Leaders in REM Podcast

Today’s guest is Mark Edmonson, Chief Marketing Officer of GoGo squeeZ.

Guru and Mark dive deep into Mark’s early life, where he learned the values of accountability and focus while growing up on a farm in Louisiana. From his love of problem solving, he went from interning as a computer scientist at Microsoft, to becoming a digital marketer at P&G. Since then, Mark has continued his incredible career path at companies like Campbell’s Soup and Henkel, culminating in his current role as Chief Marketing Officer at GoGo squeeZ.

Today’s guest is Ekta Chopra, Chief Digital Officer of e.l.f. Cosmetics.

 

Guru and Ekta dive deep into Ekta’s early life, where she learned the values of empathy and hard work while being raised by her mother after moving from New Delhi to Toronto. From her first foray into business selling flowers as a child, to breaking gender roles by entering IT, Ekta has built an incredible career path in technology and retail, culminating in her role as Chief Digital Officer at e.l.f., where she’s been for the past 6 years.

Today’s guest is Gonzalve Bich, CEO of BIC. 

Growing up, Gonzalve watched BIC grow from a family business to a global company. In this episode, Guru and Gonzalve take a deep dive into the experiences that led Gonzalve to join the family business and the values that helped BIC become a household name around the world. 

Today’s guest is Jim Sustar, President and Co-Founder of Trademark Global.

Jim and his brother started out home selling on eBay after college, before deciding to turn it into a business. In the early 2000’s, Trademark accurately predicted that a turning point had arrived for e-commerce businesses, and changed their mission from acting as an online seller, to supplying and distributing products for mass market retailers. 

Today, Trademark Global is a Consumer Brand Manufacturer that provides an “Endless Aisle” solution for retailers like Amazon, Wayfair, and Walmart.

Today’s guest is Jim Welsh, who is the Senior Vice President of Western Digital.

Jim’s love for electronics led him to become an expert in external storage,  launching the first external hard drive in the market at Maxtor.

Jim then went on to become General Manager of Western Digital, where he has successfully led the consumer electronics unit and reached the brand’s #1 worldwide share position for external hard drive storage since 2006.

Today's guest is Greg Hoffman, Founder of the brand advisory group Modern Arena and former Chief Marketing Officer at Nike.

Greg has spent over two decades strategizing and influencing Nike's brand at every major sporting event, focusing on themes of equality, sustainability, and empowerment through sport.

Greg and Guru take a deep dive on these themes as well as Greg's new book, "Emotion by Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike."

Today’s guest is Kristina Lambert, Executive Vice President at Pilgrim’s. Kristina is a Bentonville native who started her incredible career as an intern at Tyson Foods, where she held several positions over 20 years, including Vice President and General Manager.

In 2013, she was named to the 40 Under 40 list by NWA Business Journal for her work at Tyson building brands from the ground up. In this episode, Kristina shares her insights with Guru that led her to lead Prepared Foods across multiple companies.

This week we sat down with Esi Eggleston Bracey, who was on the path to becoming a Biomedical Engineer when she fell in love with marketing and brand management. Esi shares her learnings from over 25 years of working with P&G, leading the merger of Coty and P&G specialty beauty business, and eventually landing at Unilever as the EVP and COO of Beauty & Personal Care.

Today’s guest is Lisa Curtis, Founder & CEO of Kuli Kuli, the first brand to bring the superfood moringa to the US market.

Lisa shares with Guru her incredible story, from her discovery of moringa in the Peace Corp to launching her multi-million dollar brand in 11,000 stores across North America. Lisa was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2018 and offers valuable lessons on entrepreneurship, scaling, and the future of food retail.

Today’s guest is Vince Jones, Senior Vice President and Head of E-Commerce at PepsiCo. 

Guru and Vince dive deep into Vince’s personal story about growing up in the Midwest, how he went from consultant at Accenture to Walmart during the dot-com boom, then to C-suite roles at eBags and Bluestem Brands. 

Vince shares lessons from his career and insights he’s gained while leading e-commerce for the iconic company, PepsiCo. 

Enjoy our first episode of 2022!