The Executive Podcast

Jules Lambries helps companies and leadership teams align and thrive. As a Professional EOS Implementer, former executive and board member for several companies, YPO Global Event Champion, Regional Board member, International Leadership Trainer for YPO, Chapter Chair, and member of the YPO’s International Membership Council, Jules has over twenty-five years of experience developing and guiding fast-growth ventures, scaling family businesses, and leading nationally recognized consumer brands..

Previously he served as President of PROBAR, creating plant-based food products for 14 years. Also concurrently he operates SiMPLURAL, an advisory service for high-growth CPG brands and services. http://www.saltpodcast.com/episodes/probar

Connect with Jules on LinkedIn

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Interested in coaching services, check out Live for Yourself Consulting and Dr. Benjamin Ritter

Liz Carter is a senior executive with broad expertise and a track record of success scaling high-growth companies in the consumer packaged goods industry, specializing in food/bev and dietary supplements categories.

As a results-oriented leader, her experience ranges in implementing long-term and short-term strategies, setting goals, developing policies and procedures, enhancing team-based communication, and supporting the overall organizational mission, vision, and purpose.

She has worked with brands such as Humm Kombucha, 5-hour ENERGY, Perfect Snacks — as President and COO — and, most recently, holds the position of CFO at Goli Nutrition Inc. She is thrilled to bring her expertise to more iconic brands, like CHOMPS and Petit Pot, taking on a board of advisors role.

Connect with Liz Carter on LinkedIn

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Interested in coaching services, check out Live for Yourself Consulting and Dr. Benjamin Ritter

An experienced Corporate Director and CEO, Doug Drysdale has chaired the Board of a NASDAQ-listed company and, as CEO for the past 14 years, has built and turned around 4 pharmaceutical companies. During Doug’s 30+ years of experience in the healthcare sector, he has formed cohesive management teams, recruited board members, completed 16 corporate acquisitions across three continents and has raised around $4 billion of both public and private capital.

Find out more about Cybin here and follow Doug on LinkedIn.

Previously, Doug was Head of M&A at Actavis Group, leading 15 corporate acquisitions across three continents, between 2004 and 2008. Over this period, Doug raised approximately $3 billion of capital and managed lending syndicates including over 25 banks, to fund the company’s growth. Actavis was sold to Watson Pharmaceuticals in 2012 for EUR4.25 billion.

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Interested in coaching services, check out Live for Yourself Consulting and Dr. Benjamin Ritter

Eric Strafel is the founder of SUMMi7, which is focused on improving business and society by creating opportunities for underrepresented communities. For more than 25 years, the former corporate CEO and Fortune 500 executive has dedicated himself to building forward-thinking teams and scaling innovation to create transformational organizations that thrive in an increasingly entrepreneurial and purpose-driven world.

Find out more about SUMMi7 , and connect with Eric on LinkedIn

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Previous leadership roles included Vice President of Strategy and Market Development for Boeing Global Services and President/CEO of Aviall, where he led the creation of the framework for Aviall’s 20/20 vision for future growth. Prior to joining Aviall, Eric was Vice President of Supply Chain Management for L3 Communications, one of the largest defense companies in the U.S. He is also a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and APICS Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM).

With years of experience as a leader in enterprise businesses, Eric is passionate about helping small and midsize companies grow profits and scale with purpose while leveraging their strengths, maintaining their values and harmonizing all of life’s pursuits. He is on a mission to share collaborative leadership strategies and create opportunities for a more human-centric and inclusive planet.

Eric is the author of The Frontline CEO to assist leaders in transforming their businesses to embrace and manage change while empowering their teams to fulfill their purpose. He holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Binghamton University. Eric sits on the Board of Directors of the Texas Diversity Council and the Irving Chamber of Commerce. He is an active and engaged father and husband living in Texas with his wife and three children. Eric enjoys the outdoors, staying fit and maintaining a wellness mindset. A world traveler with a global perspective, he has traveled across six continents both personally and professionally.

