Building Excellence

#189: Roland Thornqvist is the University of Florida Women’s Tennis former head coach and 4X National Champion. Thornqvist owns a remarkable 582-157 head coaching record in 28 years, including a 507-107 mark at Florida.

In 20+ years with Thornqvist on the sidelines, some of Florida’s more significant highlights include four NCAA Team National Championships (2003, 2011, 2012, & 2017), as well as 11 SEC regular-season titles (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 & 2016) and 10 SEC Tournament crowns (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2016).

Individually, Thornqvist has been honored as the ITA National Coach of the Year (2011), the ITA Southeast Region Coach of the Year (2010 & 2012) and the Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year (2004, 2006, 2010, 2013 & 2016).

The Sweden native climbed the charts in 2022, in terms of NCAA historical success as he ranked top 10 all-time in Division I winning percentage (8th, .808) and top 20 in all-time wins (12th, 512). In July 2020, Thornqvist was among the top NCAA Division I active head coaches carrying the fourth-highest winning percentage and the eighth-most victories. 

He has guided Florida to 11 NCAA ‘final four’ appearances, with four culminating in titles and two as national runner-up (2002 & 2010). Before arriving in Gainesville he was the head coach at UNC and KU. Thornqvist also played professional tennis for one year after completing his collegiate eligibility, attaining a world ranking of No. 290 in singles.

Thornqvist established himself as one of the top players in the history of the ACC during his collegiate career. He was a three-time first-team All-ACC selection, the 1993 ACC Player of the Year, a 1992 and 1993 first-team All-American and a 1992 and 1993 NCAA Tournament quarterfinalist in singles. In 1992, he led the Tar Heels to the ACC Championship and to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.  The Tar Heels also made the NCAA Tournament during his senior season, advancing to the round of 16.  Thornqvist won the 1993 Rolex National Indoor Singles Championship as a senior. In both 1992 and 1993, he won the ITA’s Rafael Osuna National Sportsmanship Award. He is the only college player in history to win that award twice. Thornqvist was the No. 4-ranked collegiate singles player in the country his senior year.

A native of Stockholm, Sweden, Thornqvist received his bachelor’s degree in economics from UNC in 1996. He played for the Tar Heels from 1990-93, transferring from Elon College, where he played one year and won the NAIA singles and doubles championships as a freshman in 1990. He also led Elon to the NAIA team championship that year. More importantly you will see how he has been able to build and sustain success. Enjoy the show! 

#188: Matt Pinnell is the Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma. Pinnell is President of the Oklahoma State Senate and serves on multiple constitutional boards and commissions, including serving as Chairman of the Oklahoma Tourism Commission and Route 66 Centennial Commission. He has set his Lt. Governor agenda focused on workforce and economic development issues.

Pinnell is the chief marketer of Oklahoma and spends much of his time promoting Oklahoma. In partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, he launched a talent recruitment campaign targeting the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. He also works to retain and attract companies to the state by hosting events throughout the year, including the annual Lt. Governor’s Turkey Hunt, a two-week event that showcases Oklahoma to prospective out-of-state companies and site selection representatives.

As an entrepreneur himself, Pinnell champions small business growth. He advises the Oklahoma Department of Commerce on small business growth, entrepreneurship, and workforce development. In 2022, he launched ‘A Look at Oklahoma CareerTech,’ a video interview series that showcases the education and employment opportunities the state’s CareerTech system provides.

Pinnell launched a statewide rebrand in 2020, a campaign that has streamlined state agency processes and saved taxpayer dollars.

On the show you will get to hear more of these things as well as, the importance of discipline, courage, overcoming criticism, decision making, leadership, family, and much more.

For more on Lt. Governor Pinnell check out oklahoma.gov as well as mattpinnell.com 

Enjoy the show! 

Chris Acker is the Long Beach State University Men’s Basketball Head Coach.

Acker has spent the last five seasons as an assistant coach at San Diego State, playing a crucial role in the team’s recent success. The Aztecs have reached the NCAA tournament in each of the last four seasons and were 30-2 in 2019-20 prior to the COVID shutdown. In 2022-23, SDSU reached the National Championship game and advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2023-24. In his five seasons as an assistant coach at SDSU, the Aztecs went 134-34 overall. He also served as an assistant at Boise State and Hawaii.

Acker’s move to Division I came on the heels of two successful stints in the junior college ranks. As the head coach of West Los Angeles College, he rebuilt the program in two years, taking 11 freshmen in his first season and leading that group to an 18-9 record and a CCCAA Regional playoff berth within two years.

