Leading Into The Unknown

As the woman USA Today called, “the power broker of Silicon Valley,” Jana Rich knows a thing or two about how to build diverse and inclusive teams (hint: it continues far beyond recruiting.) Pulling from her experience working with CEOs of today’s most visionary companies, Jana shares her thoughts on strong leadership, how to evaluate leader-organization fit, and her favorite leaders in Silicon Valley to work with.

Jana is the founder and CEO of Rich Talent Group, a San Francisco-based executive search firm that partners with leading innovators to diversify and build transformative teams. Her clients—which include TIME’S UP, WW, Eventbrite, Walmart, Stitch Fix and Warby Parker—have launched revolutions that have changed the way we do business today.

Transcript at www.sypartners.com/podcasts

Hosted by Lisa Maulhardt: At SYPartners, Lisa ensures that the experiences people have as employees, and the experiences the world has with our people and our ideas, meet our aspirations for greatness for our brand. She joined the company in 1994 as a writer and assumed greater leadership responsibility over the years, including several years leading the San Francisco consulting practice, until she transitioned to her current role in 2013. While consulting at SYPartners, Lisa’s clients included Apple, Disney, Gap, Herman Miller, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Old Navy, PBS, Starbucks, and Sundance. Lisa holds a B.A. in English and Poetry from Stanford University and an M.A. in Fiction Writing from the University of California at Davis.

In the time since a design contest launched his career, Cliff Skeete has risen through the traditionally white male-dominated advertising industry to become an Executive Creative Director at a number of agencies. In this episode, Cliff explains practical ways anyone can develop a personal leadership style rooted in authenticity. He also shares why design matters for all business leaders, and offers tips for teams trying to remain creative despite pressure from deadlines.

Cliff started his career at Y&R working on brands like Accenture and United Negro College Fund. His work for the NHL received notable industry recognition, including multiple Emmy awards. After his long stint at Y&R, Cliff made the move over to McGarryBowen, where he was the ECD of brands like Verizon Branded Entertainment Group, Burt’s Bees, and Jeep. Cliff is now at 140, Verizon’s in-house agency, where he is charged with helping to build the agency.

Hosted by Chad Bennett: As the Design Talent Manager, Chad leads recruitment for our design practice across the firm. Prior to joining SYPartners, he led recruiting efforts for 140 and managed programmatic media buying/planning and analytics at IPG Media, working with brands like Estée Lauder, BMW, and Coca-Cola. In addition to his experience in creative agencies, Chad has been a freelance designer for many years.

After experiencing the lack of diversity on Wall Street firsthand, Porter Braswell was inspired to create a solution to the problem: Jopwell, a platform that connects Black, Latinx, and Native American talent with career opportunities. In conversation with host Andy Ng, Porter explains what the terms “diversity”, “equity”, and “inclusion” mean to him, and why they are important for organizations at any stage of the business life cycle. Also, he offers advice for diversity champions who may be facing resistance in their companies.

Under Porter’s leadership, Jopwell has formed partnerships with more than 100 of America’s leading companies and has facilitated tens of thousands of connections between the Jopwell community members and its clients. In 2017 alone, the company was recognized as Entrepreneur Magazine's "100 Most Brilliant Ideas," and Fast Company's "World's Most Innovative Companies”.

Transcript at www.sypartners.com/podcasts

Hosted by Andy Ng: Andy Ng is a Program Manager at SYPartners in New York. After working a full-time job as a high school student, he earned the prestigious Gates Millennium Scholarship and studied at both NYU and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has co-founded a successful education startup, cultivated his leadership and contemplative practice in fellowship with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and spent time working on issues of diversity and inclusion in Silicon Valley. Andy is deeply passionate about bringing others together, specifically young people, and has worked with students in London, Abu Dhabi, and across the U.S.

“Our intuition is beautiful and can give us tremendous insights, but we also need to recognize that it's misguided." Kelly Peters explains how her “irrational passion” for behavioral economics led her to co-found the first management consulting firm dedicated to bringing scientific thinking into business strategy, and how leaders can make smarter decisions by incorporating behavioral economics into their operations.

Kelly Peters is the CEO and Co-Founder of BEworks, which provides scientific research, evidence-based strategies, and fully implemented solutions to their clients, which include Fortune 500s and governments around the world. She has also overseen the launch of several business ventures that capitalize on insights into consumer behavior. Kelly is a Faculty Lecturer of Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, as well as a regular lecturer at Cornell and Harvard, among other schools.

Hosted by Tom Andrews: For the past twenty years, Tom Andrews has been helping Chief Executives lead their organizations through transformation, most recently as the President of SYPartners’ Organizational Transformation practice. He has recently founded a new organization, TJA Leadership, which integrates leadership development into organizational and cultural transformation. Tom has helped design leadership curricula for GE’s Management Development Institute at Crotonville and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and regularly speaks at Fortune 100 companies and other high-performance organizations.

As a Partner at Upfront Ventures, Kara Nortman focuses on the human element of venture capital. In conversation with host Ben Perreau, Kara explains what she looks for in founders, and how she is helping to increase female representation in the venture capital industry through All Raise, an initiative to accelerate the success of female funders and founders.

Kara maintains a portfolio of companies including Qordoba, Parachute, Stem, and Fleetsmith. Before joining Upfront Ventures, Kara co-founded Moonfrye, a children’s e-commerce company. Prior to Moonfrye, Kara spent close to seven years at IAC where she acted as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Urbanspoon and Citysearch. She was also a seed investor and advisor to Tinder.

During Stephen Friedman’s tenure at MTV, social impact drove many business decisions that ended up cementing the network as the cultural home for the millennial generation. In this episode, he explains the first step businesses should take to embrace social action, and how more listening and empathy can inspire breakthroughs for leaders at any level.

Stephen, an Emmy and Peabody award-winning creator of social impact campaigns, is the Societal Impact Advisor at SYPartners. Previously, Stephen was the President of MTV for seven years, where he spearheaded the network's successful transformation, resulting in more top-rated series for young viewers than any other network (including Teen Mom, Catfish, and Jersey Shore.) During his 18 years at the network, he created MTV’s social impact department, launched mtvU and led MTV2, MTV.com and LOGO to record highs.

Host:

For the past twenty years, Tom Andrews has been helping Chief Executives lead their organizations through transformation, most recently as the President of SYPartners’ Organizational Transformation practice. He has recently founded a new organization, TJA Leadership, which integrates leadership development into organizational and cultural transformation. Tom has helped design leadership curricula for GE’s Management Development Institute at Crotonville and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and regularly speaks at Fortune 100 companies and other high-performance organizations.

https://www.sypartners.com/leader/stephen-friedman/