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Interested in coaching services, check out Live for Yourself Consulting and Dr. Benjamin Ritter

Ben Cook is a hands on, people focused leader and board member with senior leadership roles at six Fortune 150 companies including Apple, The Home Depot, Kimberly-Clark and two startup cannabis ventures. He is currently the Chief Supply Chain officer for Spreetail and has over 20 years of leadership experience with a focus on leading startups, driving turnaround efforts, scaling revenue, invest to grow and global expansion.

In this conversation, Ben and I discuss how to know yourself in order to lead others, and how to grow and evolve into an executive leader.

Find out more about Ben on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cookben/

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Ben’s passion and focus is on helping to shape strong values-based cultures where high performing teams master change and execute the vision for the next phase of the company’s life. Ben has served on the Board of Advisors for several startup companies, the Auburn University College of Business and the University of Tennessee’s Global Supply Chain Institute.

He is also a US Army Special Operations veteran and is an avid outdoorsman and adventurer who can be frequently found hiking and camping the in Colorado wilderness.

Ben is an avid learner who holds a BS in International Business from Auburn University, an MBA with a focus on Supply Chain Management from the University of Tennessee and multiple leadership and coaching certifications from The Wharton School, Harvard Business School and the Center for Creative Leadership.

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Interested in coaching services, check out Live for Yourself Consulting and Dr. Benjamin Ritter

Rodney Bullard is the Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility for Chick-fil-A, Inc., Executive Director of the Chick-fil-A Foundation, and the author of Heroes Wanted: Why the World Needs You to Live Your Heart Out.  He leads the Chick-fil-A, Inc. in their community engagement, philanthropic efforts and the sustainability strategy. 

Before beginning with Chick-fil-A, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney prosecuting difficult criminal cases.  Due to his work, he was awarded by the United States Attorney General with the Department of Justice Director’s Award.  He’s been selected as a White House Fellow, which is the nation’s highest public service Fellowship.  As a Fellow, he was placed at NASA working for the NASA Administrator.  He is an alumnus of the Air Force Academy, Duke Law School, the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business and Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. 

In this episode, Rodney Bullard and I discuss the importance of being your own hero, for yourself and the world, the importance of followers if you want to be a leader, and the concept of fulfillment.

Learn more and connect with Rodney at the following links:

LinkedIn

Heroes Wanted: Why the World Needs You to Live Your Heart Out

Instagram

Twitter

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Interested in coaching services, check out Live for Yourself Consulting and Dr. Benjamin Ritter

Andrew is an executive and board leader with a deep understanding of technology, innovation, and complex systems. As a physicist, program manager, and officer in the USAF he applied systems thinking to the full technology stack of command, control, communications, and intelligence (C3I) systems in airborne and space-based platforms. He has used that same approach across a broad array of industries and products to create value and sustainable superior performance.

Over his career, his experiences in developing teams and implementing strategies have enabled innovation, growth, and profitability improvements in aerospace, commercial electronics, fast-moving consumer goods, and industrial sensors and safety products. He is an NACD Certified Director with experiences on Fortune 500 wholly owned subsidiaries, start-ups, private, and non-profit boards.

He currently serves as Chairman and CEO for RealWear, and as a board member on the Finance Committee for the Rogers Group. RealWear is building the world’s first voice-driven and fully ruggedized head-mounted tablet solution for connected industrial workers. It is the only wearable computer that has an inherently safe ATEX Zone-1 certified product for use in hazardous environments such as oil and gas production and chemical processing. RealWear’s approach to augmented and assisted reality solutions is transforming how work is performed by addressing key challenges in workforce training, safety, and productivity with IoT data visualization, remote mentoring, and workflow applications.

In this conversation, Andrew and I discuss the true meaning of leadership, the power of solitude, and how your strengths can become your weaknesses.

Connect with Andrew on Twitter - andrewchros and LinkedIn - /in/andrewchrostowski

Book suggestions included; Team of Teams, Out of the Crisis, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and anything by Simon Sinek

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Prior to his current role, Andrew served briefly as COO, chaired the Advisory Board for RealWear, and was a member of the Audit Committee. The Rogers Group Inc. provides crushed stone, sand and gravel, asphalt and highway construction to the southeastern United States. In 2014, the company was ranked as the eighth largest aggregates producer in the nation (Aggregates Manager, July 2015). For the past several years, has remained the largest privately owned company in the aggregates industry.

