitor. A year later, thanks to onboarding many more drivers onto the Lyft platform, the difference is down to 10 seconds.  On this episode of Leadership Next, Risher cha...

Volvo Cars has an ambitious goal of going all electric by 2030. But, according to CEO Jim Rowan, the EV push won't be linear. Major population centers are way ahead of rural communities, both in the U.S. and globally when it comes to things like charging infrastructure, critical for the move away from gas-powered cars. Rowan became CEO of Volvo Cars in 2022 after a long career in tech, including s...

None of Jackie Reses’s fintech contemporaries were surprised that she bought a bank. A former Square executive, Reses bought Lead Bank to address compliance and technology challenges facing fintechs. She discusses with Michal how she’s turning a 95-year-old family-owned banking institution into an innovative provider of banking infrastructure for fintechs; the importance of consistent culture acro...

Medical-device maker Masimo has been embroiled in a legal battle with Apple over alleged patent infringement and trade-secret theft—resulting in a temporary import ban on some Apple Watch models late last year. But before the medtech company was going up against tech giants in court, Masimo was a quintessential startup story running out of CEO Joe Kiani’s garage.    Kiani himself is every bit the...

The media industry has seen a lot of turbulence in the last several decades, but Jim VandeHei managed to cut through the noise and found not just one but two successful news organizations—Axios, where he still serves as CEO, and Politico. As a student, VandeHei says, he struggled academically, but found his calling as a political journalist before ultimately stepping up to be a media entrepreneur....

Everyone is talking about AI and jobs. Will AI take jobs? Will it add jobs? What skills do I need to sharpen as AI continues to impact work? Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn, talks with cohosts Alan and Michal about what he’s seeing in the data. Roslansky explains why he is transforming LinkedIn into an AI company, and what that will look like for users as well as employees. He also discusses how h...

E-commerce is a notoriously competitive landscape—but online pet retailer Chewy has managed to not just survive, but thrive. Since joining the company in 2018, CEO Sumit Singh has shepherded Chewy through its IPO in 2019 and its debut on the Fortune 500 list in 2021. He talks with Alan and Michal about Chewy’s obsession with customer loyalty; his background in e-commerce and supply chain, with top...

Autodesk is a 1980s software company that continues to reinvent itself. CEO Andrew Anagnost attributes this to the company’s ability to be the first to “kill our own businesses.” Anagnost goes into detail about how he sees AI impacting architecture, specifically when it comes to sustainable construction. He and cohosts Alan and Michal also discuss AI regulation; his “problematic” teenage years; wh...

Alan sits down with Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins at a Fortune CEO Initiative dinner in NYC, to have a conversation focused on his new role as chair of the Business Roundtable. Robbins discusses the challenges facing business today, and what he hopes the BRT can accomplish during the next presidential administration, including improvement to trade and immigration, and better policy around tech. He also...

Alan sits down with Judy Marks at Deloitte University in Westlake, Texas, to have a wide-ranging conversation about Judy’s career in front of an audience of next-generation CEOs. She recalls Otis’s 2020 spinoff from United Technologies; what she learned as CEO of the newly independent company during COVID; Otis’s growth in the last four years, boosted by its innovation and service business; geopol...

Priscilla Almodovar, CEO of Fannie Mae, is the only Latina on the Fortune 500. She talks to Michal and Alan about how she uses her platform as CEO to make housing more equitable, and recalls her Puerto Rican parents buying their first home on Long Island, N.Y., and how important a piece of the American Dream that was for them. She also discusses her experience as a woman on Wall Street; how Latino...