Fortt Knox

By CNBCBusiness Technology Careers

Fortt Knox episodes

March 26, 2017 20 - Katie Jacobs Stanton, Color CMO: Be the Exception to the Rule
Katie Jacobs Stanton knows how to create her own options.
Stanton, a veteran of Twitter, Google, Yahoo, and a presidential administration, now serves as chief marketing officer of genetic testing startup Color Genomics. Her professional journey from East Coast to West, and back and forth again, has given her rare insight into the workplace cultures that shape us today.
I sat down with her for the Fortt Knox podcast to talk about the environment for women in tech, and her journey to the executive ranks in Silicon Valley.

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42 min
March 19, 2017 19 - Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP CEO: How To Make Your Second Act An Empire
Sir Martin Sorrell is arguably the most important advertising executive in the world.
As CEO of WPP Group, he oversees a global marketing machine that he's assembled over more than 30 years. His group companies include J Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam, and more than 100 others. Clients include two of every three Fortune Global 500 companies.
When I sat down with him for the Fortt Knox podcast, I wanted to talk about his childhood, his career, and the pivotal choices he made. He didn't disappoint.

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44 min
March 13, 2017 18 - Tom Steyer, investor and activist: A Billionaire's Surprising Rules of Winning
Tom Steyer became a billionaire by solving puzzles.
That wasn't his technical job description – he actually founded Farallon Capital, a hedge fund in San Francisco, 30 years ago. As an investor, two signature moves stand out: One, he got his alma mater, Yale, to invest a portion of its endowment with him; the success of that arrangement sparked a trend. Two, he often made his own luck by investing deeply in countries and industries.
As Steyer scouted unusual investments in unexpected places, he followed some basic rules. Now that Steyer has set his sights on politics and policy – he's rumored to be considering a run for California governor – I sat down with him for Fortt Knox. He gave me some of his best insights on how to succeed, and why he's fighting the new administration in Washington, D.C.

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51 min
March 04, 2017 17 - Michael Phelps, Olympic champion: The Toughest Battle Is in Your Mind
We love to have these debates about who's the greatest of all time in any given sport; maybe it's because you don't even have to be an expert to get in on them. All you need to know is the yardstick for success. Serena Williams or Steffi Graf? Tom Brady or Joe Montana?
That's what makes Michael Phelps special. There's no debate. He's the greatest swimmer and most decorated Olympian of all time. He won 28 medals over four different Olympic Games, 23 of them gold.
The question is, how? Well, Michael Phelps is not a fish. Doctors have shot down the notion that his abnormal wingspan and flexible joints give him an outsized advantage.
It turns out, Phelps worked hard on his craft. He also does a few mental exercises that the rest of us would do well to emulate. I sat down with him for the Fortt Knox podcast to get some of his best insights.

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27 min
February 25, 2017 16 - Sue Decker, Raftr founder: The Woman Who Advised Steve Jobs & Warren Buffett
More than a decade ago, Steve Jobs asked Sue Decker to be the chief financial officer at Pixar. Decker said no.
She did, however, join Pixar's board of directors.
At the time, Decker ran finance at Yahoo. The decline of Yahoo has become the stuff of Silicon Valley legend; today the company is in the process of getting absorbed into Verizon, at a fraction of its former value. Sue Decker, on the other hand, has done just fine in the eight years since she left the Internet company.
This is Fortt Knox, rich ideas and powerful people. I'm Jon Fortt. This is a weekly podcast bringing you the highest achievers from business, entertainment, philanthropy, and sport. We're going to learn how the very best climbed to the top, and pull out lessons along the way. If that sounds good to you, make this a habit: subscribe on Apple's Podcast app or Google Play. And once you've done that, tell a friend — these talks are definitely conversation starters.
Sue Decker is one of the few people that some of the top U.S. companies seek for guidance. Aside from Pixar, she has also served on the boards of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, chip giant Intel, retail powerhouse Costco, and others. On her path to those board rooms, Decker has gained a rare perspective on what works – and what doesn't – when you're trying to work your way up.
I sat down with her on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to talk about her new startup, and her path to success.

