This week, Jessica sat down with Matthew Owenby, Chief Strategy Officer at Aflac, an American insurance company and the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States.

In this conversation, Matthew shares his insights on leadership, family, and the mission of Aflac. He emphasizes the importance of having a purpose beyond oneself, the commitment to customer care, and the philosophy of hiring for life. 

Matthew discusses the challenges faced during the COVID pandemic and how Aflac navigated these challenges while maintaining a focus on empathy and support for employees and customers alike. He also addresses misconceptions about Aflac and shares his personal aspirations in leadership.

Matthew Owenby joined Aflac in 2012 as vice president of HR Business Partners, bringing with him more than a decade of human resources leadership experience at Bank of America and General Electric. He assumed his current position in May 2015, where he leads the effort to apply Aflac's global initiatives while providing strategic direction for the Human Resources and Leadership, Learning and Development teams. 

In 2016, he was ranked No. 1 in the Top Corporate Leader Award - Over 35 category, a Gold winner in the HR Executive of the Year category and a Silver Stevie honoree in the HR Executive of the Year category. Matthew earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Georgia State University and a Master of Business Administration from Mercer University. He is a member of the Society of Human Resource Management.

https://www.aflac.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewowenby/⁠

Host: Jessica Kriegel

Website: jessicakriegel.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jessicakriegel

Instagram: @jess_kriegel

Culture Partners

Website: culturepartners.com

LinkedIn:⁠ linkedin.com/company/culturepartners⁠

This week, Jessica sat down with Mike Dolen, the founder and CEO of Humancore, an AI powered platform designed to help managers lead better in real time. 

Having spent his career at the intersection of people, science, and performance, Mike has seen a common pattern: we know what makes great leadership, but rarely embed it into the day-to-day workplace. He explains how Humancore uses generative AI and organizational psychology to offer in-the-moment leadership support that’s contextual and personalized for an organization–and why he thinks the process is more practical and effective than the current model of coaching and training.

Plus, big questions around AI's role in the future of work, emotional authenticity, and whether people might actually prefer reporting to a chatbot; it’s a conversation full of tough questions and new perspectives on the intersection of humanity and technology.

Mike Dolen is co-founder and CEO of Humancore. He brings a wealth of experience in HR Tech, leveraging his expertise to implement hyper-growth sales strategies, scaling business operations, and cultivating high-performance cultures for businesses across the globe.

Prior to Humancore, Mike held key leadership positions at notable companies such as LinkedIn, Glint, CEB, and Kenexa, roles in which he had P&L responsibility and broad functional responsibilities.

About Mike Dolen

https://humancore.ai/

Host: Jessica Kriegel

Website: jessicakriegel.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jessicakriegel

Instagram: @jess_kriegel

Culture Partners

Website: culturepartners.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/culturepartners

This week, Jessica sat down with Bart Fanelli, founder of Skillibrium and a longtime operator with deep experience leading revenue teams inside high-growth companies.

Bart is on a mission to bring skill back into the conversation—especially in leadership. In this episode, he shares how clarity, consistency, and accountability became the foundation of his approach to building high-performing teams. They talk about the danger of over-indexing on tools and dashboards, and why real performance still comes down to people having hard conversations, setting expectations, and holding each other to them.

Bart also opens up about the lessons he learned scaling organizations quickly, and the personal stories that shaped his leadership style along the way.

About Bart Fanelli

An experienced sales executive, field operator and executive advisor with a proven track record of building successful GTM organizations, Bart has served in leadership roles with OutSystems, Splunk and BMC Software, leading teams of more than 275 employees within businesses with more than $1.5 billion in revenue. Bart was featured in a 2017 Harvard Business Review article and is an accomplished co-author of “The Success Cadence.” His latest venture is Skillibrium, a platform designed to help go-to-market organizations grow together – individually, as teams and as an organization. In addition, Bart was recently featured in Authority Magazine and HR Daily Advisor.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartfanelli/

https://skillibrium.com/

Host: Jessica Kriegel

Website: jessicakriegel.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jessicakriegel

Instagram: @jess_kriegel

Culture Partners

Website: culturepartners.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/culturepartners

This week, Jessica sat down with Victoria Pelletier, a bold and boundary-breaking executive who became a Fortune 500 COO at just 24 and has been unstoppable ever since.

Victoria leads transformation, change, and culture at scale. In this conversation, she shares how she balances clarity and conviction in complex matrixed organizations, how she helps clients embrace AI without abandoning their people, and why emotional intelligence is essential for influencing in today’s workplace. They discuss the shelf life of skills, the rising fear around automation, and how leaders can build buy-in when the future feels uncertain.