In his first coaching position with Citrus College, Acker spent six seasons at Citrus, winning the 2008 California State Championship and posting a dominant 92-9 record during his tenure, first as an assistant and then as the associate head coach of the program.

A Los Angeles native, Acker closed his collegiate playing career at Chaminade University in Hawaii, before playing professionally for four seasons in Europe and the United States.

On the show he shares all of these experiences as well as building relationships, building programs, building young men, and making an impact on and off the court.

For for more on Coach Acker follow him on social in the links below, as well as longbeachstate.com 

Enjoy the show!

X:
@ackercr

Insta:
@chris.acker
https://www.instagram.com/coach.acker/

Collective:
https://lbsumbballiance.com/join

MBB Insta:
https://www.instagram.com/lbsumbb/?hl=en 

#186: Robin Siegfried is the former Co-Owner & CEO of NORDAM, which stands for Northeastern Oklahoma Research, Development, & Manufacturing. Chances are if you have ever flown on a plane you have interacted with many of NORDAM’s products even if you weren’t aware of it.

NORDAM is a top choice for engineering, manufacturing, maintaining, and repairing components for business jets, commercial aircraft, and military warfighters around the globe. Headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, NORDAM is one of the world’s largest independently owned aerospace companies, employing 2,500 stakeholders across multiple facilities in North America and Europe. Through more than 50 years of experience, they are aligned to meet the growing needs of the defense and space markets with cutting-edge solutions that drive aerospace forward.

Robin grew up in Tulsa and after college at OU ventured into building NORDAM into what it is today. Through persistence, problem solving, hard work, and relationships he traveled all around the world growing the company.

On the show he shares his journey of how he did just that, building relationships, leadership, working from your strengths, eating sushi in Japan, surviving multiple aviation crashes, getting Bob Stoops to OU as a Regent, a million dollar bet, hunting adventures all over the world, being a dad, and much more.

Be sure to check out his book Stay On Fire.

Enjoy the show!

https://books.google.com/books/about/Stay_on_Fire.html?id=bq-yzgEACAAJ

#185: Bubba Cunningham is the University of North Carolina Director of Athletics. Under his leadership, the athletic department has accomplished numerous academic and athletic achievements.

The Tar Heels have won 22 national titles and made an additional 14 runner-up finishes. More than 3,500 student-athletes have made the ACC Academic Honor Roll -- which requires a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better for the year. The Tar Heels finished in the top 10 of the NACDA Learfield Directors' Cup nine times, including a 7th overall finish in 2023-24. He also has been committed to upgrading facilities to give student-athletes the best experience possible, overseeing more than $220 million worth of projects during his tenure in Chapel Hill.

Cunningham’s leadership has also extended outside of Chapel Hill as he has served on numerous NCAA committees over the last two decades. He is the past president of The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and sits on the board of LEAD1, an association representing the ADs from the NCAA Division I FBS schools. In 2019, he worked with the Atlantic Coast Conference to lead the launch of the ACC Network that fall. 

He earned the 2019-20 AD of the Year Award from The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). In 2020, he was named to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and in 2022 was named to the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Board of Directors. He also is currently serving on the ACC Autonomy Committee and was the Chair of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Selection Committee in 2024.

Cunningham is in his 22nd year as a Division I director of athletics. He came to Chapel Hill after spending the previous six years as the director of athletics at the University of Tulsa, where he guided the Golden Hurricane through its initial move to Conference USA and spearheaded a $60 million athletics initiative. He also served as Ball State University’s Athletic Director from 2002-2005.

He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from Notre Dame and worked in Notre Dame’s athletics department from 1988-2002. A former member of the Irish golf team (1982-83), Cunningham served as Notre Dame’s Associate Athletics Director for finance and facilities from 1995-2000 and was the Associate Director of Athletics for external affairs from 2000-02.

Enjoy the show! 

#184: Kevin Deshazo is the Co-Founder of BETTER and a partner at global leadership development firm GiANT. He works with some of the best leaders, teams, and organizations in the industry of sports on mindset, leadership, and performance.

A sought after speaker and consultant, he has presented on more than 400 college campuses, dozens of fortune 100 companies, and headlined top conferences and conventions. Places like OU and Florida State football, Nike and ESPN, and the CFP to name a few.

