Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

Joelle Emerson: Why Company Culture Is a Core Governance Issue


Listen Later

(0:00) Intro

(1:35) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel

(2:22) Start of interview

(3:01) Joelle's origin story

(7:00) The Journey of Paradigm, the culture company she co-founded in 2014. "Our goal is to help organizations build healthy and high performing cultures where people from all backgrounds can come together, do their best work and thrive."

(11:15) On the current backlash against DEI.

(16:49) On Coinbase's "mission focused company" statement in 2020.

(21:53) The Politics of Company Culture, and Silicon Valley's approach.

(26:15) The Shift from Public to Private Companies

(29:33) AI's Impact on the Workforce

(35:18) The Role of the Board on Workplace Culture

(37:23) Talent executives and CHROs on Boards

(39:54) Rethinking Compliance in Organizations

(42:43) Evaluating an organization's culture

(45:22) Books that have greatly influenced her life:

  1. Growth Mindset, by Carol Dweck (2007)
  2. Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (2025)
  3. Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel (2022)
  4. (47:04) Her mentors. 

    (48:24) Quotes that she thinks of often or lives her life by "Do the best you can until you know better. And then when you know better, do better." (Maya Angelou) "Forward is a pace" (heard from a Peloton instructor, Robin Arzon)

    (49:08) An unusual habit or an absurd thing that she loves

    (49:44) The living person she most admires (inspiring now): Lindsey Vonn.

    (50:30) The Unique Perspective of a Lawyer-CEO

    Joelle Emerson is the CEO and co-founder of Paradigm, a company that empowers organizations to create innovative, high-performance workplaces where everyone can do their best work.

    You can follow Evan on social media at:

    X: @evanepstein

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

    Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

    __

    To support this podcast you can join as a subscriber of the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at https://evanepstein.substack.com/

    __

    Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    Boardroom Governance with Evan EpsteinBy Evan Epstein

    • 4.8
    • 4.8
    • 4.8
    • 4.8
    • 4.8

    4.8

    44 ratings


    More shows like Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

    View all
    Economist Podcasts by The Economist

    Economist Podcasts

    4,237 Listeners

    Exchanges by Goldman Sachs

    Exchanges

    967 Listeners

    The McKinsey Podcast by McKinsey & Company

    The McKinsey Podcast

    384 Listeners

    Odd Lots by Bloomberg

    Odd Lots

    2,002 Listeners

    Bloomberg Law by Bloomberg

    Bloomberg Law

    381 Listeners

    The a16z Show by Andreessen Horowitz

    The a16z Show

    1,109 Listeners

    HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review

    HBR IdeaCast

    151 Listeners

    Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry by Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

    Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

    796 Listeners

    Inside the Strategy Room by McKinsey & Company

    Inside the Strategy Room

    176 Listeners

    FT News Briefing by Financial Times

    FT News Briefing

    674 Listeners

    Value Investing with Legends by Columbia Business School

    Value Investing with Legends

    206 Listeners

    Dry Powder: The Private Equity Podcast by Hugh MacArthur, Bain & Company

    Dry Powder: The Private Equity Podcast

    149 Listeners

    All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

    All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

    10,240 Listeners

    In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen by Norges Bank Investment Management

    In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen

    188 Listeners

    Money Stuff: The Podcast by Bloomberg

    Money Stuff: The Podcast

    401 Listeners