Ideagen Global Podcast

Jane Oates, President, was nominated by President Barack Obama to join Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis’ leadership team at the Department of Labor in April 2009. Confirmed as Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training on June 19, 2009, she led the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) in its mission to design and deliver high-quality training and employment programs for our nation’s workers.

Prior to her appointment, Jane served as Executive Director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education and Senior Advisor to Governor Jon S. Corzine. Jane served for nearly a decade as Senior Policy Advisor for Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Jane began her career as a teacher in the Boston and Philadelphia public schools and later as a field researcher at Temple University’s Center for Research in Human Development and Education. She received her BA in Education from Boston College, and an M.Ed in Reading from Arcadia University.

Carmen Landa Middleton wore several different hats during her 33-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – including most recently as Deputy Chief Operating Officer (COO), a member of the Agency’s executive leadership team.  As Deputy COO, Ms. Middleton managed the CIA’s day-to-day operations; led on a diverse range of issues from geopolitical crisis responses to strategic investment; and oversaw the execution of the largest structural and business process change since the Agency’s inception in 1947.  During her tenure as the Director of CIA’s Open Source Center, Ms. Middleton drove the development of the unclassified Cloud architecture and spearheaded a strategy on the disruptive evolution of Open Source tradecraft.  As the CIA’s Chief Diversity Officer, she co-chaired an historic study, the Director’s Advisory Group on Women in Leadership, examining the CIA’s record and practices as they pertained to the careers of women. She also oversaw the launch of an anti-harassment program, with a special emphasis on sexual harassment, within the Agency.  

President of Common Table Consulting and an Advisory Group member to Veretus Group, Ms. Middleton is a recipient of the Working Mother Media National Security Annual Legacy Award, the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award, National Intelligence Superior Service Medal, and the CIA Director's Award.  She is a member of several advisory and directors’ boards, including the Advisory Board to SAP NS2 and the Board of Directors for the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement.  Ms. Middleton graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Phi Beta Kappa, with a degree in Spanish Language & Literature, and studied abroad during her junior year at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

As president and chief executive officer of the National Restaurant Association, Dawn Sweeney has been instrumental in focusing the mission of the Association through a unique, multi-year strategic plan, highlighting key areas of opportunity within the restaurant industry.

The American restaurant industry is composed of one million restaurant and foodservice outlets and 14 million employees. Since taking the helm at the end of 2007, Sweeney has led the Association in a wide-range of policy issues, while offering services and products that promote the industry and help individual operators and large multi-unit companies succeed.

Sweeney has realigned the Association’s priorities and structure to strengthen its core operations, including consolidating its Foundation around a mission to develop a strong workforce and build the next generation of industry leaders. The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s major goal is to educate students on the restaurant business through the ProStart program and to provide educational scholarships.

Before joining the National Restaurant Association, Sweeney was president and CEO of AARP Services, the wholly owned taxable subsidiary of AARP. She grew annual revenues from $175 million to $785 million during her tenure – serving 11 million AARP members annually. Her 25+ years of marketing, advocacy and policy experience also include leadership positions at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a membership organization of consumer-owned electric utilities, and the International Dairy Foods Association, the trade association for the nation's dairy foods industry.

Sweeney has been named one of the perennial top association CEOs in the country for the past several years.A native of Maine, she is a graduate of Colby College and earned her MBA at George Washington University. Sweeney lives in northern Virginia with her husband and teenage son.

As the leader of Google's ERG group in Colombia & Central America and chapter lead of the company's women group in the region, I had the opportunity to managed the efforts and activities for volunteers in 7 countries that seek to inspire and evangelize young women about the importance of education, train entrepreneurs on how to take advantage of technology and advise thousands of girls about STEM and how to code. 

Change begins with education and access to opportunities for all. A good example is an educational project that my team an I developed as part of a Google Reach initiative in Ghana. This program seeks to help NGOs in Ghana scale up education projects for girls across the country and teach them the uses and benefits of technology, creating opportunities. This project will serve as a guide for other developing countries with similar challenges.

Rana Novack is a Syrian American advocate for refugees and civilians in conflict, writer, TED and keynote speaker, and the solution owner of IBM’s Refugee & Migration Predictive Analytics Solution. She is currently leading a global team from across the IBM organization to develop a first-of-a-kind solution leveraging machine learning and cognitive computing to enable Government agencies and humanitarian aid organizations to better manage refugee and migration crises.

Ms. Novack has been published in the Wall Street Journal, WIRED magazine, and her work has been cited by Yale University and the Foreign Policy Initiative. She is a Non-Resident Scholar and Global Policy Center Affiliate of the University of Virginia's Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and recipient of the 2017 George Mason University Department of Communication Alumnus of the Year and Distinguished Alumna Awards.

An Exclusive interview with new Ideagen Global Chairman and CEO, George Sifakis with Ideagen's Global Chief Operating Officer, Leif Ackerman.

