Harbert Podcast

For entrepreneur Patrick Brown, a willingness to “jump into the unknown where you don’t know the end of the story” has guided a varied business career that includes forming a highly successful adult kickball league. Brown, a 1994 Harbert graduate and former Auburn SGA president, notes the importance of identifying the “core offering” of your proposed  business.

For Jamie Garverick, a Harbert degree in finance proved to be an excellent background for a career in sales, especially for high-ticket items. Garverick, chief revenue officer at Fullstory, a digital experience analytics firm in Atlanta, says “The ability to know your way around the spreadsheet is really, really important.”

For Pavan Reddy, chief counsel at Auburn Ventures, a law degree was an ideal complement to his 2010 Harbert degree. As the commercial real estate company has grown, his dual background has allowed him to see the business from a legal perspective as well as a business viewpoint. 

An early mentor’s advice to always do the right thing has stuck with Steve Fleming throughout a long career in mortgage lending and now in commercial real estate development. In this podcast, Fleming, a 1984 Harbert finance graduate, also shares his experiences as a founder of On To Victory, Auburn’s Name, Image and Likeness collective.

Christa Cotton, CEO of El Guapo, caught the entrepreneurial bug early from her family’s business endeavors. Her company’s bitters are sold across the country, but because they are non-alcoholic, she can distribute them without having to deal with varying state alcohol laws. That’s a key ingredient in her recipe for success.

Given the competition in today’s financial markets, asset management and cryptocurrency firms need strong, data-driven media solutions to reach investors and advisors. For Stephen Love, a group director at Ptarmigan Media, that requires staying on top of critical areas such as consumer trends, competitors and technology trends. Love earned an international business degree from Harbert in 2012 and an MBA in 2013.

For Airship CEO Trent Kocurek, focusing on the views of the people you’re trying to help is critical to business success. Kocurek, a 2008 Harbert graduate in management information systems, says problem-solving has to be ingrained in a company’s culture. The serial entrepreneur also urges risk-taking early in a career, when there’s more room to make mistakes.

Bill Allen, a 1980 Harbert graduate, has seen great change in the HR field over a career that includes stints as chief HR officer at Macy’s, Maersk and Atlas Air.  He says today’s HR professionals have to help their companies build cultures that will attract the people needed to operate successfully.

That college degree is just the start of your learning, says Bo Patel, principal at Axion US and a 1998 Harbert graduate. It’s an ongoing process in the business world. And that process won’t be “lollipops and unicorns” all the time, he says. There’ll be fear and failure along the way, but it’s important to keep that in perspective: “Fear is a great motivator. It can stop you, but it also can keep you going because you don’t want to fail.”

Meghan Michel, a real estate manager for Whataburger, says algorithms and other forms of technology are helpful, but there’s no substitute for seeing a property firsthand. In this podcast, she discusses the complex business of finding and acquiring commercial restaurant property. Michel is a 2016 graduate of Harbert’s Master of Real Estate Development program and co-chair of the MRED Alumni Council.