The Storied Future

Steve Clayton is Chief Communications Officer at Cisco and the former Chief Storyteller at Microsoft , where he spent 15 years helping shape how one of the world’s most influential companies communicates with the world. In this conversation, Steve joins Chris Hare for a thoughtful and surprisingly personal discussion about storytelling, creativity, identity, and the moments that quietly shape a li...

Gilad Tiefenbrun is the second-generation CEO of Linn , the iconic, heritage hi-fi company founded in Scotland in the early 1970s. In this conversation, Gilad joins Chris Hare for a rich discussion about engineering, succession, culture, and the deeper human values that shape great leadership.  At the center of the episode is a deceptively simple Linn principle: lose less. It began as an audio ins...

Earlier this year, I traveled to Rockport, Texas to chase redfish with legendary fly fishing guide Alvin Dedeaux and his crew at All Water Guides . The first day was tough fishing. Really tough. Why? Besides the fact that I’m not great at fly fishing, there was next to no sun, a whole lot of clouds, and a whole lot of shadows. And if you’ve fished there before, you know that you need a lot of ligh...

In this special episode, learn about Sienna Jackson’s extraordinary journey from child prodigy to becoming Director of Film and Television Music at The Weinstein Company by the age of 20, to working to build safer and more just workplaces for people everywhere.  Across every stage of her storied career, Sienna has demonstrated an audacious faith in the future and, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther...

There are few narratives bigger than space exploration, and few journeys that require a more dogged commitment to an unseen future—one that can only be reached through sustained innovation, flawless operations, and a whole lot of belief in that future. Today's guest, Steve Rader, has worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center for 34 years, in mission control, developing software for the Space Shut...

Our guest on the first episode of 2024 is Jennifer Riel, an IDEO Partner and Chief Strategy Officer. Before IDEO, Jennifer spent 13 years at the Rotman School of Management , where she taught undergrads, MBAs, and executives how to think creatively about their toughest challenges. During this period, she partnered with organizations to help them build their strategic thinking capabilities and tran...

Today’s guest, Jonathan Adler, is an internationally recognized scholar in the study of personal narrative and its relationship with well-being. Jonathan is a professor of psychology at Olin College of Engineering, a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School, and a theater director and playwright. His work brings together the rigor of science with the wonder and mystery of art, to show how writing...

Our guest today is Dr. Herminia Ibarra , the Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School and an authority on leadership and career development. Earlier this year, Herminia and her colleagues Claudius A. Hildebrand and Sabine Vinck published an article in Harvard Business Review called “ The Leadership Odyssey ,” which explored the correlation between CEO skills an...

Today's guest, Brian Janous, is the former VP of Energy at Microsoft . In fact, he was their first ever energy hire back in 2011. Until his departure earlier this year, Brian oversaw energy strategy and sourcing for all of Microsoft’s cloud and AI infrastructure, including procuring renewable energy for the company to meet its carbon objectives. Since the earliest days of his career, Brian ha...

Today's guest is Jim Citrin , a legend in the world of CEO search and succession. Jim is the leader of Spencer Stuart 's CEO practice. Over the course of his career, he's interviewed over 14,000 candidates and worked with clients on more than 800 searches and succession assignments. Jim's gift is seeing the future—a future that candidates and companies don't always see—and...

If you enjoy flight metaphors, this is the episode for you! Chris talks to Art delaCruz of Team Rubicon , an extraordinary nonprofit that's shifting the future for veterans and communities affected by natural disasters. In 2021, Art filled the shoes of season 1 guest Jake Wood , the cofounder and former CEO of Team Rubicon. In this episode, Art and Chris discuss:  How Art got his start as a f...

In 1996, a 27-year-old woman walked into Smith Barney for her very first day as a secretary. A recent college grad with a degree in piano and no business experience, Ivy League pedigree, or marketable skills other than typing fast, it wasn't long before she saw the future she wanted: a career as an investment banker. But that future seemed out of reach. Or was it? That woman was Whitney Johns...

The Storied Future Podcast gives high-performing CEOs a front-row seat to candid conversations with leaders who have put new narratives out into the world, and then used those narratives to shift the future. If you want to create a future where you’re not only proud of what you’ve accomplished, but of how you accomplished it, how it changed you, and who you took with you, host Chris Hare and his g...

