Lay of The Land
Telling the stories of entrepreneurship and builders in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio. Every Thursday, Jeffrey Stern helps map the Cleveland/NEO business ecosystem by talking to founders, investors, and community builders to learn what makes Cleveland/NEO special.
Episodes
Today, we’re picking up with the second part of my conversation with Jodi Berg, the former President & CEO of Vitamix.
In Part 1, we explored Jodi’s career, the history, evolution, and family legacy of Vitamix, and her leadership journey in growing the company into the global brand it is today.
In Part 2, we continue with her reflections on stepping away from the business—and dive deeper into her philosophy of purpose, t...
Jodi Berg, PhD recently retired as the fourth-generation President and CEO of Vitamix, having joined the family business in 1997 with the directive to lead the company’s overseas expansion, later serving as director of international, household and commercial divisions, and then ultimately as Executive Vice President in 2007, President in 2009, and CEO in 2011.
Under her leadership, Jodi built on the 100+ year history and le...
Max Pennington is the Co-Founder & CEO of CLEANR, an innovative company that uses filters to prevent microplastics from entering water streams.
Max graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Chemical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, where he co-developed CLEANR’s innovative VORTX filtration technologyb. Inspired by nature, VORTX biomimcry is capable of removing over 90% of microplastics from washin...
I’m very excited to welcome Umberto Fedeli back for his third conversation. In our first two conversations — episode 135 and episode 171 — we explored Umberto’s remarkable life journey, deep-rooted wisdom, and how he's mastered the craft of building authentic relationships and connecting people across business, politics, and philanthropy. Those episodes are timeless and packed with valuable insights — I highly recommend li...
Daniel Anstandig is the CEO of Futuri Media, a leading AI-driven platform he founded in Cleveland in 2009 to help companies build and monetize engaged audiences.
Today, Futuri’s sales, content, and audience technology serves over 7,000 media brands across 22 countries, powered by a bold and passionate team recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s Fastest-Growing Companies for nine years.
Daniel has advised The Wall Stre...
Sonia Winner is the CEO of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. In July 2018, she became the 10th director of the Museum in its more than 100-year history, dating back to 1920. Since then, she has spearheaded a $150 million reinvention of the institution—reimagining its campus and exhibits to highlight the interconnectedness of life on Earth.
Under her leadership, the Museum continues its century-long legacy as one of t...
DJ Eidson is the President and Co-founder of Limitless Minds, where he spearheads efforts to make elite mindset coaching accessible to everyone. Through their digital platform and programs, Limitless Minds has empowered hundreds of individuals and teams across organizations like Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Chick-fil-A, Bristol Myers Squibb, Goldman Sachs, Harvard Business School, and many others to enhance their perf...
Blake Squires began his journey in the mid-90s in Los Angeles, capitalizing early on the convergence of technology and media. He soon returned to his hometown of Cleveland to co-found Everstream with Steve McHale (episode 196) and Charlie Lougheed (episode 42, and also my co-founder at Axuall). Blake served as COO until Everstream’s acquisition by Concurrent Computer Corp in 2005.
Carl Walz is an astronaut, a pioneer of space exploration, and a proud Clevelander! As an astronaut, Carl is a veteran of four spaceflights, logging a total of 231 days in outer space and performing three spacewalks during that time.
A physicist by training, with degrees from Kent State and John Carroll University, Carl made his way to NASA via the Air Force, where he served as a flight test engineer and managed all enginee...
Paul Roetzer is the founder and CEO of SmarterX and the Marketing AI Institute—a media, event, and online education company that he started back in 2016 to make AI accessible, approachable, and actionable for marketers and business leaders. Through the institute, he created MAICON—the leading annual Marketing AI conference, which is hosted here in Cleveland!
He is also the co-author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence: AI,...
Geoff Bruder, co-founder of GhostWorks Engineering and Sonic Fire Tech—a company redefining fire suppression—is fighting fires with acoustic wave technology.
Geoff's journey is rooted in his work at NASA Glenn Research Center here in Cleveland, where he focused as a Research Engineer on projects like the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), thermoacoustic stirling heat engine designs, and led the design for the ...
Jared Semik, founder of Eternium Aerospace, a long-range, zero-emissions aircraft development company, is focused on sustainable transatlantic flight.
A multi-service military aviation veteran with three global deployments, Jared began his career in the Marine Corps in 1999. He is an aerospace research and development engineer with over 20 years of experience working with next-generation zero-emissions aircraft systems. His...
Robert Marks founded Fidelity Voice and Data in 1999 with just a $600 investment, which he grew into a business generating over $30 million in revenue, making it one of the largest telecommunications and cloud services competitors throughout the Midwest. The company focused on providing high-speed Internet access to various industries.
After selling the company in 2015, Robert turned his attention to giving back to his loca...
Andy Tran has lived more lives than just about anyone I know. He’s a serial entrepreneur who has started multiple businesses across industries, including tech, ammunition manufacturing, defense contracting, and tequila, among many others. Andy is a true modern Renaissance man whose path defies convention and serves as a testament to his deep curiosity, creativity, ability to execute, and humility.
- He has alpine mountain...
John Knific is a serial entrepreneur and investor who has built three venture-backed software companies here in Cleveland.
His latest venture, Squad, is a peer discovery platform designed to gamify ratings and rankings for Gen Z, starting on college campuses, delivering valuable preference data to marketers.
Before Squad, John co-founded Wisr, a virtual communities platform that transformed how universities engage students. ...
Rob van Haaren is a Dutch-born entrepreneur and CEO of Proximal Energy, a Cleveland-based SaaS company transforming asset management for solar and energy storage projects.
Rob has long been interested in renewable energy engineering — he holds a Master’s from Columbia University in Earth and Environmental Engineering and a PhD from Columbia as well with a focus on utility-scale energy storage optimization and engineering. H...
Ali Bonar — CEO & Co-Founder of Oat Haus, a food company bringing fun and play to eating. Their flagship product, Granola Butter, is the world's first oat-based spread and while Oat Haus was born out of Ali's decade-long battle with an eating disorder, and it's now her mission to help others feel less alone.
Since its beginnings in 2018, Oat Haus has evolved from Ali’s personal project to a Cleveland-based, nationwi...
Stephen McHale — a long-time Cleveland serial entrepreneur with a 40-year career founding, investing in, and building companies.
Most notably, Steve served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Explorys, which he formed in 2009 in partnership with The Cleveland Clinic. He co-founded and funded Explorys with Charlie Lougheed, one of my former co-founders from Axuall, where Steve is also a board member.
I...
Welcome to a special bonus episode of the Lay of The Land podcast. Today, we're doing something a bit different as I take on the role of guest on other podcasts to discuss recent developments in my journey and offer a glimpse of what lies ahead.
As some of you may know, I've recently embarked on a new professional path by joining the founding team of The O.H.I.O. Fund. In the near future, I'll be recording a dedicated e...
Throughout his career, Hanna Kassis has overseen $1.5 billion in capital deployment.
Hanna began his entrepreneurial journey in Youngstown, where he managed Tim Ryan's congressional campaign from 2008 to 2011. This early taste of independence would prove formative for his future ventures. Though he initially pursued law school in Chicago with intentions of becoming a tax attorney, Hanna's entrepreneurial spirit led him to ...
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