Top Of The Game

ILEANA MUSA BIO Ileana is Morgan Stanley’s Co-Head of International Wealth Management and the Head of International Banking & Lending. In these roles she leads the segment and strategy that focuses on Morgan Stanley’s International Client Advisors and international clients to ensure they have access to strategic solutions, services and thought leadership to address both sides of a client’s bal...

GARY ACOSTA BIO Gary Acosta is an entrepreneur, public policy advocate, and investor. He is the Co-Founder & CEO of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP ), one of the largest Hispanic business organizations in the nation. He also created the Hispanic Wealth Project, co-founded L’ATTITUDE, and is a general partner of its fund, L’ATTITUDE Ventures.   A self-desc...

EDUARDO PEÑALVER BIO Eduardo M. Peñalver is President of Seattle University and previously served as the Dean of Cornell Law School. A coming home of sorts given his formative years were spent in Puyallup and Tacoma. Professor Peñalver’s legal scholarship focuses on property and land use, as well as law and religion. His work explores the way in which the law mediates the interests of individuals...

Cesar was a civil rights, Latino, farm worker, and labor leader; a religious and spiritual figure; a community servant and social entrepreneur; a crusader for nonviolent social change; and an environmentalist and consumer advocate. In 1968, Chavez gained attention as leader of a nationwide boycott of California table grapes in a drive to achieve labor contracts. He fasted for 25 days in 1968 to af...

NOTE This episode is the first dual release show for Top Of The Game. It was produced by and originally released on Evan Epstein's podcast, Boardroom Governance , on August 26, 2024. Our host enjoyed the tables being turned on him and being a guest, The conversation covers a broad range of topics: leadership, capitalism, boards, technology (AI), macro dynamics and the future. Original 🔗 here .  A...

This bonus episode is President John F. Kennedy's first state of the union address to Congress on January 30, 1961, 10 days after his inauguration. It is also 13 days after President Eisenhower gave his farewell address and which this podcast released two weeks ago on August 7, 2024. It will be interesting for listeners to hear the two speeches back to back. In the speech President Kennedy discuss...

LUIS MIRANDA BIO Luis Antonio Miranda Concepción is a political strategist, philanthropist, advocacy consultant and author, his latest book: "Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit That Is Transforming America” with a foreword by his son, Lin-Manuel Miranda.  Luis was born and raised in Puerto Rico and moved to NYC at 19 when he received a scholarship from NYU.  In the 1980s, Miranda was a spec...

This bonus episode is President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation on January 17, 1961 - three days before JFK's inauguration.  When the United States entered WWII, Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Chief of Staff for the Third Army. Less than four years later, he was a 5-star general who commanded millions of soldiers, sailors, and airmen from a broad Allied coalition becoming one o...

STACIE OLIVARES BIO Stacie Olivares structures and optimizes funds and innovations for scaled impact. She is a board director and chief investment officer for best-in-class funds and innovative companies with oversight of $1.4 trillion in retirement funds, $29 billion of insurance industry sustainable investment, and more than $3 trillion bond issuance. Stacie is a Senate-confirmed member of the F...

MICHAEL'S BIO The Honorable Michael Montelongo, a former presidential appointee and Senate-confirmed official, is a board governance and audit committee financial expert serving on the boards of Civeo Corporation (NYSE: CVEO), Conduent Inc (NASDAQ: CNDT), Palmex Ltd., and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). He has a broad industry, sector and functional experience which include...

JAKE + AMANDA = TRNDSTTRS This episode is a remarkable master class on all things Gen Z from the Founder & CEO (Jake Bjorseth) and Chief TikTok Officer (Amanda Johansen) of the largest independent marketing agency in the world focused on Gen Z → Trndsttrs. The agency was founded in 2018 and its team has some of the  best GenZ content creators, social media managers, influencer marketers and st...

|Show Notes| This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at The Alumni Society’s Leadership Summit in Brooklyn, NYC on June 13, 2024. It marks our show’s first ever live recording and the audio level is lower than studio quality. Also, today (July 9, 2024) happens to be our guest's birthday - happy birthday Gus! GUSTAVO’S BIO Gustavo Alberelli (Gus) is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of...

