C-Speak: The Language of Executives

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On the latest episode of PNC C-Speak, Jay Bernhardt, Ph.D., president of Emerson College, shares leadership and communication lessons from his career journey through academia. He discusses the four pillars of Emerson’s strategic vision as part of its Extraordinary Emerson 2030 plan. Bernhardt also explores how higher education organizations can navigate disruption and leverage artificial intelligence responsibly.

“Even in an era where technology is going to support and make possible things we couldn’t do before…human imagination, human communication, human creativity (are) still at the core, at least at Emerson, of all the things that we believe in and do,” says Bernhardt.

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Download a transcript of this episode here.

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The latest episode of PNC C-Speak, called Money, Markets and Momentum: Decisions Leaders are Making Now, features Amanda Agati, chief investment officer for PNC, alongside Katherine Craven, executive vice president for administration and finance at Babson College, and Yvonne Hao, chief operating officer and general partner of Flagship Pioneering.

Together, they discuss how executives can make confident decisions despite market volatility, policy uncertainty and rapid technological change.

“This is a time for decision-makers to lean in,” Agati says. “You can’t be a passive bystander in this kind of an environment.”

The conversation also covers the signals shaping investment and capital allocation and the importance of balancing immediate demands with long-term goals.

Subscribe to C-Speak so you never miss an episode. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Download a transcript of this episode here.

Sponsored Content by PNC Bank:

On the latest episode of PNC C-Speak, Yvonne Hao, chief operating officer and general partner of Flagship Pioneering and former Massachusetts secretary of economic development, discusses her unconventional leadership journey — from startups and private equity to public service and life sciences.

Hao shares her philosophy of “paranoid optimism” and how it helps drive progress. The conversation also explores Flagship Pioneering’s unique model for innovation, the potential of AI and why Hao views mistakes as “two-way doors.”

Subscribe to C-Speak so you never miss an episode. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Download a transcript of this episode here.

On this episode of C-Speak, Alastair Bell, president and CEO of Boston Medical Center Health System, discusses BMC’s history and mission as an academic medical center serving underserved communities. He also explores the operational, financial and policy complexity of leading a mission-driven nonprofit focused on health equity.

“Trying to think about how to create an environment for all of the people that are part of BMC Health System to show up, do their best work against our mission and maintain a trust as we navigate some difficult choices,” Bell says.

Subscribe to C-Speak so you never miss an episode. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode of C-Speak, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks covers the company’s 160-year history, its core businesses and the “Playing to Win” strategy focused on inspiring a lifetime of play. He highlights how Hasbro balances legacy with growth and details what the future looks like for the toy company.

“Our core KPI is what we’ve termed ‘delight,’ and it’s the number of people that we’ve reached in the past year with a play experience and hopefully brought a smile to their face. Last year we estimate we delighted about 1.1 billion people,” Cocks says.

Subscribe to C-Speak so you never miss an episode. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to C-Speak so you never miss an episode. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode of PNC C-Speak, Amanda Agati, chief investment officer for PNC’s Asset Management Group, discusses how PNC’s culture led her back to the company, adopting a servant leadership mindset when moving into managerial roles and the challenges of what she calls “purple haze” policy uncertainty.

“I do think we’re setting ourselves up for a really strong multi-year period, and investors need to be mindful of that in terms of portfolio positioning. It’s easy to deviate from long-term plans [with all the uncertainty],”Agati says.

Subscribe to C-Speak so you never miss an episode. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode of PNC C-Speak, Patrick Gilligan, president and CEO of Point32Health, discusses leading the nonprofit health and well-being organization that serves commercial, Medicare and Medicaid markets. Gilligan also touches on using AI to improve administrative efficiency and provider-plan collaboration and the need for industry stakeholders to reconnect and reduce waste to address affordability.

“There is a lot of efficiency near term on AI, but I think long term it can really improve the overall experience [for the doctors and patients], and that’s my goal,” Gilligan says.

Subscribe to C-Speak so you never miss an episode. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode of PNC C-Speak, PNC Bank President Mark Wiedman reflects on his first year in his role and how he approached learning the ins and outs of a large coast-to-coast bank. He discusses his goal to build a national bank with big-bank capabilities delivered at a local level and the challenges and opportunities that AI brings.

“[What’s been critical to] PNC’s success is the culture. We win as a team. We’re local. We care about the bank, about the communities we’re in, about each other. Those are important values to me, but they’re also pretty unusual,” Wiedman says.

In this episode of PNC C-Speak, Saskia Epstein, senior vice president for client and community relations at PNC Bank, discusses her journey from the nonprofit sector to banking. She shares her focus on employee engagement, social impact, business development and brand communications. Epstein also highlights PNC’s long-standing commitment to early childhood education as a core community focus and the work she helps advance through her leadership in community relations.

“There is an incredible need for a wide diversity of opportunity for early learning and family-based care is providing an expansion to the options. [In-home childcare] also creates self- sustaining business opportunities for individual entrepreneurs,” Epstein said.

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In this episode of PNC C-Speak, Dr. Kirk Taylor, CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, discusses his path from neurology and more than 25 years in global drug development to public-sector leadership. He highlights trends shaping the life sciences sector, including AI and machine learning, talent competition, speed to commercialization and the importance of federal and state funding.

“The concept that everyone’s talking about is AI,” Taylor says. “Taking control of it, as opposed to it taking control of us, will help with drug development and job creation. It will impact everything, but I hope in a positive way.”