Kevin is the author the besting book Keep Chopping Wood: an ordinary approach to achieving extraordinary success, as well as iAthlete, and his newest book Into the Storm: How to Turn Adversity Into Your Advantage.

For more on Kevin check out kevindeshazo.com and bebetterleaders.com as well as all social media platforms. 

Enjoy the show! 

#183: Pat Chambers is the Florida Gulf Coast University men’s basketball head coach. He is the former head coach at Penn State and Boston University, as well as the associate head coach at Villanova.

Pat did not know he wanted to be a college basketball coach. For the first 8 years out of college he started in business and was quickly very successful. However, a near death experience helped him find clarity in his purpose and passion to coach basketball. Within a few years he found himself helping build Villanova into a basketball powerhouse. After their run to the final four in 2009 he took the job as the head coach at Boston University. In just 2 years he led the Terrier's to the NCAA tournament and was given the opportunity to lead the Penn State men’s basketball program. After 9 seasons at Penn State,  he now leads the FGCU men’s basketball program.

On the show he shares the impact of his family and parents, experiences playing college basketball, getting into coaching, power of perspective, courage, faith, purpose, passion, his pillars of excellence and much more.

For more on Coach Chambers check him out on social, as well as FGCUatheltics.com 

Enjoy the show! 

#182: Daniel Lamarre is Vice Chairman and former CEO of Cirque Du Soleil. As CEO he guided the organization through a period of astounding growth and then brought it back to life during the massive upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Daniel joined in 2001 as president of new ventures, Cirque Du Soleil had two thousand employees and seven shows in performance. Five years later he became chief executive and the company grew to five thousand employees and forty four shows around the world. At it’s peak Cirque had annual sales of $1 billion, profit margins of twenty percent, and fifteen million people attending its shows per year.

Daniel's strengths of using creativity, his laser like focus, building relationship, finding positive solutions, and exceptional negotiating skills enabled him to lead the organization to put together one of a kind shows such as Michale Jackson’s “One” and the Beatle’s “Love”, which was the only show ever agreed upon by the iconic group.

Before Cirque Daniel worked with TVA Broadcast Group, NATIONAL Public Relations, and Burson Marsteller.

In 2012 he collaborated on the creation of C2MTL Conference, a one-of-a-kind coming together of the creative and business elite of the world. It is a platform for exploring creative answers to commercial questions. In line with his belief that without creativity, there is no commerce.

He has been honored with Doctorates from McGill University, and his alma mater the University of Ottawa.

For more on Daniel and his book check out daniellamarre.ca as well as the links below. 

Enjoy the show!

Book:

https://www.amazon.com/Balancing-Acts-Unleashing-Power-Creativity/dp/1400223024 

#181: Chris Haack is the University of Georgia Head Men’s Golf Coach. Haack has coached the Bulldogs to two national championships (the only two in school history), eight SEC titles, 67 team tournament titles, and virtually every squad and individual records.

Under his tutelage, 27 Bulldogs have accumulated 63 medalist titles. Thirty-one of his players have rolled up 70 All-America honors, while 33 have earned 73 All-SEC certificates. He also has coached 19 Scholar All-Americans. Eleven of Haack’s pupils have amassed 44 PGA Tour wins and, all told, his former players have earned more than $200 million at the pro level. He also shares coaching a young Tiger Woods before his UGA days. 

Haack was inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame in 2012, the GSGA’s Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 2016, and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

Better than all of the accolades he shares how he cares and pushes his players to be their best, as well as how he has built, established, sustained unprecedented success with the Georgia Bulldog program. 

Enjoy the show! 

#180: Taylor Edge is the Founder and CEO of Season Builder. The Season Builder Foundation's mission is to help students and young adults define direction and equip them to pursue it with purpose.

Taylor is the creator of the Season Builder framework as well as former college athlete, successful entrepreneur, corporate employee, UAH Men’s and Women’s Basketball Character Coach, public servant, worship leader, technology consultant, head coach, author, and inspirational liver of life.

He is a follower of Jesus, passionate encourager, problem solver, self leadership coach, and mentor that has been called to facilitate, inspire, remind, and empower transformation in the next generation.

Taylor has been married to his beautiful wife Mindy since 1996. They have two sons, Stuart & Austin, and live in Madison, AL.

For more info on Taylor, Season Builder, the Coach Edge App, and his book, More Than A Believer,  check out seasonbuilder.org and the link below. 

Enjoy the show!

Book:
https://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Believer-Practical-Transformed/dp/1791627684/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8