CXO Conversations

After Travelers Insurance acquired several companies, as a Director, Stephen Brown wrote a transition memo and proposed he lead the initiative. His superiors countered by promoting him to President, relocating him to California and told him to run the whole thing.

Stephen speaks to:

• Experience of going from Director to President overnight and how he prepared

• Overcoming self-doubt by continuously learning and improving

• As a 32-year-old, leading an older C suite Generation

• Advice 55-year-old Stephen would give to 32-year-old Stephen

Stephen went from Director to President overnight and never looked back. He's been a CEO ever since and in this intimate interview, shares those experiences and lessons learned.

Thank you to ACG Denver for being a sponsor of CXO Conversations Podcast. Association for Corporate Growth in its role as the hub of the middle market business community for quality networking, education and events. Connections are made, deals are formed and thought leadership is exchanged.

Enjoy the show? Review us on iTunes- thanks!

Thank you Jalan Crossland for lending your award-winning banjo skills to CXO Conversations.

Frederic Rivain has served as a CTO for numerous technology companies in France and the US. He speaks to the differences in managing technical vs non technical staff and aligning to their motivations.

Frederic talks to:

• Differences in leading technical and non-technical professionals

• Role of the CTO on the executive leadership team

• Advice to those who seek the C suite.

For the last seven years, Frederic has served as the CTO for Dashlane and held the CTO chair at 3 other companies after serving as a Project Manager for IBM.

Thank you to ACG Denver for being a sponsor of CXO Conversations Podcast. Association for Corporate Growth in its role as the hub of the middle market business community for quality networking, education and events. Connections are made, deals are formed and thought leadership is exchanged.

Enjoy the show? Review us on iTunes- thanks!

Thank you Jalan Crossland for lending your award-winning banjo skills to CXO Conversations.

Kathleen Neuheardt, CFO for Bonfire talks to her creativity and passion for embracing challenges as opportunities with an entrepreneurial spirit.

During the interview, Kathleen speaks to:

· Being promoted from VP to CFO

· Overlooked Roles and responsibility of being a CFO

· How being a Big 4 consultant helped prepare her for the C Suite

Kathleen was a partner track consultant at KPMG when after 13 years, she decided to become a small business owner. Then Kathleen joined Kalnin Ventures (now BKV) and took ownership of projects and firm needs that included ERP implementations, HR, M&A due diligence, accounting, and more. She was promoted from Controller, VP to CFO within four years.

Her next role was CFO at Quickbox Fulfillment and now CFO for Bonfire.

Thank you to ACG Denver for being a sponsor of CXO Conversations Podcast. Association for Corporate Growth in its role as the hub of the middle market business community for quality networking, education and events. Connections are made, deals are formed and thought leadership is exchanged.

Enjoy the show? Review us on iTunes- thanks!

Thank you Jalan Crossland for lending your award-winning banjo skills to CXO Conversations.

CXO Conversations is excited to share some great insights from a global CFO and CTO, curious CFO and CEO who created a President role for himself at age 32.

Kathleen Neuheardt CFO of Bonfire airs on July 19th, followed by Dashlane CTO Frederic Revain, Briotix Health CEO Stephen Brown and former CFO for The Economist, David Cox.

An accomplished investor, Rand Lewis is the Managing partner and co-founder of Delta-v Capital. Rand has invested in many well-known companies such as Zayo, Cloud Sherpa, LogRhythm, Iterable, Chegg and others.

For over 24 years, Rand has been investing and hiring executives for portfolio companies and he's learned and observed a lot about what makes an executive a great leader and successful.

In this episode, Rand discusses:

• He invests not only dollars, but real relationships with people
• Advice to current and emerging CEOs
• What makes a leader successful and how he finds it in candidates

After earning an MBA from Northwestern, Rand was a consultant at McKinsey before joining Centennial Ventures. After a successful 10 year run with Centennial, he co-founded Delta-v that focuses on technology companies.

Enjoy the show? Review us on iTunes- thanks!

Thank you Jalan Crossland for lending your award-winning banjo skills to CXO Conversations.

Jay McMullan is a CRO who started his sales career at an industrial supply company and observed what was happening in the technology sector and said - I want in on that. For those who wonder how to make the transition from one sector to another, this is a conversation not to be missed.

