The Road to Why

Brenda Smola-Foti and Frank Foti are co-founders of The Ground in Willamette Valley, Oregon.   The Ground is a place that almost defies definition – it is a regenerative agriculture farm, but also includes an Inn and Farmhouse where guests can stay, a restaurant, and a farm store.  Frank and Brenda host workshops, nature tours, group retreats, guided meditations and a lot more.   The Ground may be...

Jill Barber is President of CYMI Holdings, which serves as the family office for the Mathile Family. Jill joined CYMI in 1999 just prior to the family’s sale of Iams Pet Food Company to Procter & Gamble.   With more than two decades of experience advising three generations of the Mathile family, Jill has become a widely respected voice in the global family office community.    On today’s episo...

Nadia Rawlinson and Michael Alter are co-owners of the WNBA team, the Chicago Sky .   Nadia was the Chief People Officer at Slack Technologies when the company was acquired by Salesforce in 2021 for $28 billion.  She is an advisor for Google Ventures, serves on the Stanford University Board of Trustees and is on the Board of Directors for J. Crew and Vail Resorts.   Michael is President of the Alt...

“I think when a lot of business leaders hear me talk about play and fun, they think well, of course you would do that, you're a toy company.  But I think it's so important that every culture, every team, every organization has play incorporated into their culture.”   Robert Pasin is Chief Wagon Officer (otherwise known as CEO) of Radio Flyer .   Robert’s grandfather, an Italian immigrant, started...

“And that's when this flood of clarity came in, and I was like, I'm going to use chocolate as a medium for storytelling.”   Katrina Markoff is founder of the Chicago-based Violet Flame Chocolate .     Prior to her new venture, Katrina founded Vosges Haut-Chocolat in 1998, which expanded our understanding of what chocolate could be.   Katrina has been named one of Fortune Magazine’s “40 Under 40”,...

John Onderdonk is a fourth-generation cattle rancher and the head of Northern Trust’s Agricultural Properties Group which manages farm, ranch and timber assets as trustee and executor for Northern Trust clients.   In our episode, John will discuss the growing popularity of ranches among wealthy families and the challenges and opportunities of owing (or inheriting) these assets. (1:03) – How did Jo...

In 1955, Jane Blain Gilbertson’s parents started Blain’s Farm & Fleet in Janesville, Wisconsin.  Today the business has grown to 45 stores across four states.   Jane shares how over the past 40 years she took over the business from her father, consolidated ownership, welcomed her two daughters into the business, and is now passing the CEO baton to the next generation of leadership.   In our ep...

John Gabbert is founder and chairman of Room & Board, a home furnishings business headquartered in Minneapolis with over 1,100 staff members nationwide. As a young man, John joined his father's furniture business. In 1980 at the age of 27, John left the family business to start his own furniture company which, over the past forty years, has helped to redefine the industry. Last year John annou...

“To be in the restaurant industry, you have to enjoy being on the precipice of great success or total disaster on an almost minute-by-minute basis.” – Rob Mosher   Sarah Grueneberg is Chef and co-owner of Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio in Chicago, which has been named one of Food & Wine’s “America’s Best Restaurants,” and one of Bon Appetit’s “50 Best New Restaurants”.   Sarah got her...

Today’s episode was recorded live at New Holland Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where we interviewed New Holland Brewing’s founder and CEO, Brett VanderKamp. Brett graduated college as a Geology major but soon thereafter found his calling in the craft brewing industry and has grown New Holland Brewing into one of the most recognisable independent brewers and distillers in the country....

This month, we will be taking a brief hiatus as we prepare to launch a new podcast series, Secrets of Enterprising Families, airing in November. In this series, co-hosts Eric Czepyha and Nike Anani will interview experts on the strategies successful families have used to transfer their values, wealth, and legacy to the next generation. Join us back in November and December for new episodes of The...

Our guest today is on a mission to revolutionize the advertising industry and the way Gen Z spends money and spends time with one another.   Sam Obletz is the co-founder of Claim , which he launched with his classmate Tap Stephenson while at Harvard Business School.   The Claim app seeks to build a new way for friends to connect and for brands to reward their customers.  This is done not with more...

