Experience-Focused Leaders

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Professor Hermann Simon, founder and honorary chairman of Simon-Kucher and the world’s leading authority on pricing and strategy. Often cited as the most influential management thinker since Peter Drucker, Hermann brings five decades of experience identifying the "Hidden Champions" of the global economy and advising world-class organizations on value and growth.

In this conversation, Hermann shares...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Luke Giancarlo, Director of the FinTech Innovation Lab in New York and an executive at Accenture, where he leads digital currency and AI initiatives. Luke brings a unique perspective, combining hands-on startup experience with deep insight into enterprise innovation, fintech, and emerging technologies.

In this conversation, Luke shares his view on corporate-startup collaboration, the future of AI a...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Sergey Netessine, Senior Vice Dean of Innovation and Global Initiatives at the Wharton School and Durbani Armani Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Sergey is also an Amazon Scholar and a seasoned investor, bringing a rare blend of academic rigor, corporate strategy, and hands-on venture experience to the world’s leading organizations.

In this conversation, Sergey shares his perspective o...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Stephen Josephs, a pioneer in adult development and the co-author of the seminal book Leadership Agility. With over 40 years of experience as an executive coach, Stephen helps senior leaders navigate high-pressure environments by recognizing the inner patterns that drive their behavior. A lifelong practitioner of meditation and Tai Chi, Stephen brings a unique blend of Taoist wisdom and developmen...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Magali Anderson, a global sustainability and innovation leader and former Chief Sustainability & Innovation Officer at Holcim. Magali brings deep, real-world experience leading change at scale—across operations, markets, and incentives. Today, she serves on the boards of Anglo American and the Capitals Coalition, mentors founders through the Creative Destruction Lab, and invests in ESG-driven ...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Shannon McClenaghan, the CEO of StartX, Stanford University’s elite, non-profit startup community for alumni, faculty, and serial founders. A seasoned leader at the helm of one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful "secret weapons," Shannon oversees an ecosystem that has helped launch 20 unicorns and create over $120 billion in value—all without taking a single cent of equity from its founders.

In this...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes A.J. Thomas, the CEO of The Troublemaker Lab and Founder and General Partner of Good Trouble Ventures. A visionary leader and former "Chaos Pilot" at Google X, A.J. specializes in helping extraordinary founders build enduring companies through coaching, strategy, and mindful innovation.

In this conversation, A.J. explores the intersection of technology, creativity, and culture. She discusses her "T...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Nicole Alvino, a pioneering leader in employee experience and founder of FirstUp, a platform that connects organizations with their workforce at scale. With experience building technology solutions for some of the world’s largest companies, Nicole helps enterprises engage frontline employees, drive alignment, and create meaningful workplace experiences through personalization and innovative commun...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Iliana Oris Valiente, a multidisciplinary innovator at Accenture who sits at the intersection of emerging technology, human-centered design, and capital investment. With experience bridging startups, large enterprises, and family offices, Iliana helps organizations turn insights into measurable business impact, foster innovation, and unlock growth opportunities.

In this conversation, Iliana talks a...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Stephan Kuhnert, co-founder and co-CEO of Empower, a software suite that helps organizations create consistent, professional, and on-brand content across Microsoft 365. With clients ranging from global enterprises to Microsoft itself, Stephan has spent years helping teams save time, boost productivity, and ensure every document, presentation, or spreadsheet reflects their brand and builds trust.

In...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Kevin Lee, a digital marketing pioneer who has spent decades helping companies grow revenue through sharper execution rather than inflated budgets. Before Google existed, Kevin was already building the technology and tactics many teams still rely on today. He co-founded Didit, scaled it into one of New York’s leading agencies, authored four books, and built nonprofit initiatives like Giving Forwar...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Donna Griffit, a globally recognized corporate storyteller who has helped hundreds of startups and Fortune 500 leaders raise more than $1.5B by clarifying their narratives and showing the true value behind complex ideas.

Together, they discuss why visual storytelling is the key to breaking through noise, especially in industries where information is dense, regulated, and difficult to understand. Do...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Federico Marchetti, the entrepreneur who reshaped luxury retail by founding Yoox Net-a-Porter, a public company later sold in a transaction valued at $6 billion. Today, Federico serves on the board of Giorgio Armani and leads large-scale initiatives in digital innovation and regenerative sustainability.

Together, they explore how creativity and business discipline can coexist at scale—and why this ...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Randy Wootton, a seasoned revenue leader and CEO whose career spans leadership roles at Microsoft, Salesforce, RocketFuel, Percolate, Seismic, and Maxio. Together, they explore how AI is reshaping go-to-market strategy and what it takes to build enduring organizations in a time of rapid technological change.

Drawing from decades of experience driving growth and orchestrating major acquisitions and ...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Erik Carlson, President and CEO of Notified, a leading technology partner for investor relations, public relations, and communications professionals. Together, they explore how leaders and companies can turn content into trust—and trust into measurable business impact.

With more than 15 years of experience across private equity, M&A, and strategic finance, Erik shares why trust is the most valu...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Christopher Lochhead, a three-time public company CMO, best-selling author of Play Bigger, Niche Down, and The Existing Market Trap, and host of Follow Your Different. Together, they explore what most businesses get wrong about growth, positioning, and innovation.

Known as the godfather of category design and often called the Gordon Ramsay of business, Christopher doesn’t sugarcoat the truth. He ex...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Haider Alleg — strategist, entrepreneur, founder of Kaiju Marketing, and GP at Allegory Capital — to explore how innovation thrives even in the most regulated industries. With over 20 years of experience helping pharma, healthcare, and compliance-driven sectors evolve, Haider shows that following the rules doesn’t mean sacrificing creativity or connection.

In this conversation, Haider shares why th...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Sami Inkinen — Co-Founder of Trulia and CEO of Virta Health — to discuss what sustains leaders beyond the big milestones. After scaling Trulia to a $3.5 billion IPO, Sami discovered that while he had trained his body and educated his mind, he had never truly trained his inner world. That realization sparked a 12-year practice that reshaped how he leads, motivates teams, and builds lasting companie...

Your host Alex Shevelenko welcomes Melissa Reaves — Founder and CEO of Story Fruition — to discuss why stories work outperform data in business communication. Melissa's journey from advertising technology startups to creating her bestselling Mind Movie Method reveals why human brains are wired for narrative over data. In this conversation, she explains the neuroscience behind effective business storytelling, introduces the Wonder W...