The Action Catalyst

More with Moore is Action Catalyst host Dan Moore's reflections and commentary on discussions with each of his esteemed and accomplished guests.

In this segment, Dan dissects Episode 293, with Kathleen Sarpy, Founder and CEO of Chicago PR Firm, Agency H5.

For more than 25 years, Kathleen Kenehan Sarpy has enjoyed a diverse career in public relations and marketing, working with the world’s most recognizable brands, as well as driven start-ups and non-profits. With unrivaled energy and enthusiasm, Kathleen expertly connects people, events, and ideas to generate a meaningful and lasting impact.

A former senior leader at the world’s leading PR firm, Kathleen left “big agency” life behind in January 2001 after the birth of her first child to launch her own shop alone in her suburban basement. Her goal: Offer world-class strategy and creativity to the world’s most respected companies by eliminating bureaucracy and without ever sacrificing kindness. Nearly 20 years later, Kathleen manages more than 40 staffers in a vibrant downtown office overlooking the Chicago River, and she’s never lost sight of her five core values that remain the cornerstone of her business: kindness, creativity, passion, hustle, and integrity.

Agency H5 has been recognized alongside the best firms in the country, winning National Small Agency of the Year and Best Place to Work by PR News multiple times. Her value-driven agency ranked #11 among Top Company Culture’s in America by Entrepreneur.com and has been recognized as a Best Place to Work by Crain’s Chicago Business both in 2018 and 2019. Personally, Kathleen has been named PR Professional of the Year by PRSA Chicago and nationally among Top Women in PR by PR News. She’s regularly featured as an expert voice on outlets like NBC (including “Today”), CBS Chicago, PR News and PR Week. Believing that life teaches you lessons that must be shared to inspire and empower others, she frequently contributes to NBC.com’s BETTER platform on topics ranging from entrepreneurship to motherhood. A fierce advocate for kindness in the workplace, she also has contributed to several books on the topic including: Kindness in Leadership (Gay Haskins, 2018), Chicago Lights (Abigail Zoe Martin, 2018) and the upcoming Culture Stories from Inspiring Leaders (Greg Besner, 2020).

Leading with kindness beyond office walls as well, Kathleen proudly supports philanthropies including Breakthrough Urban Ministries, Enchanted Backpack, the Joffrey Ballet's Women's Board, and United Way of Metropolitan Chicago’s Women’s Leadership Council. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Purdue University, she founded the International Council of Purdue Women in 2017 to engage and inspire 200,000 alumnae worldwide.

However, her biggest and proudest achievement to date is being a wife and mother of six incredible children ages 19-10. She resides in Wheaton, Illinois with her husband Chris, a bustling household of kids and an uncooperative English Bulldog named Hope.

More with Moore is Action Catalyst host Dan Moore's reflections and commentary on discussions with each of his esteemed and accomplished guests.

In this segment, Dan dissects Episode 292, with Ira Blumenthal, speaker, Founder and President of CO-OPPORTUNITIES, Inc., and Co-Founder of the Pat Summitt Leadership Group.

Considered a modern-day business “Renaissance Man,” Ira Blumenthal was the founder and president of CO-OPPORTUNITIES, Inc., an Atlanta-based consulting company that has counseled world-class clients such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, Kroger, McDonald’s, Harrah’s, American Airlines, Disney, United Artists, Marriott, Exxon, Walmart and others in areas related to “branding,” “strategic alliances,” “change management,” “reinvention,” and “business development.” Noteworthy, Ira has the proud distinction of being the single-longest continually retained consultant in The Coca-Cola Company’s history (26 years).

In early 2019, Ira aligned with Southwestern Family of Companies in a dual role… Co-President (and Co-Founder) of The Pat Summitt Leadership Group and President of Southwestern Impact, A “Venture Catalyst.”

Ira is a published author. His successful first book, Ready, Blame, Fire! (Myths and Misses in Marketing) was followed by the nationally acclaimed Managing Brand You, published by The American Management Association and printed in two languages and audio (www.ManagingBrandYou.com). It focuses on personal branding. Ira is the recipient of the prestigious “George Washington Honor Medal for Literary Excellence” (The Freedoms Foundation). In June 2019, Ira’s newest book, Your Best Is Next was launched.