What if your business could be owned by its own purpose?   In today’s episode, our guests discuss the emerging trend of business owners transferring ownership of their business to a purpose trust.  Many business owners have begun to explore this alternative ownership structure as a means of preserving the values of their business, and ensuring that their business is not sold, long after the busine...

How do families talk about money together?  They usually don’t.     But talking about financial matters with family does not have to be awkward or taboo.  In fact, finding small opportunities to discuss money with your kids can build a foundation for having bigger conversations about the family’s wealth and estate plan.   As co-founder of Greenlight , Johnson Cook is helping to build this foundati...

Pat Kinsel likes to solve big problems.  As founder and CEO of Proof , formerly known as Notarize, Pat created the first company that made it possible to legally notarize documents online.   Before Proof, Pat co-founded the technology start-up Spindle, which was acquired by Twitter in 2013.  He was also a partner in the venture capital firm Polaris Partners where he helped build companies such as...

Michael Kiolbassa is CEO of San Antonio-based Kiolbassa Provision Company which was started by his grandfather 75 years ago.   The company makes hand-crafted smoked sausages and bacon and has become the #2 beef sausage brand in the U.S.  But the road has not been easy.  In fact, each generation has had to reinvent the business in their own way to keep it moving forward.   Michael shares some of th...

John Oppenheimer is the founder and chairman of Seattle-based Columbia Hospitality , which manages over 100 properties across the U.S., including hotels, resorts, golf courses, residential communities and event venues.   In addition to launching Columbia Hospitality in 1995, John has also founded five other successful, hospitality-related businesses.   In this episode, John discusses a broad range...

So many of our clients ask us the age-old question, “How much is enough?” How much of my wealth should I give to my children? At what age should I share my estate plan with my family? How do I prepare my children for the responsibility of the wealth they will inherit?   Our guests on today’s podcast have spent the better part of their careers answering these questions.  Steve Fradkin is President...

This month, we'll be taking a brief hiatus to prepare for Season 2 of The Road to Why . But we'll be back next month with more stories from business owners and entrepreneurs as they discuss their perspectives on business, family, wealth, and legacy. So stay tuned for new episodes of The Road to Why , coming March 2024. We'll see you then.

Abdur Chowdhury is a life-long entrepreneur.  Early in his career, he rose through the ranks to become AOL’s Chief Architect.  Abdur then went on to co-found Summize, a start-up where he pioneered a way to organize real-time opinions on the internet (and for which the BBC has dubbed him “the father of trending”).  In 2008 Abdur merged Summize with another start-up by the name of Twitter and became...

At the age of three, Ed Hajim was kidnapped by his father, driven cross-country, and told his mother had died.  As his father tried to find work overseas during the Great Depression, Ed spent his childhood in a string of foster homes and orphanages.   Despite these dire circumstances, Ed earned a scholarship to attend the University of Rochester, served in the U.S. Navy, graduated from Harvard Bus...

Nikè Anani is the Director of Next Gen Advisory at Northern Trust. She grew up in an enterprising family in Nigeria, where her father, a self-made entrepreneur, founded and ran their family business.   At the age of nine, Nikè relocated to the United Kingdom with her mother and two siblings in search of a better life as her father remained in Nigeria to run the family business.  Sixteen years late...

Brian Adam is the owner and President of Milwaukee-based Olympus Group, a 120-year-old company that started as an American flag manufacturer and over the years has expanded to become a world-class custom printing business and the largest mascot manufacturer in the U.S.   In this episode, Brian shares how his father bought Olympus when it was on the brink of bankruptcy and later sold the company to...

Scott O’Neil is one of the most innovative executives in the entertainment and sports industries.  As CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, Scott oversaw the company’s portfolio including the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils.  Scott has also served as President of Madison Square Garden and was Alternate Governor for the NBA and NHL for over a decade. Last year Scott made a...

In 1999, Tiffany Taylor and Leon Chen started a business delivering hot-from-the-oven cookies out of Leon’s college apartment in Austin, Texas. Today, Tiff’s Treats has 90 stores across the U.S., 1,800 employees and continues to grow. But their road to success wasn’t exactly easy.   In this episode, Tiffany and Leon discuss the challenges they encountered as they built Tiff’s Treats over the past...