Victoria also opens up about her personal story. She turned early adversity into her superpower, what it really means to be vulnerable as a leader, and why confidence is her exception to “fake it till you make it.”

Victoria Pelletier is no stranger to the corporate board room. By the time she was 24 years old, she was COO of a multinational corporation. Now with 20+ years in corporate leadership, Victoria has held senior roles in companies such as Accenture, IBM, and American Express.

Victoria’s message is that we can have it all, as long as we live a life of #NoExcuses. Victoria proves that it IS possible to have a life in which women can succeed as a mom, as a corporate executive, as a spouse, and much more.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriapelletier/

https://www.kyndryl.com/us/en

Host: Jessica Kriegel

Website: jessicakriegel.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jessicakriegel

Instagram: @jess_kriegel

Culture Partners

Website: culturepartners.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/culturepartners

About Victoria Pelletier

This week, Jessica sat down with Greg Brown, former CEO of Udemy. Greg is a lifelong advocate for growth through learning, with a leadership journey shaped by a childhood surrounded by educators, a growth mindset rooted in family, and a belief that learning creates economic opportunity.

Greg shares how that philosophy guided his decision to join Udemy, where he helped transform the company from a consumer marketplace into a $500 million enterprise learning platform used by global brands. They discuss  AI’s impact on learning, the future of higher education, and why Greg believes corporations have a growing responsibility to educate the next generation of workers. Plus, the power of embracing change, whether it’s stepping away from the CEO seat or learning to surrender what you can’t control.

Greg Brown is a senior software executive with over 20 years of experience in enterprise software and technology companies. He served for four years as the CEO of Udemy, a leading global platform for online learning and skills development, where he was instrumental in reshaping the company’s strategic direction, expanding its enterprise learning solutions and integrating advanced AI-driven learning technologies. Before joining Udemy, Greg served as CEO of Reflektive and has held roles at companies including Blackhawk Network, Achievers, Mindjet, PivotLink, and WebEx. 

https://www.udemy.com/

Host: Jessica Kriegel

Website: jessicakriegel.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jessicakriegel

Instagram: @jess_kriegel

Culture Partners

Website: culturepartners.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/culturepartners

This week, Jessica sat down with Tendü Yogurtçu, the Chief Technology Officer of Precisely, which powers data integrity for more than 90 of the Fortune 100.

They discuss Tendü's non-traditional perspective as a CTO: her leadership blends deep technical knowledge with a human-first mindset, and her approach to innovation is rooted in clarity, connection, and culture. Tendü also explains how to align technical transformation with business goals, how to create momentum in remote environments, and why innovation is only sustainable when it's grounded in empathy.

She also shares her views on AI governance, inclusion in data design, and what it takes to move fast without breaking trust. Plus, how she's building software - and also mentoring rising talent, closing equity gaps, and creating cultures where teams thrive.

Tendü Yoğurtçu, Ph.D., is Precisely's Chief Technology Officer (CTO). She has 25+ years of software industry experience, including extensive Big Data and Cloud knowledge. As CTO, Tendu directs the company’s technology strategy and innovation, leading all product research and development programs.

Tendü is a member of the Forbes Technology Council. She is also an advocate for STEM education for women and diversity, who was recognized as CTO of the Year at the prestigious 2019 Women in IT Awards, and recognized as an Outstanding Executive in Technology for 2018 by Advancing Women in Technology (AWT).

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tenduyogurtcu

https://www.precisely.com/

Host: Jessica Kriegel

Website: jessicakriegel.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jessicakriegel

Instagram: @jess_kriegel

Culture Partners

Website: culturepartners.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/culturepartners

About Tendü Yogurtçu

This week, Jessica is joined by Megan Hansen, the Chief People Officer at Ontra - a legal tech company navigating the world of AI and private equity.

Megan opens up about the paradoxes that define her role: balancing empathy with performance, innovation with ethics, and purpose with profit. Her perspective is rooted in what she calls the power of "and":  the belief that polarities can be managed, not solved, and that great leadership lives in the in-between.

They discuss AI, education, corporate responsibility, and how trust and transparency are the foundation of real change. Megan also shares why being a Chief People Officer is one of the hardest roles in the C-suite, and how she keeps showing up with conviction, clarity, and care.

Megan Hansen is the Chief People Officer of Ontra and the executive sponsor of Ontra’s DEI Council. She is responsible for unlocking Ontra’s growth by creating an ecosystem where talented people can do their best work. Prior to Ontra, Megan was the Chief People and Culture Officer at Smartsheet and also served in leadership roles at MOD Pizza, Outerwall, and Frog Design.

