The PERSUIT Podcast

The career of Jay Rosenblum , much like a stage play, has three acts. Act 1: Government Service, first as a clerk for an appellate judge, followed by a role in the Clinton Administration. Act 2: In-house government affairs roles at highly regulated financial institutions during a time of historic regulatory change. Act 3: Senior roles in corporate leadership, first as Chief HR Officer with Guardia...

Tammy Moss Finley is a people person. Early in her career, as a labor and employment attorney, she found herself drawn to the HR world. When the opportunity arrived to join Advance Auto Parts in the HR department, she jumped at the chance. She would have the opportunity to put in place programs that would prevent the very labor issues she was being called in to handle as a lawyer. Since that momen...

The tables have turned, and the normal host of the show, Jim Delkousis , is the guest on this episode. After having spent most of his career with law firms, including most recently as a partner with DLA Piper , Jim had reached a crossroads. Approaching 50, he began to wonder, would the lessons of this upcoming decade be any different—or more of the same? At the same time, Jim was seeing digital in...

As her parents tell it, Kristin Sverchek , President of Business Affairs at Lyft , was a natural born advocate. As a child, she had a knack for clearly arguing her case. That ability to effectively advocate on behalf of herself and others has come in handy in her career which has included stints at Gunderson Dettmer, Silicon Legal Strategy, and Zimride, the company that launched Lyft. At Lyft, in...

Recently, Brandon Pace rediscovered a journal he penned when he was 5 or 6 years old. In it, he had written that he wanted to become either a doctor or a lawyer. When you come from a family of doctors and lawyers, those may seem like obvious choices. However, there was a deliberate intention behind it—a desire to focus on service and helping others. Brandon was also fascinated by technology. That’...

Challenges faced when we’re young inform our ability to handle pressure as adults. That was certainly the case for Anneliese Reinhold . When she was 13, her mother passed away from bowel cancer, and that tragedy kicked off a span of ten years that were rife with family turmoil. Yet, Anneliese believes that dealing with existential struggles at a young age is exactly what enabled her to succeed in...

Our guest today made a lot of big life decisions at a young age—a very young age. David Keim , SVP & General Counsel of Global Corporate Legal Affairs at SAS , decided to become a lawyer in the 4th grade after reading about Patrick Henry. Not only that, he met his future wife in Kindergarten (although he admits it took until the 10th grade before he realized she was the one). David knows a lot...

Benoit Balmary comes from a long line of lawyers dating back 200 years. So, you could argue that he was simply making the safe choice by going into law. He jokingly says as much. But there was a deeper pull as well: a basic belief in the nobility of law and the idea that it single-handedly separates us from chaos. Of course, as Group General Counsel at Michelin , Benoit is dealing with a far diffe...

Terry Theologides , Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Fannie Mae , attributes much of his success to his youthful impatience. It was youthful impatience that led him to move in-house as a fourth year at Wynn International. It was also youthful impatience that gave him the confidence to go after his first GC role at New Century Financial Corporation after only t...

At an early age, Meredith Fuchs realized that if you understood the law, you could make a positive impact on society The roots of this view can be traced back to an enduring love for the book, To Kill a Mockingbird . It’s why she places so much emphasis on mission and people in her career. That drive to make a difference led her to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) , where she was a...

Karyn Polak views her career as a series of ever expanding circles. After starting out in corporate finance and capital markets, she progressively expanded her circle into other skill sets, other types of companies, and other challenges. This devotion to constant growth stems from a personal belief: Once you’ve been in a seat for a little while, that’s when it’s time to go outside your comfort zon...

What drew Paul Krause to the legal profession? Logic games and puzzles. It makes complete sense for someone who, contrary to popular belief, doesn’t view legal work as adversarial. A lawyer's job, according to Paul, is all about understanding legal concepts, understanding your audience, and putting those disparate puzzle pieces together in a way that makes efficient decision-making possible for th...

