Real Leadership

What happens when a leader running nearly 660 stores decides the answer is less strategy, not more? Doug Hisel is Senior Vice President of Store Operations at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store. He oversees field operations for the restaurant and retail sides of nearly 660 stores across 43 states. His path started far from the executive suite. He was a college bartender at Ruby Tuesday who spent eig...

What does it take to become the third generation to lead an 87-year-old family business…and still make it your own? Justin Golden is CEO of Stephen Gould, one of the largest independent supply chain solutions providers in the country. Founded in 1939 as a small packaging storefront on Manhattan's Lower East Side, Stephen Gould has grown under three generations of the Golden family into a global pa...

What does it take to turn a bankruptcy, a padlocked warehouse, and a $30,000 loan from your father into a company on pace for a billion dollars in revenue, building critical infrastructure for the AI era…without losing the culture that got you there? Robert L. Mason is the Founder and CEO of SPOC Energy (formerly SPOC Automation), a company that designs and manufactures advanced power conversion a...

What does it really take to turn procurement from “the department that says no” into a genuine strategic partner? In this episode, Jim sits down with Joseph DeMarco, Chief Procurement Officer at ABM Industries, one of the largest integrated facility services companies in the world. ABM keeps airports, hospitals, stadiums, warehouses, and office towers running behind the scenes, self-performing 70-...

What does it take to become the first-ever Chief Marketing Officer at two different companies? Mark-Hans Richer has done it twice — nine years at Harley-Davidson and nine years at Fortune Brands, with a nearly decade-long run at GM in between steering Chevy Trucks, GMC, and Pontiac.  Along the way he's picked up two Cannes Gold Lions, three Gold Effies, a 2026 Leadership Orbie from Chicago CMO, an...

What does it look like to run philanthropy with the discipline of a business and the empathy of a social worker? Tiffany Benjamin is the CEO of the Humana Foundation, the philanthropic arm of one of the largest healthcare companies in the country. A Harvard-trained lawyer, she started at a major firm, spent several years as senior investigative counsel for Congress, and rose through Eli Lilly’s le...

How do you lead an organization you can’t control? Dan Florness has spent 30 years answering that question at Fastenal and the last 11 as CEO of what is now a $9 billion industrial distributor operating in 26 countries. He joined as CFO in 1996, when the company’s run rate was about $250 million. Today, Fastenal does $37 million in revenue a day. It takes about a week to match a full year of the b...

What happens when an open mic poet, a foster mom to more than 14 kids, and the daughter of Muhammad Ali's bodyguard becomes a top executive in the global heavy industrial sector? You get Erica Baird — Executive Director of Global Sales and Service at Cummins, the Fortune 150 power solutions leader. Erica oversees more than 1,200 employees worldwide across sales, service, customer experience, data...

What does it take to run a supply chain where every input is perishable, every customer is different, and every week the entire operation resets? Meet Dan Seidel, Global Chief Operating Officer at HelloFresh, and one of the sharpest operational minds in the food industry. Dan oversees 36 industrial kitchens and distribution centers across 18 countries, a portfolio of brands that includes HelloFres...

Episode Description What happens when a leader who spent a decade inside one of the most influential technology companies in history decides to bring that playbook to the world of same-day delivery? Katie Stratton is the Chief Growth and Strategy Officer at Shipt, the Target-owned retail technology company that specializes in same-day and next-day delivery. Before joining Shipt in 2023, Katie spen...

What does it take to turn a layoff into a company? Nathan Fulton had $5,000 and the willingness to see opportunity where others saw scrap metal.  In 1999, he and his wife Jane founded Fulton Technology Corporation as a machine shop serving the textile industry. When that industry collapsed under NAFTA, he pivoted. When hyperscale data centers were built nearby, he pivoted again. Today, Fulton oper...

How does a lifelong conservationist and fly fisher end up leading sustainability for a global plastics manufacturing company? Katie Distler didn’t stumble into the role. She swam upstream to get there. Katie is Chief Sustainability Officer at Technimark, a global leader in injection molded plastics for healthcare, consumer, and industrial markets with close to 5,000 employees across the U.S., Mexi...

