ChairWaves

After 18 years running a digital marketing agency, Denver Vistage Chair Mindy Phillips knows the realities of growth, exit, and reinvention. Now, she’s guiding small business CEOs through challenges she understands firsthand. In this conversation, Mindy shares how her experience scaling an agency prepared her to lead a peer group and why the first year as a Chair is more demanding than expected. She even likens building a Vistage g...

Marc Wallace has no plans to slow down—and he’s counting on his members to be the first to tell him if that time comes. The longtime Colorado Vistage Chair has built an ecosystem of groups where candor, trust, and real human connection are the norm. Drawing from an extraordinary career at Dow Chemical, launching and taking a consulting firm public, and navigating personal loss, Marc shares how he’s turned those experiences into wis...

Ana Quinn knows what it’s like to guide people through uncertain times. When a career change landed her in coaching just before 9/11, she found herself helping people navigate layoffs, immigration challenges, and personal upheaval. That experience still defines her approach today: meet people where they are, clear the “head trash” that gets in their way, and help them reach their full potential.

Her path to becoming a Vistage Chair ...

Recruiting new members isn’t just a process—it’s a skill, and one Scott Bunce had to learn the hard way.

Scott’s journey is anything but ordinary. From running global hotel operations to stepping into a Chair role after the sudden passing of his mentor, Scott now leads a thriving group—and is helping his wife launch her own. In this episode, we talk about the emotional transition from member to Chair, the unexpected challenges of re...

How long does it take to build trust? The answer can vary, but for Nancy Girres, Vistage Chair and Best Practice Chair for Colorado, it can happen fast when you lead with vulnerability. Nancy leads her groups with a level of openness and intention that invites others to do the same. In this conversation, we talk about her journey from tuxedo executive to peer group powerhouse, and how she’s made her Vistage work the most meaningful...

RJ Kolton has led soldiers in combat, taught at West Point, worked under the Drug Czar in the White House, and built a private sector career in the government contracting world. Today, he brings all that experience to his Vistage CE group—one that’s made up almost entirely of GovCon CEOs. With government policy shifts constantly in play, RJ’s group stays grounded through a mindset he calls “stoic leadership”: focus on what you can ...

How do you go from nurse to franchise founder to aerospace advocate to Vistage Chair? Ask my Chairwaves guest Erin Herringshaw. Her career path is anything but conventional—but every step has led to deeper insight into what business owners truly need: support, perspective, and someone to challenge their blind spots.

In this episode, Erin shares how she built and sold a meal-prep business that started with wine, food stations, and a ...

When your members name the group “The Refinery” and plan their own retreat, you know something special is happening.

Vistage Chair Jim Ristuccia shares how a retreat full of logos, laughter, and cross-talk turned his CE group into something deeper. From career Navy officer to award-winning COO to full-time Chair, Jim brings a systems mindset and deep emotional intelligence to his work—including a one-of-a-kind Emerging Leaders group...

When a career banker walks away from the industry without a plan, the next chapter isn’t usually “Vistage Chair of five groups and best practice leader for all of Chicago.” But that’s exactly how Aimee Daniels rewrote her story.

In this episode, Aimee shares the moment she stepped away from corporate life and stepped into something entirely new—eventually becoming a Vistage Chair, mentor, and trusted voice among her peers. We talk a...

Before Monty Montoya was a biotech CEO or a Vistage Chair, he was a 22-year-old harvesting corneas from cadavers—an intense, hands-on start to a career in ophthalmology that would eventually earn him the Visionary Award from the Ophthalmology World Leaders. After nearly two decades as a Vistage member, Monty stepped into a new role: Chair of the very same group that had shaped him. That transition—from peer to coach—wasn't easy...

San Diego-based Vistage Chair Mark Fackler didn’t always see himself as a leader. In fact, for much of his early life, he coasted—doing just enough to get by. That changed one day, mid-career, when a crisis with a client forced him to ask a hard question: Was he willing to keep failing quietly—or finally try his hardest and risk failing loudly? That moment became a turning point. In this episode, Mark reflects on that shift, the lo...

Ramona Wink is a fan of the F-word. Feelings that is. As a trained mental health professional, Ramona encourages the members of her Des Moines, IA based Vistage group to explore their feelings, trust in the process, and be an active part of the network of support that lifts each other up in times of both personal and professional need. Her group’s motto is “We are better together,” and it’s not just about supporting the members. He...

A person can be inspired by something or they can be inspired to do something, and according to San Diego Vistage Chair and Speaker, Danielle Baldwin there is a difference. What inspires people and what gets them to turn that inspiration into action is of profound interest to her. So much so that, in addition to running her own business, chairing three Vistage groups, working as a Vistage Speaker, and Vistage faculty member, Daniel...

Not all peer groups look the same, and that’s a good thing. San Antonio, TX, Vistage Chair, Delise Simmons leads two very different groups of executives. After decades of work in the airline industry helping to develop and cultivate positive corporate culture, Delise has taken her talents to the next level, leading one group of private equity members from around the country in virtual sessions, and another group of female-only exec...

Fairfield, CT based Vistage Chair Mike Tetreau has followed a unique and impactful path—beginning in engineering and consulting, growing through international sales and turnaround leadership, and eventually serving two terms as First Selectman (mayor) of his hometown. A true believer in giving back, Mike now leads multiple Vistage groups and finds deep fulfillment in helping CEOs and advisors grow both professionally and personally...

Sometimes losing your job comes as a surprise. But what do you do when you’re the one in charge of phasing out your department? When faced with that exact scenario, Christine Pouliot, longtime global leader in IT, started her own business. During her 35 year career with one company, Christine learned that she loved the “people development” aspect of her job. So on the advice of a friend who worked in HR, instead of continuing on in...

The year 2020 was a transformative one for Lori Halverson in more ways than one. As the world was shutting down for a pandemic, Lori was also losing another source of global connections when she retired from her corporate job after twenty plus years. But Lori knew that she wasn’t ready to stop working, and becoming a Vistage Chair was just the transition she needed. As a co-chair of two groups in the Denver Metro Area, she has seen...

When you meet Brant Houston, the first thing you need to know is that his name is pronounced “House-ton” and not “Hue-ston” like the city. But if you meet Brant Houston, you’ll likely be in or adjacent to Houston because that’s where he lives and where the Vistage Chief Executive group that he has chaired for a decade is based. Brant has great stories and a lot of wisdom. He’s going to tell you how he became successful with a digit...

According to Central Wisconsin Vistage Chair, Bridget Wenman, good news travels fast. That would explain how an area that only had one Vistage peer group for 30 years exploded to six in the past decade. In 10 years she has added four Chief Executive groups, one Key Executive group, and one Advancing Leaders group to a vibrant and close knit community. Bridget draws on her childhood experiences, as the youngest of 15 children, and t...