George is an expert in cross-sector collaboration and strategic partnerships.  A former Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, his predecessors in that role included Valerie Jarrett and Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

George has worked in the Administrations of two Presidents of the United States. An original founder of Ideagen, Sifakis has created countless partnerships between corporate, NGOs, and the public sector.

SIMON BLAND, DIRECTOR, NEW YORK LIAISON OFFICE, UNAIDS

Simon Bland leads the UNAIDS New York Liaison Office to help accelerate progress to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and the targets of the 2011 United Nations General Assembly Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS. He is also helping to develop a strong post-2015 approach that strengthens the synergies between the AIDS response and broader health, development and security that ensures no one is left behind and that we achieve an AIDS-free generation.

Before joining UNAIDS Mr Bland was a senior civil servant in the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and, most recently, headed their Global Funds Department. He was responsible for the United Kingdom’s policies, programmes, financial management and shareholder relations with Global Funds and Innovative Finance in health and education. He represented the United Kingdom on the Boards of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund), the GAVI Alliance, UNITAID and the Global Partnership for Education.

From September 2011 to June 2013, Mr Bland was Chair of the Board of the Global Fund and oversaw a substantial transformation culminating with the introduction of its new funding model and strengthened partnership approach.

Mr Bland’s early background was in marine sciences and natural resources management, later moving into development economics and management. He has spent most of the last 30 years working in developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. He has led DFID country programmes in Russia, Ukraine, Kenya and Somalia before moving to Geneva to work on global health, education and humanitarian affairs.

In 2013, Mr Bland was made a Commander of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for service to Global Health.

An Exclusive Interview with Twinlab CEO Naomi Whittel with Ideagen's George Sifakis

Personal biography for Naomi Whittel

Naomi, president and CEO of Twinlab Consolidated Holdings (“Twinlab”) was also the CEO and founder of Organic Holdings, which was acquired by Twinlab in October 2015. She started the company with a goal of becoming an innovator in the health and wellness field by providing best-in-class, first-to-market nutritional supplements made with science-based ingredients. With two decades of experience in developing and managing sustainable companies in the health and wellness sector, Whittel launched more than 140 science-based products and won more than 30 industry awards for product excellence.

Naomi was named the Gold Stevie Award Winner as Female Executive of the Year of a consumer products company. Also in 2012, the Nutrition Business Journal (NBJ) awarded Reserveage Nutrition with the prestigious Business Achievement Award in the Mid-Size Company Growth Category. Whittel was the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Florida Award recipient in the Emerging category, as well as a national finalist.

About Twinlab Consolidated Holdings Inc.

Twinlab Consolidated Holdings Inc. ("TLCC"), is the parent holding company of Twinlab Consolidation Corporation, an industry-focused health and wellness company committed to developing top brands. With a strong focus on employee ownership, TLCC aligns the interest of all stakeholders and has a portfolio of products that are made in America using the finest ingredients from around the world.

Kim Smith Chief Digital Officer | North America | Capgemini USA

Kim Smith serves as Capgemini’s North America Chief Digital Officer.  Ms. Smith oversees the digital portfolio strategy, go-to-market, digital marketing priorities, and digital employee experience for the North America geography. Additionally, she oversees the North America Digital Lab experiences including access to the full suite of Capgemini digital capabilities as well as start up engagement, accelerators, and offerings.  She drives the digital innovation agenda which empowers Fortune 500 organizations through nascent technologies to redefine themselves, radically grow, and extend their reach by re-envisioning customer experiences, employee engagement, operational processes, and business models.

She held executive positions over twelve years at Microsoft Corporation leading innovation through product and service offerings, strategic partnerships, acquisitions, product planning, engineering, strategic & technical consulting, and lifetime loyalty programs for Microsoft Digital and Cloud technologies and industry solutions. 

Ms. Smith received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and minor in International Business from the University of Delaware. She has received numerous leadership and industry awards, has been recognized through patented innovation in the area of innovative, strategic business consulting, and was part of the Junior Achievement ‘At Risk’ executive leadership team recognized through the Presidential Thousand Points of Light award for community impact.  She and her family reside in Seattle, Washington.

Stepen J. Pasierb is the President and CEO of the U.S. Toy Industry Association (TIA), the not-for-profit trade association representing all businesses involved in creating and delivering toys and youth entertainment products for kids of all ages. In his role, Mr. Pasierb is responsible for leading the growth, development, and oversight of the Association, whose more than 750 member companies account for 90% of U.S. domestic toy sales. 

Stephen previously served as President & CEO of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing substance abuse among adolescents by supporting families and engaging with teens. He assumed the leadership role in 2001 after eight years of working with the organization. Under Mr. Pasierb’s guidance, the Partnership launched several successful advocacy programs in prevention, intervention, and in support of addiction treatment, including the Parent Support Network, which is comprised of a national toll-free telephone helpline and an online support network for parents, as well as an expansive public-private coalition known as The Medicine Abuse Project.