Leadership Next

Fortune's 2023 Brainstorm Tech Conference took place over three days last week, and it was one of our buzziest conferences yet. CEOs, a former Vice President, investors, founders, journalists and entrepreneurs gathered in Park City, UT, our first year hosting BST in the "Silicon Slopes," to discuss what's happening in the tech industry. In this episode of Leadership Next, host Michal Lev-Ram is jo...

When Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz took over the toymaker in 2018, he was the company's fourth CEO in four years. Mattel's internal culture was rigid and top down, and operating income was at a $343 million loss. Kreiz implemented cost saving and restructuring measures, which included laying off almost 2,000 people and closing five Mattel factories. In 2021, the company recorded $730 million in profit. Ma...

The changing public expectations for how corporations should honor Pride month has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride over the past decade. Pressure from both the public and from employees to support the LGBTQ+ community has been vocalized and well documented. That pressure was followed by some corporate missteps and accusations of pinkwashing, but this year’s corporate pride celebrations...

Dave Calhoun took over as the CEO of Boeing in January 2020 in the midst of two major crises: the crash of two of Boeing's 737 Max aircrafts that led to the grounding of the fleet and an abysmal internal culture that was being discussed in the press and throughout the industry. Calhoun has led the company through a notable turnaround in the past three years, as reflected in the company's earnings...

Over 30 million Americans suffer from some form of kidney disease, and roughly 600,000 people have their kidneys fail. It's a chronic disease that requires chronic treatment, and there is a Fortune 500 healthcare company dedicated to supporting people living with it. DaVita, an Italian phrase meaning "give life", is number 357 on this year's 500. It runs almost 3,000 outpatient dialysis centers ac...

Delta Air Lines soared twenty-eight spots up the 2023 Fortune 500 to reach number eighty-five. Demand for air travel is bouncing back to and beyond pre-pandemic levels, and Delta's earnings are bouncing back along with it. Delta reported $51 billion in revenue in 2022, a 69% jump from the previous year. This is not the first time CEO Ed Bastian is leading Delta through a period of bouncing back. B...

Emma Walmsley, who became CEO of drug giant GSK in 2017 after 17 years at L'Oreal, has led the company through several challenges: disappointing COVID-19 vaccine candidates, noise from activist investors, and Europe's largest demerger in two decades when the company spun out its consumer healthcare business. But according to Walmsley this all comes with the job. And, she also has a lot to celebrat...

Reid Hoffman might be best known as the cofounder of LinkedIn. He’s also a partner at the VC firm Greylock and was an early investor in OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT. He's been investing in and writing about A.I. for several years, and recently he put the technology's capabilities to the test. In March 2023, he released his book Impromptu: Amplifying Our Humanity With A.I. , co-writte...

When Brian Cornell became Target's CEO in 2014, the company was in desperate need of a turnaround. The retailer was plagued by supply chain problems, trying to recover from a major data hack and struggling to compete with e-commerce giants like Amazon. In today's episode of Leadership Next, Cornell talks about some of the key decisions he's made that have led Target to now be ranked number 32 on t...

May 12th is National Childcare Provider Appreciation day. To show our appreciation for the workers who take care of our kids, Leadership Next is bringing you an episode of Where's My Village? Fortune's podcast about America's childcare crisis and the people who are trying to fix it. You can listen and subscribe to the entire series here. In this episode of Where's My Village?, Fortune senior write...

In the spring of 2020, the travel industry ground to a halt due to COVID. Marriott International's business dropped more than 90 percent. Where does the company stand today? CEO Anthony Capuano joins Leadership Next to provide an answer to that question. And yes, the answer does involve "bleisure" travel - the growing trend of combining work and leisure travel. Marriott International is made up of...

Each year Fortune brings together experts from a variety of fields to talk about health care, how it's changing, and the vital role business plays in the industry. Leadership Next hosts Alan Murray and Michal Lev-Ram both attended Fortune's Brainstorm Health event and today they're sharing some of their favorite conversations with you. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy explores the consequence...

In 2019, Moderna reported revenues of sixty million dollars. By 2022 it was number 195 on the Fortune 500 with over $18 billion in revenue. This meteoric rise was due to Moderna's development of one of the major COVID-19 vaccines. Now, thankfully, the height of the pandemic has passed and the need for these vaccines is far less urgent. There is something to be said about your marquee product being...