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23 min
February 20, 2017 15 - Bayard Winthrop, American Giant founder: Clothes Made in the U.S.A.
Bayard Winthrop got his inspiration from Silicon Valley. If we could put a touch-screen computer in the palm of everyone's hand, why couldn't we actually make the next great American clothing brand … in America?
So five years ago, Winthrop shipped his first American Giant sweatshirt, made in the U.S.A. from domestic cotton. Now he's producing thousands of shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, and sweatpants for men and women every month. And it's not all lounge gear: he's just introduced the brand's first cotton dress.
This is Fortt Knox, rich ideas and powerful people. I'm Jon Fortt. This is a weekly podcast bringing you the highest achievers from business, entertainment, philanthropy, and sport. I'm going to learn how the very best climbed to the top, and take notes to help you up the mountain. If that sounds good to you, make this a habit: subscribe on Apple's Podcast app or Google Play. And once you've done that, tell a friend — these talks are definitely conversation starters.
There's lots of talk about bringing manufacturing jobs back to America these days. American Giant is actually doing it, and doing it the hard way. The company owns its factories in North Carolina where Winthrop says he employs hundreds of workers sewing clothes.

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53 min
February 13, 2017 14 - Gene Simmons, KISS: How to Future-Proof Your Brand
Gene Simmons is the most outrageous member of one of the most outrageous bands of all time: KISS.
There's a lot more to KISS than shock. It's the number-one gold-record-earning group ever, at 30, when you include the four solo albums that band members released on the same day in 1978. Fourteen albums went platinum.
This is a band that's known for its hits: "I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day" seems like it's a phrase as old as rock itself. The band is known just as much for its look. There's the black and white face paint, the pyrotechnics, and a few details that are signature Gene Simmons. There's the blood-spitting, the axe guitar, and of course the tongue so long it's almost a fifth band member. And guess what: They're still touring.
This is Fortt Knox, rich ideas and powerful people. I'm Jon Fortt. I sat down with Gene Simmons at the Studio Hotel in New York, to talk business and marketing. Simmons is a guy who not only managed to launch an iconic brand in his early 20s, he and cofounder Paul Stanley remade it several times along the way with different band members, different looks, and a voracious appetite for merchandising.
A disclaimer here: This episode has some explicit lyrics sprinkled in. By Gene, not me. So maybe don't listen with the kids in the car. Up to you.

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49 min
February 06, 2017 13 - Darren Walker, Ford Foundation president: What It Will Take to Heal the Culture
The key to understanding this moment in American history, in black history, is empathy.
That's what Darren Walker is saying. And one could argue that if anybody's positioned to understand this dizzying landscape, he is.
Walker grew up poor in rural Texas, became one of the first kids in the Head Start program, and made it big on Wall Street in the 1980s. But his true calling was even bigger: He's now president at the Ford Foundation, an $11-billion philanthropy giant that's aiming to address social justice and inequality around the globe.

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31 min
January 30, 2017 12 - Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, Charles Schwab Foundation president: Empowering Women to Invest with Confidence
When you see Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz's name, you might assume the daughter of Charles Schwab grew up quite privileged.
After all, the Schwab name has become synonymous with wealth management. Didn't she end up working in the industry by default?
Actually, no.
Schwab-Pomerantz's parents divorced when she was a child, and her father's firm didn't become a financial force until she was well into her 20s. She was already there working with clients when Bank of America bought the company in 1983, and continued after the company split off again four years later.
Today, Schwab-Pomerantz is Chairman of the Charles Schwab Foundation, and a senior vice president at the $56-billion company. She's a certified financial planner, and focuses on reaching out to groups like women, minorities and young people, who tend to have less experience managing their personal finances.
I talked to Schwab-Pomerantz for the Fortt Knox podcast to get a sense of her personal journey – successes and mistakes – and also to dig out a lot of practical money tips for professionals who are trying to save for the future while planning big purchases and even raising a family. It's January, after all. There's still time to make good on those money resolutions.

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44 min
January 23, 2017 11 - John Legere, T-Mobile USA CEO: CEOs Can't Say That
How's this for authenticity: T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere has no qualms about dropping an f-bomb right in the middle of a press conference. He was taunting his rivals on Twitter long before that became the new standard in diplomacy.
More important than all of that, Legere is growing the rolls at the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier at a dizzying clip – T-Mobile added 2.3 million subscribers in the first nine months of last year. AT&T and Verizon might be bigger, but T-Mobile is bold, scrappy, and changing the rules of the game.
That's why for the latest episode of the Fortt Knox podcast I sat down with Legere to talk about how he decided to be a different kind of CEO, and why.
More: http://forttknox.com

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14 min

About Fortt Knox

From the publisher's feed

Jon Fortt co-anchors TechCheck on CNBC, and has covered technology and innovation for more than 15 years. Fortt Knox brings you rich ideas and powerful people. Guests include Intel CEO Brian Krzanich,…