Yvonne Liser is a 4th generation DC native that has been researching genealogy since the mid-1990s. Over the years of research she has met new cousins, travelled, and found how her families lived in history. Yvonne is the historian for 5 families and leads 3 genealogy DNA groups. She has discussed her remarkable family history on the PBS series African American Lives 2 and Nightly News with Lester...

RODRIGO’S BIO Four facts: This is our 50th episode, there are 50 states in our country, 50 stars in our flag, and tomorrow is July 4th!  The United States of America is celebrating its 248th birthday, which is why we decided to release this conversation today. Rodrigo Garcia is a decorated veteran of the United States Marine Corps who fought in three tours of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars between...

GRACE’S BIO Dr. Grace Colon is multicultural in many ways, but having New Orleans and San Juan lineage in equal parts makes for an interesting array of cuisine options growing up. She has 25+ years of experience in biopharma, genomics, diagnostics, synthetic biology, healthcare and industrial biotechnology.  Most recently, she served as CEO and President of InCarda Therapeutics, where she led the...

FLORIAN’S BIO Florian Faber has one of the coolest jobs in the world, he is CEO and on the Board of Directors of MCH Group, which among many endeavors owns, hosts, curates and puts together the incredible spectacles the four Art Basel shows deliver to millions. Last week, they concluded Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland, as he calls it “the mothership” and Art Basel Miami Beach takes place there eve...

BEATRIZ’S BIO Beatriz sometimes wears a black t-shirt with two simple words - “La Jefa”, en ingles, The Boss. And that, she has been, and continues to be as a serial founder, CEO, trailblazing, Emmy-winning remarkable woman.  In her words: “In my life journey, I've always strived not just for personal achievements but to reshape narratives and champion the next generation of Latino leaders.” She h...

NICK’S BIO Between growing up in a northern England rural town to leading global insights and analytics for one of the most successful consumer products companies in the world – a lot happens. This is the case for Nick Graham, a remarkable student of human behavior, societal trends and consumer taste. Nick studied History & French at Oxford University which somehow led him to start a career in...

On Memorial Day we thank the men and women who perished defending our freedom and liberty with a beautiful rendition of God Bless America and short speeches from President Reagan and President Clinton. They touch on the values we share, things we hold dear, and our duty to remember their ultimate sacrifice. Since the American Revolutionary War (our first) until today,  about 2.3 million Americans...

MICHELLE’S BIO Michelle Caruso-Cabrera’s three decades of experience has been anchored at the nexus of finance, economic development, and communications. Michelle was the first Latina anchor at CNBC where she is now a Contributor and also served as the network’s Chief International Correspondent for over a decade. These trailblazing roles were preceded by serving as a news producer at Univision an...

MATT’S  BIO Matt’s story is remarkable for many reasons including his perseverance, resilience, grit, determination and disposition in the face of devastating circumstances. After learning he was going deaf in college, Matt decided to make a mental log of the songs that over the years connected him to the memories and moments that he most cherished. The start of his hearing loss happened in synchr...

Today is Sunday May 12, 2024 and every year in the US the second Sunday of May is Mothers Day. On this bonus episode I asked people two questions 1) what makes their moms amazing and remarkable and 2) what are some of the biggest lessons you learned from her? These are their answers.

ELIZABETH’S BIO NOTE| This episode is longer than usual→ ‘Top Of The Game (in) Overtime’ shows are released occasionally In between immigrating from Ethiopia to America as a three-month old to running one of the largest healthcare systems in the country, a lot happens. In Dr. Wako’s case: she was a nurse who became a doctor who ended up being chief medical officer of a hospital campus, then runnin...

NAVNEET’S BIO Navneet Govil has come a very long way. He was born and raised in Zambia with a remarkable trajectory culminating in his current role: Executive Managing Partner and Chief Financial Officer of Softbank Investment Advisers and its Softbank Vision Funds collectively managing the largest venture capital fund(s) in the world, well over $100 billion. In this wide-ranging conversation we t...

CHRISTY’S BIO This talk is a master class on the media & entertainment world and the disruptive forces changing it from someone who has been a media executive, trailblazing entrepreneur and Hollywood super-agent. Christy Haubegger most recently served as EVP of Communications and Chief Inclusion Officer for WarnerMedia  leading an organization of 450 executives, spanning Communications, Corpor...