In this episode of Leadership Next, Alan Murray is joined by his new co-host Fortune Editor-at-Large, Michal Lev-Ram. In Lev-Ram's first episode, she and Murray speak to Christa Quarles of Alludo. Alludo, formerly known as Corel, is a software company whose products enable people to work from anywhere. Quarles became the CEO of Alludo in 2020, after stints as the CEO of OpenTable and the SVP of In...

When Vicki Hollub was named CEO of Occidental Petroleum in 2016, she became the first woman to lead a major oil and gas company. In the years since she's brokered some big acquisitions, brought on Warren Buffett as a major investor and produced record returns for shareholders. But the savvy Leadership Next listener wants to know: can you do all of that AND truly care about sustainability? Hollub s...

Mark Newman is the second CEO of Chemours, a chemical company that spun out of DuPont in 2015. Chemours is now a global company with almost 7,000 employees, $7 billion in revenue and has three industry-leading businesses. Chemours may be best known for producing Teflon, a chemical coating associated with non-stick surface on pots and pans. Teflon is also considered a polyfluoroalkyl substance. Pol...

Zipline is the world’s largest commercial drone delivery system. Since the company’s founding in 2014, Zipline’s autonomous electric aircrafts have delivered hundreds of thousands of packages to people around the world. It's planning to complete 1 million deliveries by the end of 2023. Most of the packages the Zips have delivered include vital items like medicine, vaccines and PPE. Zipline's first...

Prudential Financial was founded in Newark, N.J. in 1875 with the goal of providing insurance to everyday American families. Almost 150 years later, Prudential has offices all over the world and now provides investment management and other financial services along with insurance. In this episode of Leadership Next, Prudential CEO Charlie Lowrey joins hosts Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt to talk abou...

CVS Health is ranked number four on the Fortune 500. And when Karen Lynch became the company's CEO in 2021, it was a big deal. No woman had ever led a company that highly ranked on the list before. Plus, she brought some serious ambitions for healthcare to her role. The short version: she wants to provide a continuum of both physical and mental healthcare for CVS customers. Since taking over as CE...

Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter has launched a lot of creative dreams, including those of household consumer names like Peloton and Allbirds. Since its founding in 2009, backers have pledged over $7 billion to over 200,000 projects on the platform. For Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor, these numbers are just a start. In this episode of Leadership Next, hosts Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt talk to T...

Cotopaxi is an outdoor gear and apparel brand that pledges to give at least 1% of its annual revenue to charitable causes through its Cotopaxi Foundation. Cotopaxi is also a certified B corp and 94% of its products contain recyclable or reusable materials. On its mission to help people and the planet, Cotopaxi is also making money. In 2022, the company surpassed $100 million in revenue. Its work h...

In 2020, BP CEO Bernard Looney announced the international oil company planned to significantly increase investments in solar and wind energy while cutting oil and gas production - and thus carbon emissions - up to 40 percent by 2030. Last week, amid soaring oil prices, BP rolled back that commitment. BP's new plan is to reduce its oil output 25 percent by 2030 and its Scope 3 carbon emissions by...

Forty-five million Americans are credit invisible, meaning they do not have a credit score or have had very little opportunity to build credit. Many of these millions are people of color, low-income people or immigrants. Esusu co-CEO Wemimo Abbey is trying to do something about that. Esusu is on a mission to democratize access to credit. By reporting on-time rental payments to the three major cred...

Welcome back for season four of Leadership Next! In today's season opener, hosts Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt present exclusive content from Davos, where Coca-Cola's James Quincey, Novartis' Vasant Narasimhan and Grab's Anthony Tan joined Fortune for conversation over dinner. On the menu: discussion around the biggest opportunities and challenges facing business in 2023. Murray, McGirt and the pan...

In this final Leadership Next of 2022, Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt are joined by Joe Ucuzoglu, CEO of Deloitte and long-time supporter of the podcast. The team talks through how the biggest news of the year impacted CEO leadership, and discusses what's ahead for business in 2023. You'll also hear thoughts, reflections and advice from CEOs featured throughout this season, including Doug McMillon o...