Host: Jessica Kriegel

Website: jessicakriegel.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jessicakriegel

Instagram: @jess_kriegel

Culture Partners

Website: culturepartners.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/culturepartners

This week, Jessica is joined by Nikesh Arora, the chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks. When he joined the company in 2018, Nikesh had no cybersecurity experience, but he explains how he brought a bold vision, nonlinear thinking, and a relentless belief in culture as the foundation for growth.

In this conversation, they discuss how Nikesh inspires people, what makes culture stick, and how trust, fairness, and curiosity have shaped his leadership style. He shares his approach to listening — including the surprising habit of hosting Zoom calls with 50 randomly selected employees every week — and how that access to unfiltered feedback has helped him lead with more clarity and empathy.

They also talk about cybersecurity as a culture issue, how to manage acquisitions without diluting your values, and what it means to be a leader who constantly challenges others to become better versions of themselves.

Nikesh Arora joined as chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks in June 2018. Before joining Palo Alto Networks, Nikesh served as president and chief operating officer of SoftBank Group Corp. Prior to that, he held a number of positions at Google, Inc. during a 10-year span, including senior vice president and chief business officer, president of global sales operations and business development, and president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Google, Nikesh held the role of chief marketing officer for the T-Mobile International Division of Deutsche Telekom AG. He was chief executive officer and founder of T-Motion PLC, which merged with T-Mobile International in 2002.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikesh-arora-02894670/

https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/

Host: Jessica Kriegel

Website: jessicakriegel.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jessicakriegel

Instagram: @jess_kriegel

Culture Partners

Website: culturepartners.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/culturepartners

About Nikesh Arora

This week, Jessica is joined by Ron Alvesteffer, the President and CEO of Service Express. 

Ron doesn’t just talk about people-first culture, he operationalizes it. He’s built an entire growth engine around employee goals, clarity, and care, with a “why” that’s fundamentally based in service and support. He shares how to scale culture through intentional leadership, why accountability is a form of love, and how he balances relentless growth with human connection.

Ron also opens up about his own transformation as a leader, from over-indexing on performance to realizing that investing in people was the key to unlocking results. And the hard stuff, too: turnover, remote work, and how to lead through moments when things break.

During his 25+ years of ongoing leadership at Service Express, Ron has helped the company leverage double-digit annual revenue growth, expand its international footprint, create a unique performance-driven culture, and more. He is most proud of the strong company culture Service Express fosters through its Core Value to cultivate a culture of growth that empowers our people to achieve their personal, professional and financial goals. This shared goal has helped create opportunities for employee achievement and led to outstanding individual and company success. 

Ron is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and World 50, a private community for CEOs and C-level executives at globally respected organizations to discover better ideas, share valuable experiences and build relationships that make a lasting impact.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronalvesteffer/

https://serviceexpress.com/about-us/leadership/ron-alvesteffer/

Host: Jessica Kriegel

Website: jessicakriegel.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jessicakriegel

Instagram: @jess_kriegel

Culture Partners

Website: culturepartners.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/culturepartners

About Ron Alvesteffer

This week, Jessica is joined by Raúl Valentin, the Chief Human Resources Officer at ABM Industries. Raúl explains how his belief in fairness drives his leadership–everything from recruiting policies to acquisition strategy to the way ABM integrates AI into HR operations. He opens up about his early life as the son of a single mother, why he almost went to law school, and how that background fuels his commitment to give every employee a fair shot — even if that doesn’t always mean treating everyone the same.

They also discuss what it really takes to scale culture across a workforce of more than 100,000 hourly team members across the world, why humility and collaboration are at the heart of ABM’s identity, and how Raúl is navigating the evolving conversation around DEI without getting lost in political labels.

Plus, the tactics of leadership — like what makes an acquisition succeed, how physical workspaces shape behavior, and why AI can’t replace the human side of HR, even if it’s helping us do our jobs better and faster.

Raúl joined ABM in 2019 and serves as the people leader and advocate for more than 100,000 dedicated team members across the US and the UK. Raúl is dedicated to cultivating a stronger community by growing and developing our people and fostering an inclusive culture where everyone is seen, heard, and valued.

Raúl has held key HR leadership roles at Coty, Comcast, and Frito-Lay, with more than 30 years of human resources and management experience. He serves on the board of Quanta Services, Inc., a leading provider of comprehensive infrastructure solutions for the electric and gas utility, renewable energy, communications, pipeline and energy industries in the United States.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rauljvalentin

https://investor.abm.com/management/raul-valentin

Host: Jessica Kriegel

Website: jessicakriegel.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jessicakriegel

Instagram: @jess_kriegel

Culture Partners

Website: culturepartners.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/culturepartners