CEOpeek

We've all had difficult bosses, but what happens when your first boss is straight out of Hollywood’s worst nightmares?

Brian Underhill started his career under a toxic boss who screamed, cursed, and threw objects at him, leading Brian to question everything about work and leadership. Instead of breaking him, this experience inspired Brian to become obsessed with transforming the way leaders lead. Today, he’s the Found...

In this revealing interview, Wynne Nowland, Bradley & Parker CEO, shares her simple, yet powerful worldview of expansive and united leadership.

Bradley & Parker is a premier insurance, risk management, and financial services firm founded in 1939 in Long Island, New York. 

With more than 15,000 clients, including publicly traded companies with complex global insurance programs and the largest software frame...

In this insightful interview, Paula Schneider, Susan G. Komen CEO, reveals the leadership lessons she learned from leading global organizations.

Susan G. Komen is a global movement that, over 30 years, has led the way in funding $3 billion in groundbreaking research, community health initiatives, and advocacy programs in local communities across the U.S. and in more than 30 countries, serving millions of people.

P...

In this discerning interview, Andrew Pass, the CEO of A Pass Educational Group, shares the magic of empowerment by having a double bottom line.

A Pass Educational Group develops customized educational content, from designing courses to creating assessments, for K-12, higher education, and corporate clients. 

Prior to founding A Pass Educational Group, Andrew completed advanced doctoral work in Curriculum, Teaching...

In this video, Manish Hirapara shares the leadership strategies that helped him scale PeakActivity to more than 200 employees.

PeakActivity is a digital strategy and implementation company that partners with businesses to accelerate growth through e-commerce, Digital Marketing, and Technology solutions. 

Topics discussed:

• Transforming from a scrappy startup to a high-performing organization
  
  
• Working on ...

In this thought-provoking interview, Nathan Stooke the CEO of Wisper Internet, a company that provides fast, reliable internet services to rural communities where other providers don't, shares the leadership lessons learned during the pandemic year leading the growth from 71 to 187 employees.

Nathan founded Wisper Internet 18 years ago when a friend didn’t have Internet access at his business. 

Nathan Stooke ...

In this fascinating interview, Kevin Jones, the CEO of Celero Commerce, which provides payment processing services, business management software, and data intelligence on a single holistic platform, discusses the leadership challenges and solutions for leading high growth through Mergers and Acquisitions.

Celero’s leadership team has completed 6 acquisitions since its inception. That's untypical for a young company. <...

In this insightful interview, Matt Powell, the CEO of Moroch, an independent, integrated marketing agency based in Dallas, shares his 20-year journey from media planner to CEO and offers valuable insights about career, work, and life.

Among his insights:

• How to fight through a career wall
  
  
• How to  have a tough conversation with an employer
  
  
• Are you running from something or towards something?
  
  
• Th...

In this discerning interview, Brady Harris, the CEO of Dwolla, a FinTech company that develops payment gateway software to transform the way innovative businesses move money, shares his simple yet powerful framework for delegation.

Brady's 5 steps to stewardship delegation: 

1. Establishing results, goals, and outcomes
2. Setting guidelines to accomplish these outcomes
3. Providing the resources neces...

In this 'free-dive' interview, Ben Gaddis, CEO of T3, an innovation firm that helps brands create value for consumers first and then build messaging around that value, explains how embracing irrationality drives innovation in business. 

Some of Ben's insights:

• Irrationality is closely linked to new ideas
  
  
• Innovation goes against hard-wired habits  and short-term needs (quarterly earnings)
  
  

Carmela Castellano-Garcia, California Primary Care Association CEO, reveals some of the strategies she has been applying for 23 years to develop the next generation of leaders.

Here are some of the strategies she mentioned:

• Create career paths for people to move up within the organization
  
  
• Focus on internal leadership development for the C-Suite
  
  
• Adopting and implementing a diversity policy
  
  
• Enco...

In this insightful interview, Scott Francis, CEO of BP3, an award-winning automation provider with offices in Austin, Denver, London, Amsterdam, and Lisbon, shares his journey from co-founder and CTO to CEO, lessons learned from growing the company, and his unique approach to hiring and developing talent. 

Some of his insights are:

• How to balance the technical skills and business skills
  
  
• How to ad...

In this episode of CEOpeek, Dave interviews Tom Salonek, Founder and CEO of Intertech, a Minneapolis-St. Paul-based software consulting and education company.  Dave and Tom discuss employee engagement.
 
When an organization has high engagement, employees give extra discretionary effort in their jobs, staying, and referring prospective employees and customers.  Also, organizations with high engagement are more profitable an...

In this inspiring interview, Ron Scheese, Andesa Services CEO, a provider of integrated solutions to life insurance and annuity carriers and producers, shares his unique leadership philosophy.

Ron continuously contributes to the body of work around leadership and he is working on an upcoming leadership book.

Some of Ron's insights:

• Finding your purpose and aligning your professional and life purp...

Stuart Frankel, Narrative Science CEO, shares the leadership lessons he learned over the last 11 years since he founded the company. 

Some of Stuart's insights:

• Prepare to play the long game
  
  
• Embrace the ups and downs
  
  
• Don't treat problems equally
  
  
• Differentiate existential from non-existential decisions
  
  
• Empower the team to move the business forward
  
  
• Executives should p...

Reid Carr, the CEO of Red Door Interactive, shares the leadership philosophy that has helped him shape and grow the company over the last 19 years. 

Among Reid's insights:

• How to balance long-term sustainability with short-term needs
  
  
• How to operate within a world of chaos
  
  
• How to create a  100% jerk-free workplace
  
  
• How to hire talent that balances confidence with humility
  
  

Arman Eshraghi, the CEO of Qrvey, shares his entrepreneurship and leadership lessons from founding and growing tech companies. 

Arman is truly a serial entrepreneur. Qrvey is the 4th company he founded. 

Qrvey simplifies business analytics on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and moves analytics beyond just visualizations by offering an all-in-one cloud-native platform for making your data collection, analytics, and autom...

In this inspirational interview, André Chapman, the founder and CEO of Unity Care, shares his purposeful journey and leadership foundation that has driven his move from high-tech to nonprofit. 

Unity Care is a California-based nonprofit organization that provides safe, stable, and affordable housing for youth and young adults as they age out of foster care and provides them with the supportive services they need to achieve...

In this fascinating interview, Sanjeev Kumar, the CEO of Skience, a digital transformation platform for broker-dealers and Registered Investment Advisors that provides wealth managers with an efficient way to unify their technology and increase their productivity, shares the lessons he has learned growing the company to 200 employees strong.

Some of Sanjeev's insights: 

• Reinvent yourself to stay relevant....