This is episode 1,117 of the Arete Coach Podcast with host Severin Sorensen, with a special episode that Explores Financial Contagion Risk and the Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. As of 6:30 PM EDT, 12 March 2023, the Federal Goverment had intervened to guarantee depositor funds, allowing bank customers to access funds in time to make payroll on 3/15; the 'ides of march.' If those words cast a dark omen of the future, they ought to.

In this episode, we explore what economic and financial contagion risks are and what are the causes, roots, and factors that seem to set wildfire to human behavior.

We explore the happenings this past week with the death spiral and failure of Silicon Valley Bank, one of the oldest and largest banks serving the private equity and venture capital community. We revisit a play-by-play of the collapse of SVB from the point of view of the CEO and a customer depositor at the bank, and their different experiences.

Importantly, we revisit prior financial crises to explore similarities and differences, and, review what the research suggests business leaders can do to prepare and protect themselves from foreseeable events. A list of 10 action items is provided for executive coaches, business owners, CEOs, and C-level executives to navigate at this time.

Severin Sorensen is an economist, executive coach, and serial entrepreneur with a keen curiosity for business and economic trends. Severin is CEO of ePraxis LLC, a premier-level executive headhunting, talent selection, and executive coaching company. Severin is a highly sought Vistage Speaker with over 300+ presentations worldwide on hiring top talent, innovation, and economic trends. Severin was a Vistage Chair (2010-2018) of three Vistage Groups in Salt Lake City, UT, and during this period he was a repeat Mentor Chair and awarded the 2011 Vistage Rookie Chair of the Year Award. Prior to Chairing, Severin was a Vistage/TEC member in Washington DC (1999-2004) while he owned and operated a company he founded called Sparta Consulting Corporation (1994-2005), a management consulting, security systems integration, and remote video monitoring company; Severin sold this company in 2005 and it continues today as part of Interface Security Systems, the 7th largest security systems integrator in the US (2018). Severin was a former “Special Assistant to the President” at the White House where he had the high honor to work for President George H.W. Bush (POTUS 41) (1992-93). Severin earned a graduate degree (M.Phil.) in economics from King’s College, Cambridge, University, England, and two undergraduate degrees in economics and political science from the University of Utah. While an undergraduate, Severin was the Editor in Chief of the Utah Forum: A journal on international political economy. Severin is the author of Economic Misery and Crime Waves (2009), a book that chronicles the Great Depression (1929-42) and the situation leading up to the Great Recession (2007-2009). Today, Severin prepares a quarterly economic overview for business coaches and business owner/operators on the economy, identifying key behavioral economic trends that impact businesses and their opportunity frontiers.

More on the topic of the economy and executive coaching insights are available at AreteCoach.io.

The Arete Coach Podcast seeks to explore the art and science of executive coaching. You can find out more about this podcast at aretecoach.io.

This episode was produced on March 12, 2023

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