Most leaders spend the early years of their career trying to accelerate forward. Carles Farré stepped away. Just a few years into his career at HP, he and his wife made an unconventional decision: they left the corporate world to spend several years in Latin America working with microfinance nonprofits—helping entrepreneurs in remote villages access small loans to start businesses. S03 E04 Carles...

Shawn Khan’s entrepreneurial journey started from the ground up in a way most founders never experience.  He didn’t inherit a company, raise venture capital, or even understand the industry he was stepping into. Shawn bought a one-truck furniture delivery operation in New York City, rented the truck every morning, and learned the business by riding in the back making deliveries himself. Two years...

Zac Elkins didn’t wait for the supply chain to fix itself. He built his own. As COO of LFG Manufacturing, Power Design’s specialty manufacturing division, Zac is leading one of the boldest vertical integration bets in the electrical industry. When COVID-era backlogs pushed switchgear lead times from 12 weeks to nearly two years, most contractors adjusted. Zac and the LFG team invested millions, bo...

Tom Shoupe never planned on a career in manufacturing. He started in public service, working in Washington, D.C., far from factory floors and production lines. Then Honda called. At the time, the company was still a young experiment in American manufacturing — betting that people, not just product, would determine its future. Tom said yes to the opportunity.  That decision shaped the next 33 years...

What happens when a CHRO with an actuary’s mind, a leader’s heart, and a survivor’s grit steps into one of the world’s most complex global marine companies? You get Jill Wrobel — Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer at Brunswick Corporation — and one of the most refreshing voices in modern leadership. Jill oversees culture, talent, and operating strategy for 15,000 employee...

Before Teddy Bekele ever thought about AI or agricultural transformation, he watched his father lose the family farm overnight—a moment that stayed with him from Ethiopia to Italy to an engineering career in the U.S. That moment didn’t just change his life. It hardwired his obsession with resilience, ownership, and making sure the people who grow our food don’t get left behind in the next wave of...

What separates a project from a company? And what makes some organizations scale effortlessly—while others stall out under their own ambition? Few people have lived that question more deeply than Mike Oakman. With three decades of experience spanning startups, private equity-backed growth, and billion-dollar enterprises, Mike has led everything from scrappy engineering teams to 400-person global o...

What happens when a CEO trades the corporate script for a hard hat…and wins? Greg Ramfos, CEO of DURA Shiloh, is leading one of the boldest turnarounds in the automotive world. With 16 plants, 4,000 employees, and a mission to bring manufacturing back to its roots, Greg’s not following the playbook. He’s rewriting it. Raised in poverty and foster care, Greg learned early that resilience beats pedi...

What does it take to lead real digital transformation—while keeping food on shelves across the globe? At Schreiber Foods, that question isn’t theoretical. It’s the work of SriRaj Kantamneni, EVP & Chief Information and Digital Officer at Schreiber and the architect behind an ambitious digital overhaul in one of the most critical global industries — food and ag. But Sri didn’t come up through S...

What if the future of logistics isn’t about bigger fleets—but about smarter connections? Chris Condon grew up with the grit of farm country and the drive to fix what’s broken. After decades in the freight industry, he realized the real opportunity wasn’t in moving more freight. It was in empowering the small and mid-sized freight forwarders who move 80% of the world’s cargo. In this episode of Rea...

Chris Cochran didn’t set out to disrupt one of the most entrenched industries in the U.S. — he just knew there had to be a better way. Now, as founder and CEO of FreightWise, he’s led one of the fastest-growing logistics tech companies in the country—proving that innovation doesn’t have to come from Silicon Valley to change everything. In this episode of Real Leadership, Chris shares the story beh...

Chad Wiegand didn’t follow a corporate blueprint. He built a leadership model designed for complexity. From pharmacy school to law, from boardroom legal counsel to global strategy, Chad built his career by stepping into uncertainty—and bringing clarity. Today, he’s EVP and Chief Risk Officer at Schreiber Foods, an $8 billion, employee-owned food giant. He oversees everything from legal and audit t...

You don’t have to choose between legacy and innovation. Jessica Warnke is proof — she’s doing both—and doing it exceptionally well. Jessica grew up in the logistics world—her grandfather started a truck dealership with poker winnings, her father scaled Carter Express from 13 trucks to a national logistics force.  Today, Jessica is the President & CEO of Carter Logistics, leading a 900-truck op...