Between undergrad and law school, Karen Gally , Vice President and General Counsel of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Companies , wanted to be absolutely sure a legal career was right for her. So, for a time, she pursued another profession. That brief spell in corporate communications and public policy introduced her to the world of healthcare—and that ultimately led to a lifelong passion for health law. Du...

After only 6 months at Tenneco, and at the tender age of 28, Brandon Smith found himself advising the CEO on how to navigate the company through bankruptcy. For Brandon, that was nothing new. In fact, he’s made a career out of capitalizing on opportunities to take on responsibilities beyond what is typically given to someone of his age and experience level. That trajectory of accelerated growth st...

Regina Jones , Chief Legal Officer at Baker Hughes , witnessed, firsthand, the value of integrity early on in her career. With a front-row seat to the Enron scandal, she learned that good intentions mean little if you leave your moral compass at the door. Since then, integrity and transparency have become hallmarks of her leadership style, along with an unwavering commitment to community and colla...

“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” Today’s guest, Jennifer Wuamett , takes that popular quote one step further: You also need to try out different selections before you recognize which one you like best. Indeed, her life bears that out. As a child, she aspired to be a librarian. In college, it was a biomedical illustrator. After starting down the path of a...

It was clear to Katie Barrett from an early age that she was destined for a career in law. Indeed, early — and frequent — arguments with her parents clearly proved she had a knack for the art of persuasion. Her early practice was focused on litigation — both in private practice, and subsequently, in-house with Anheuser-Busch InBev — and she credits that focus with creating valuable connections acr...

Step out of your comfort zone and you will be able to handle a remarkable range of issues. The career of Tom Moriarty is a testament to that. Early on, he accepted the risk of leaving a big law firm to join a smaller one. His goal was to develop professional skills that would pay dividends later on. At Merck, Mako Health, and CVS Health , where he’s currently the Executive Vice President, Chief Po...

In a special Thanksgiving episode, host Jim Delkousis shares a compilation of insightful thoughts our guests have had on the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion. Our guests talk about the importance of inclusion, of bias awareness, of leveraging data to enhance DEI efforts, and of diversity of thought. So, this Thanksgiving, sit back and listen in to what diversity, equity and inclusion means...

Bindu Cudjoe has spun a passion for transactions and deal-making into a rewarding career in the banking industry. Starting out in private practice negotiating deals for banks, she later transitioned in house joining BMO Bank in a variety of roles. Today, she is the Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Canadian Western Bank . Tapped as a finalist for Female Trailblaze...

The story of Caroline Tsai begins on a chicken farm 40 miles outside of Sao Paulo, Brazil. When she turned 5, her family traded in a life devoted to 20,000 chickens for a life in the big apple. Now Asian-American, her parents had but one expectation for her: become a doctor. It turned out that fate had other plans. Upon taking her first political science class, Caroline became enamored with the id...

Shanti Ariker knows tech. The majority of her career has been spent working in the tech sector for companies like Twilio , Autodesk , and Salesforce , selling everything from hardware to software, and from licensing to subscriptions.  She now works at Zendesk as the SVP, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.  This wasn’t the roadmap she had in mind at the start, but all the stops along her care...

Early on in his legal career at Novartis , Maurus Schreyvogel encountered a frustrating obstacle. The legal team had no tools, no technology, no access to knowledge, and consequently, they found themselves reinventing the wheel over and over.   It was so frustrating, in fact, that he was prepared to leave the company. Instead, he was presented with a mission that convinced him to stay: Establish t...

For Jennifer Hightower , there’s nothing more essential than mentorship. In fact, she credits her ascent to the role of SVP and GC at Cox Communications to the amazing mentors and diverse relationships she cultivated along the way. From her time as an insurance defense attorney to her time working at BellSouth and Cox Communications in the early days of telecom law, these mentors provided her with...

There’s a benefit to seeing the law from multiple different perspectives: it gives you an uncanny ability to understand how other people view an issue and what their definition of winning is. Daniel Goldstein credits his suc cess as a lawyer and as a businessperson to his exposure to diverse perspectives. He has seen the world from the perspective of a federal judge as a clerk, from the perspectiv...