In this special episode in honor of Black History Month, Chris is joined by Aaron Craig Mitchell . Aaron is the former director of HR at Netflix Animation Studios , where he helped engineer the company's pledge to allocate 2 percent of its cash holdings into financial institutions and organizations that directly support Black communities in the U.S. Aaron describes himself as a tortoise (a no...

Chris closes out the first season of the podcast with a conversation with Erica Brinker, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of ESG at Array Technologies . Erica is an extraordinary leader who knows how to build a brand and prove her impact. Prior to Array, Erica was CMO at Honeywell , an industrial that historically didn’t believe in marketing. She drove demand through the roof for Honeywell by bui...

Today, Chris talks to Jake Wood, CEO and founder of Groundswell , an innovative new corporate giving platform that enables companies to empower employees with their own donor-advised funds. As a former Marine sniper who received three meritorious promotions for leading combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Jake shares how he overcame fear and chaos on the battlefield. And he explains how the le...

In this episode, Chris is joined by Netflix ’s Heather Dowdy for a conversation about her work in shifting the narratives that impact how people with disabilities and people of color with disabilities are received in our culture.  Heather is a child of deaf adults (CODA) who grew up on the south side of Chicago at the intersection of race, disability, socioeconomic status, and technology. She beca...

In this episode, Chris is joined by a friend, former colleague, and mentor from his time at Amazon Marketplace, Pete Sauerborn.  Pete is a seasoned eCommerce leader with impeccable credentials: a VP at Amazon Marketplace, an MBA from Chicago Booth, stints at Apple and McKinsey, and owner of a $300 million P&L at Teleflora. But what sets Pete apart is his customer obsession. That’s a buzzword,...

Today The Storied Future Podcast welcomes Kyle Arteaga, cofounder and CEO of the Bulleit Group , an award-winning high-tech PR agency. From an early age, Kyle believed that the science fiction of movies and television could become reality— had to become reality.  At the core of Kyle and his team’s mission is a recognition of the ways technology has shaped the present, and a determination to tell t...

Welcome to the seventh episode of The Storied Future Podcast , where Chris talks to Mark Stouse, founder and CEO of Proof Analytics . If you’ve been listening to the show regularly, you know we explore how leaders use narrative to transform the future of a business. Mark has done that many times over, but his story of personal transformation is not to be missed. He also highlights how analytics ca...

Today’s guest is Andrew Walsh of Applicate Commerce . As the president and CEO of Applicate, Andrew is at the helm of one of the biggest shifts in the company’s sixty-year history. The company—previously known as Paint Sundries Solutions—had stayed in their lane for decades as a distributor of applied architectural products. But the rise of ecommerce was disrupting their linear supply chain, threa...

Our guest on the fifth episode of the Storied Future Podcast is Ebbie Parsons, III. Ebbie is the founder and managing partner of Yardstick Management , a renowned Black-owned management consulting firm based in Atlanta, Georgia that helps clients transform their organizations to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. They count among their clients some of the top companies in the world, includ...

Our guest today is Julie Brown, the extraordinary leader architecting and executing on a massive transformation strategy for a nearly $7 billion HVAC, Fire, and Security division of Johnson Controls . Julie helps lead a team of folks who are keeping critical systems running smoothly at schools and hospitals across the country. Behind the scenes, though, they’re navigating the uncomfortable upheava...

In the third episode of the Storied Future Podcast, Chris talks to Bracken Darrell, the CEO of Logitech , about how a design narrative can help any company reinvent itself. In 2013, Logitech was a computer peripheral maker facing a bleak outlook due to due to a plateau in worldwide PC sales. So Bracken hired Nokia design guru Alastair Curtis, moved R&D budget out of mice and keyboards and into...

Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Storied Future Podcast! We’re glad you’re here.  In this show, host Chris Hare talks to C-Suite leaders, experts, and innovators who are transforming themselves and their companies through the power of strategic narratives. Our very first guest is the incredible Mary Shea, currently VP, Global Innovation Evangelist at Outreach and a former principal analyst...