The former host of a popular radio talk show, “Success Talk,” Ira has interviewed “success stories” such as General Colin Powell, Mario Andretti, Tommy Lasorda, Debbi Fields, Dr. Richard Carlson, and other notables. He has been a visiting professor at The University of Notre Dame and Michigan State University and was the inaugural Executive-In-Residence at Georgia State University’s School of Hospitality. Before founding CO-OPPORTUNITIES, Inc., Ira was a division CMO at The Sara Lee Corporation and then served as President of Rymer Foods, an NYSE public corporation he led to quantum leap growth from $90 million to well over $250 million in three-plus years. He is the recipient of the highest honor in the food business, “The Key Person Award,” and has been honored with numerous civic and professional awards and has been on a number of boards.

These days, Ira delivers over 40 speeches annually and has delivered over 2500 in his career to well over 1.2-million people on five continents. He has served as the “speaking opener” for the likes of President George Bush Sr., General Colin Powell, Lech Walesa, the late Pakistani President Benazir Bhutto, Henry Kissinger, Tommy Lasorda, Cal Ripken Jr., Bob Dole, and others. Highly respected as a business development and branding expert, to include “personal branding,” Ira has been quoted and featured as a “subject matter expert” in numerous media sources such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CNN, BrandWeek, Entrepreneur Magazine, Executive Excellence, Marketing News, and more.

He has also done work with and for high-profile icons such as Zsa Zsa Gabor, Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), the estate of the late Pat Summitt, media mogul Ted Turner, and others.

With his friend Aerosmith lead singer, Steven Tyler, in collaboration with Youth Villages, Ira was a co-founder of “Janie’s Fund” (www.janiesfund.org), a philanthropic organization that provides help to “at-risk girls.” Ira also sits on the board of BLAZE Sports, the legacy Paralympic organization as well as on the advisory council of the Global Restaurant Leadership Conference (Dubai).

On a personal note, Ira is a tireless community activist and youth coach (coached both state and national championship teams). He was a highly acclaimed collegiate athlete and also competed internationally. Early in his career, Ira coached football and lacrosse at Towson University. Originally from New York, Ira lives in Atlanta, GA, with his red-headed Missouri bride, Kim. They have been married 37 years. He is the father of two daughters, three sons, and has eight grandchildren (another on the way).

Mentioned in this episode:

This episode is brought to you by Pat Summitt Leadership Group.

Pat Summitt Leadership Group

More with Moore is Action Catalyst host Dan Moore's reflections and commentary on discussions with each of his esteemed and accomplished guests.

In this segment, Dan dissects Episode 291, with American conductor and the creator of The Music Paradigm, Roger Nierenberg.

American conductor Roger Nierenberg is the creator of The Music Paradigm which has brought him to the podium of The London Philharmonic, The Residentie Orkest, The New Zealand Symphony, The National Symphony, the symphony orchestras of Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Baltimore. He has collaborated with musicians from more than one hundred orchestras around the world.

Nierenberg enjoyed long tenures as Music Director of both The Jacksonville Symphony (Florida) and the Stamford Symphony (Connecticut). His career began with an auspicious debut at Lincoln Center with the Pro Arte Chorale and subsequent performances at the Mostly Mozart Festival. Numerous guest conducting engagements followed with many of the great American orchestras, including the symphony orchestras of Austin, Baltimore, Charleston, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, New Jersey, San Diego, St. Louis, and Utah, as well as New York’s American Symphony Orchestra, Washington D.C.’s National Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Abroad, he has recorded with the London Philharmonic and has conducted concerts at the Prague Spring Festival with the Czech Radio Orchestra and at the Beijing Festival with the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. Other performances include engagements with the London Mozart Players, Mexico’s National Symphony Orchestra, the Nova Scotia Symphony, and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. Nierenberg has conducted operatic performances with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the Chautauqua Opera, the American Opera Center at Lincoln Center and opera in concert with the Dallas Opera (with Frederica von Stade) and the Santa Barbara Symphony (with Ms. Von Stade and Thomas Hampson). He has appeared at numerous summer festivals including the Tanglewood Institute, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Colorado Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the Madeira Bach Festival.

The Music Paradigm is a powerful learning experience that uses symphonic music to illuminate compelling insights about people at work. Participants are seated directly amongst the orchestra musicians where they gain fresh understandings about the opportunities and challenges faced by their own organization. Over the past twenty years, Nierenberg has presented to hundreds of different organizations, from civic groups to Fortune 500 companies, in two dozen different countries.