Leaders and Legends in Government

Former California Congressman Jerry McNerney joins host Aileen Black on this week's Leaders and Legends.

McNerney served for 16 years in Congress has an extensive technical knowledge of energy, technology, and environmental policy to position clients for growth opportunities.

He is widely regarded as an accomplished leader in Washington and in his home state of California, and has achieved bipartisan successes working with officials in the House, Senate and the White House.

Through his experience in the private sector, academia and national laboratories, McNerney has also forged industry relationships in energy, fusion, utilities and technology. 

Today he is a senior policy advisor at Pillsbury Law.

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Bogomil Balkansky, partner at Sequoia, joins Leaders and Legends to talk about leadership and the keys to building a successful technology startup. Balkansky joined Sequoia as a partner in 2020 and was previously vice president of Cloud Recruiting Solutions at Google and a senior vice president at VMware.

Balkansky describes his leadership style as "very approachable but fearless". He believes that great leaders are "great listeners. They listen to their team members' ideas, concerns, and feedback, and act on them."

Finally Balkansky said “I’m a very intuitive person. If I try to be overly rational and put all the pros and cons in a spreadsheet, I get myself into trouble. But if I follow my gut, I rarely make mistakes.”

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Paula Schneider, president & CEO of Susan G. Komen joins Aileen Black on Leaders and Legends to talk about leadership and leading an amazing cause.

Schneider is responsible for day-to-day operations, strategic direction, and is accountable for the world's largest breast cancer organization. She has led Susan G Komen to be one of the highest regarded charities. According to Charity Navigator, Susan G Komen's score is 95%, earning it a Four-Star rating.

More than 80 cents of every dollar spent by Susan G. Komen has gone directly towards research, community-based health programs, education and advocacy programs to support its mission of saving lives and ending breast cancer.

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This week on Leaders and Legends host Aileen Black interviews Dr. David A. Bray, distinguished fellow and co-chair of the Alfred Lee Loomis Innovation Council at the non-partisan Henry L. Stimson Center.

Bray is also a distinguished fellow with the Business Executives for National Security and a CEO and transformation leader for different “under the radar” tech and data ventures. He is principal at LeadDoAdapt Ventures and has served in a variety of leadership roles in turbulent environments, including bioterrorism preparedness and response from 2000-05.

Bray has also led efforts to improve the organizational adaptability of the U.S. Department of Defense, and worked on countering disinformation from 2017-2020 – including personally surviving a disinformation attack that occurred in 2018.

He has received both the Joint Civilian Service Commendation Award and the National Intelligence Exceptional Achievement Medal. Business Insider named him one of the top “24 Americans under the age of 40 who are changing the world”, and The World Economic Forum has named him a Young Global Leader.

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This week on Leaders and Legends, Tom Lash, CEO of Vibrint and an Amazon Web Services veteran, joins host Aileen Black to talk about leading technology teams through rapid growth and change.

Lash is a recognized leader in the intelligence technology sector with a 30-year career deeply rooted in serving the national security mission. An engineer by training who holds a patent in intelligent database technology, Lash has extensive experience building technology-focused teams that design and deploy innovative intelligence systems.

That experience combined with his inclusive, entrepreneurial management style, makes Lash him a dynamic and collaborative leader.

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Sarah Hess, west coast director of the Silicon Valley Defense Group, and an investor/operator at Lux Capital joins host Aileen Black on this week's Leaders and Legends.

 Throughout Hess' career she has focused on national security and leveraging innovative technologies. In her work, she has helped the US and its allies secure democracy through innovation. Previously, Hess served as deputy lead to launch the NATO Innovation Fund, a venture capital fund modeled off of In-Q-Tel

During the interview, Hess said the best leaders for new innovative startups are persistent and ” will run through walls towards a pursuit”. 

When talking about cultures and leadership styles, Hess said those who lead with empathy make their teams more effective. Early in her career at the CIA, she said empathetic leadership made it easier for her team to accomplish its mission and goals.

Hess also offered some advice for the next generation of leaders saying “don’t be afraid to try something new", because new challenges will help you grow.

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This week on Leaders and Legends, host Aileen Black intervews Lisa Sanders, director of Science and Technology for Special Operations Forces, Acquisition, Technology & Logistics (SOF AT&L), U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. 

Sanders has over 35 years of civilian federal service. As SOFAT&L director, she is responsible for all pre-programs of record research and development funded activities.

During the show, Sanders decribes herself as a a "circular or 360 style" leader.

She says, "I’m all about reading the stakeholders and trying to find out how to achieve our overall objectives. But when it comes to the decision point, I often say I run a democratic dictatorship. I’ll take input from everyone, but I own 51% of the vote."

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Former Google executive Milo Medin joins host Aileen Black on this week's Leaders and Legends.

Medin has been part of the Internet development community for almost 40 years. He recently left Google where he was the vice president of access services. During his time there, he worked on a number of projects to improve access to the Internet, building both fiber and wireless networks, and in shaping spectrum policy and products. 

Medin holds several patents in the field of network access technology, and sat on the FCC’s Technical Advisory Committee, and Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. From 2016 to 2022, he served on the Defense Innovation Board, which is chartered to provide recommendations to the Secretary of Defense to drive more innovation and agility in how the department achieves its mission.

During the program, Medin encourages leaders to cross train their teams, because he says it "encourages your organization to learn and grow."

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Retired US Air Force Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote joins host Aileen Black on this week's Leaders and Legends to discuss the principles of leadership.

Throughout his career, General Hinote served at the leading edge of change as he developed novel tactics, revised dated battle plans, reinvented staid organizations, led complex alliances, and disrupted dated doctrine. In his role as the Deputy Chief of Staff for the Air Force, he led a 400-person organization that became "Air Force Futures,” which is responsible for planning and integration for the future Air Force.

Hinote was commissioned in 1992 upon graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy. After earning a master's degree in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, he completed training to become a fighter pilot.. Hinote was a command pilot with more than 2,000 flight hours and 240 combat hours.

During the interview, the retired three star general discusses how the principles of leadership apply both ”situationally and relationally.” 

He says, “leaders need to remember it is about the mission and about the people and find the right balance. Leaders must lead with energy and enthusiasm.”

Hinote also added that “disrupters are my people. I try to help them turn bold visions into reality”.  

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This week on Leaders and Legends, host Aileen Black interviews Eric Traupe, a former public sector executive with 30+ years of combined experience in the CIA and the US Marine Corps.

Traupe is the former assistant director of the CIA for the Near East and served on the front lines of U.S. counterterrorism efforts for more than 20 years. He remains a trusted advisor to our nation’s highest-ranking leaders, having advised CIA directors, presidents, cabinet and military officials, and members of Congress.

Traupe also participated in momentous White House strategic, policy, and resource decisions, and has tackled the full range of U.S. national security issues.

His leadership, acumen, and unmatched ability to cultivate enduring relationships between the U.S. and its foreign partners continues to be heralded in intelligence circles.

During the interview, Traupe says he tries to build trust with members of his team by empowering them to make tough decisions.

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