ROI’s Into the Corner Office Podcast: Powerhouse Middle Market CEOs Telling it Real—Unexpected Caree...

Gilbert was born in San Antonio, Texas to an alcoholic mother and a drug-addicted father, but God had a plan. Through a journey of hope and miracles God made a way. He graduated from South San West Campus. He then attended International Bible College where he graduated in 1996 and completed his Master’s in Theology. Gilbert has been in ministry since the age of fourteen and became a Youth Pastor a...

Travis Penfield is the Founder and CEO of 49 Financial.  Travis graduated Magna Cum Laude from Texas A&M University in 2011 with a degree in Finance from Mays Business School. Upon graduating from A&M, he worked at Deloitte Consulting until November of 2012 when he started his career as a financial advisor at AXA Advisors.  While at AXA, early on in his career, Travis started building a team of ad...

My name is Thomas Foster and my wife Donna, my son Douglas, and I own Strapworks.com. Sewing straps began with a love for rafting. I founded the rafting program as a sophomore at UC Davis California in 1974. In 1975 Donna and I started Sierra Whitewater Expeditions Rafting Company, taking guests on river trips all over California, Oregon, and Washington. In 1976 we started Strapworks as our raftin...

About Tom: Tom Gardner and his wife Janeen of 26 years and their 4 sons live in Pittsville, WI, the central Wisconsin town where Tom grew up. Tom is the Chief Stewarding Officer of Hay Creek Companies. Tom launched Hay Creek as a trucking company as a one-truck owner/operator in 1985, then grew to a multi-truck trucking company in 1993, and eventually evolved into a pallet company in 2000. Hay Cre...

On each #GivingTuesday, we like to highlight our guests from the nonprofit sector and the amazing work they are doing. Bill Dwyer is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Helping Hand Center. Helping Hand Center serves the Chicago land area and was started in the early 1950s to provide education, independence, and vocational training to people of all ages with intellectual and developmental...

In 1981 my grandfather passed away leaving me some of his woodworking equipment.  In 1988 at age 21, I purchased a rental property where I was able to set up and expand my woodworking shop. Following high school graduation in 1985 Conestoga Wood Specialties, Inc. employed me, as a door assembler in their production facility.  My intention was to work a year prior to moving on to a furthering of my...

Jeff Thomas is Founder and CEO of Archetype Wealth Partners. Jeff was named to Morgan Stanley's Chairman's Club in 2008, recognized within the top 2% of all advisors globally. From 2009 to 2013, Barron's magazine recognized him as "One of Texas' Top Financial Advisors". After 25 years of working at some of the biggest names on Wall Street, Jeff founded Archetype Wealth Partners, a pure fiduciary p...

Tim Kachuriak is the founder and Chief Innovation and Optimization Officer for NextAfter, a fundraising research lab and consulting firm that works with businesses, nonprofits, and NGOs to help them grow their resource capacity. A nonprofit thought leader, Kachuriak is the author of the book Optimize Your Fundraising, lead researcher and co-author of the Online Fundraising Scorecard, Why Should I...

Chances are, if you’ve spoken to Erik for any length of time, you’ve heard him talk about his family. His beautiful wife and kids are his world. Erik is a huge proponent of being intentional with time and keeping work at work -- which his wife thinks that’s pretty cool! You may also find Erik talking about spiritual disciplines well before business. His faith informs his work and leadership heavil...

Chris is the co-founder and CEO of SDLC Partners L.P., a business and technology consultancy that delivers commercial-grade solutions to clients that are optimizing and transforming their operations, experiences, and business models. His 30+-year career highlights executive leadership and success in growing businesses, building strong teams, and implementing strategies that drive growth. Under his...

Robert M. Brown is President, CEO, and Chairman of American Asphalt Company. It is believed that the owner of the business is actually God, and Bob has been entrusted to manage these people and assets while he is here on earth! Bob is the visionary of the business, looking for opportunities to grow the list of satisfied customers and also help the people grow who depend on the company for employme...

Thomas M. Troy is president and chief executive officer of CSAA Insurance Group, a AAA insurer. With more than 100 years of experience serving AAA members, CSAA Insurance Group offers automobile, homeowners and other personal lines of insurance to AAA members through AAA clubs. CSAA Insurance Group has been rated A or better by A.M. Best for more than 90 years, and is one of the top property and c...