In this episode, Jay discusses:

• How he transitioned from the industrial shop floor to a tech company
• How he demonstrated his skills to overcome lack of Tech experience
• As a member of the executive committee, how the CRO contributes to company strategy

David has held leadership roles at companies such as Amdocs, Ericsson and others. He truly enjoys sales, relationship building and serving as a trusted advisor to his clients.

Enjoy the show? Review us on iTunes- thanks!

Thank you Jalan Crossland for lending your award-winning banjo skills to CXO Conversations.

Carla Fowler, an Executive Coach and founder of THAXA, has gone through the challenge of changing a career path and embracing new opportunities. Carla speaks to the advantages and growth (both personal and professional) of pushing yourself and getting outside of your comfort zone. Professionals achieve career accomplishments by continuing to push oneself, learning, tackling new projects and improving. That's how Executives are formed.

Carla talks to;

• Realizing path one is on isn't always the right one
• Pushing your boundaries and trying new things
• She agrees UDub is the best university- Go Huskies!

After dedicating over 10 years of education, training, and long hours to become an MD, Carla had a long hard self-reflective journey that in the end said, 'This isn't what I want to do', and she became an executive coach. If anyone can appreciate a great career pivot and the personal journey that is required, Carla can.

Referenced prior podcast guest: Casey Woo

Enjoy the show? Review us on iTunes - thanks!

Thank you Jalan Crossland for lending your award-winning banjo skills to CXO Conversations.

For more insightful episodes with some of C-Suites' big names Click Here

David Parkhurst is the Chief Customer Officer (CCO) and Managing Partner for Omni Interactions. Additional roles he has served as includes Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and Chief Growth Officer.

David discusses:

• The differences between CCO, CGO and CRO
• Moving from VP to C Level and the shift in revenue responsibilities
• When a deal falls apart at zero hour & lessons learned

David has held leadership roles at ServiceSource, Skykes Enterprises and Alpine Access focusing on customer care solutions. This has given David insight into economic cycles and client business conditions in a fresh angle. And we share our love of cold calling!

Enjoy the show? Review us on iTunes- thanks!

Thank you Jalan Crossland for lending your award-winning banjo skills to CXO Conversations.

Chris Younger is the CEO of Class VI Partners and is an executive with many chapters in his career. As President of Expanets, a telcom reseller, he acquired 27 companies in 3 years then sold it to Avaya. He owned a Private Equity Firm and now provides transactions and strategic advisory services to middle market businesses.

Chris provides insight into:

• · Managing the stress of leadership- why you must
• · Importance of executive presence
• · The Dinner Test with CEOs

Chris has bought, sold, led companies across all business sectors and advises organizations and family offices on transactions. This provides Chris with insights on C level leaders that he shares in this episode.

He also shares the physical toll of being an overworked President and how it changed him.

Enjoy the show? Review us on iTunes- thanks!

Thank you Jalan Crossland for lending your award-winning banjo skills to CXO Conversations.

In a very honest conversation, onsite in Boulder, Colorado, we speak with Raphael Crawford Marks, who founded Bonusly over 11 years ago by accident. It was a off shoot of another project that has since taken off and recently secured it's Series B funding.

Raphael speaks to several points:

· The transition from being hands on to leading

· Differences between being a Founder and CEO what it is like

· How the role of CEO continues to evolve and the company setback of a bad hire

Raphael discusses the challenges and learning moments moving from being a hands on start up Founder to a governing company CEO. His job as CEO is still constantly changing- it changes every three months. He also embraces hiring those who are smarter than himself, talks about why, learning new leadership skills, the value of a support network and mentors.

Bonusly is an enterprise platform that helps companies create a high-performance, high-engagement workplace. Prior to founding Bonusly, Raphael was an early employee at several startups, a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, and an instructor for Year Up. Raphael dropped out of high school to work as a software engineer in the mid-nineties, but did eventually earn his BA in cognitive science from Hampshire College, where he wrote his senior thesis on artificial intelligence.

Also, in a Medium article, Raphael discusses "Five Things Business Leaders Can Do To Create A Fantastic Work Culture"

Raphael also contributed to benefitnews.com where he discusses "Four Benefits of positive Recognition to Boost Employee Engagement"

On Entrepreneur.com, Raphael has several articles discussing employee feedback, communications and how to harness staff evaluations.

Enjoy the show? Review us on iTunes- thanks!

Thank you Jalan Crossland for lending your award-winning banjo skills to CXO Conversations.