Fee Stubblefield is the CEO, Founder and President of The Springs Living with its home office in McMinnville, Oregon. Fee started The Springs Living in 1996, with an idea to build a retirement community his grandmother would want to live in as she faced the challenges of aging. Today there are 12 communities in Oregon and 5 communities in Montana. They offer senior living with options for independ...

David Lancashire is the Co-Founder & CEO of projekt202, an experience-driven transformation firm headquartered in Dallas, TX. Over the past 16 years, projekt202 has refined a methodology for creating and delivering improved experiences for employees and customers everywhere. By observing people in their everyday environments, projekt202 can reveal the reality of their needs to drive real technolog...

Steven J. Shifman is the President & Chief Executive Officer of Michelman, a large privately held global technology and manufacturing company. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and employing approximately 500 associates Michelman has sales and administrative offices, technology centers, and manufacturing operations in the United States, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Singapore, China, India, and J...

About Jonas Bordo Jonas Bordo is the CEO and Co-Founder of Dwellsy, the free residential rental marketplace that makes it easy to find hard-to-find rentals. Prior to co-founding Dwellsy, Jonas was a senior executive at several leading real estate firms including Essex Property Trust and Bentall GreenOak and was with the Boston Consulting Group after graduating with his MBA from the University of C...

Julie Tupler is a Registered Nurse, Certified Personal Trainer and Childbirth Educator. She is in the ‘better belly” business. Better belly after having a baby, better belly after abdominal surgery, and better belly after doing improper abdominal exercises like crunches. Pregnancy, abdominal surgery and crunches separate your abdominal muscles causing back pain, umbilical hernia, poor posture and...

ACBL named Mark Knoy as its president and chief executive officer in August 2011. Prior to joining ACBL, he was vice president of American Electric Power’s (AEP) Fuel, Emissions and Logistics Group and president of AEP River Operations, having joined AEP with its 2001 purchase of MEMCO Barge Line. From 1984 to 1994, he was owner/operator of The Mark Twain Towing Company and Delmar Marine, Inc., Pe...

For someone who left home with $40 in her pocket to fetch a job in a call center in Mumbai, Anu Shah has come a long way in her career, overtaking challenges & hurdles head-on. Her career kickstarted with an FMCG company in Mumbai where she had to demonstrate extreme endurance in blazing heat for over 8 hours a day to cover 40 shops, to earn a commission of a mere $10 a month. From there she has c...

Mark’s business career started in Indianapolis with the Burroughs Corporation where he played a business development role in their financial services division. After three years with Burroughs, Mark was offered a payroll market development position with a regional bank holding company who provided payroll and related services to both bank and non-bank clients. At the ripe age of 29, Mark and two o...

Mike Grossman has 25 years of entrepreneurial and executive experience. Currently CEO of Inflection, the country's fastest growing background screening provider, he has also been CEO of a diverse set of innovative, VC-funded software companies, including LiveCapital, Tempo, Attributor, SugarSync, and Zetta, all of which were ultimately acquired. Mike’s experience in large companies includes leader...

Michael Castagna is our Chief Executive Officer and serves on the Board of Directors for MannKind Corporation. Dr. Castagna has over 20 years of experience in healthcare, pharmaceutical, biotech, and specialty pharmacy industries. He joins MannKind from Amgen, Inc., where he spent over three years as Vice President, Global Commercial Lead for a portfolio of nine biosimilar drugs, and Vice Presiden...

Following surgery and chemotherapy to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Michael O’Neil emerged humbled, inspired and ready to finish the graduate studies interrupted unexpectedly by cancer. Steering the final year of his J.D./M.B.A. program from business plan to life mission, Michael founded GetWellNetwork to tackle an unaddressed problem in healthcare: educating, engaging and empowering patients and...

I have a passion to see people meet Jesus and get to know God. Why? Because for years I was one of those guys who tried to follow all the rules, do everything right, and I even had some success. In the end though, my focus on “being right” led me to actually behave as if “I was always right”. I was no fun to be around. God in his mercy let things fall apart, and then met me in my brokenness. I hav...

Frank Frietsch is Executive Vice President of Layher and CEO of Layher North America. He has served SAIA in numerous capacities since 2014, including time spent on the Executive Board. Frank holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the FH Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences and advanced degrees from FH Pforzheim University and a MBA Steinbeis-Hochschule in Berlin. In his free time, he en...