Additionally, Andrew consults and advises on issues of technology development, innovation,  productivity, operations, cybersecurity, and digital strategies.

Other roles included increasingly responsible positions in general management, operations, quality, compliance, and information systems with industry-leading companies such as Johnson Controls, Tyco, United Technologies, Goodrich, Energizer, Pfizer, Warner-Lambert, and Hitachi.

He holds two undergraduate degrees in Engineering Physics from Oregon State University’s Honor Program where he was a distinguished graduate of Air Force ROTC. He has a Master’s Degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California and later completed a certificate of professional development at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

He is a founding member, Faculty Instructor, Board Advisor and Qualified Technology Executive of the Digital Directors Network, the only curated global network of digital executives, directors and organizations working together to improve digital competence and diversity in the corporate boardroom to shape and secure the digital future for everyone

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Interested in coaching services, check out Live for Yourself Consulting and Dr. Benjamin Ritter

Emily Buckley is a COO at Cliff’s Climbing + Fitness, a CrossFit Games Athlete, and an outdoor enthusiast. She has over a decade of multi-unit experience across a broad spectrum of fitness modalities. From Kickboxing, to CrossFit, to Rock Climbing, she's done it all: mopping floors, instructing classes, managing teams across multiple units, and currently running the operations of a multi-million dollar company.

As a true believer in having a growth mindset, Emily is currently enrolled in Harvard Business School's Executive Education for High Potential Leaders. Her unique path to the executive suite is not for the faint of heart, and her relentless determination is what she credits for making it there.

In this conversation, Emily and I discuss how to bushwhack a path to leadership in the fitness industry, how to earn trust as a leader when you are brand new to a space, and so much more.

Learn more about Emily on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilybuckley2/

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Interested in coaching services, check out Live for Yourself Consulting and Dr. Benjamin Ritter

Jason Scharf is an experienced strategy executive and active angel investor in the life science and digital health sectors. For the past 15 years, he has built and led teams in strategic planning, market intelligence, and innovation. Today he is the Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships for Kean Health a direct to consumer at home genomic and microbiome testing company.

Connect with Jason on LinkedIn and make sure to check out Kean Health.

In this conversation, Jason and I discuss the importance of being data driven, finding and setting your north star, and how the best idea wins.

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Prior to his role at Kean, he has worked across the healthcare sector at biopharma, genomics, and medtech companies including Illumina, Becton Dickinson, and Amgen. In addition to his roles within the corporate environment, Jason has served as a co-fund manager of the San Diego Angel Conference, an investor with Tech Coast Angels, and a mentor with the NexCubed Digital Health Accelerator. He has invested in ~40 emerging companies from Seed stage to Series B focusing on the convergence of technology and biology. He is also the creator and co-host of the Austin Next Podcast. An exploration of Austin’s transformation into the next great innovation powerhouse, what it takes to accelerate the growth of an ecosystem, and what comes next. Jason Scharf earned his BA from University of California, San Diego and his MBA from the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego.

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Interested in coaching services, check out Live for Yourself Consulting and Dr. Benjamin Ritter

Tanu Grewal is a global brand builder and strategic marketer with over 15 years of experience working in mature and emerging markets like US, EMEA and India with companies in the CPG, durables, luxury and hospitality industries. She is passionate about using brand purpose to help drive innovation and marketing that creates real value and emotional engagement with consumers. 

In this conversation, Tanu and I discuss how leadership truly comes down to trust, and that provides the power to motivate and influence others toward their success as well as the organizations.

Connect with Tanu on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanugrewal

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Tanu is currently the Vice President Marketing & Innovation at AlEn USA, a growth stage division of the global ALEN Group. Some of her top achievements at ALEN have been the launch of a natural, green cleaning brand called ‘Art of Green’, building a world-class marketing team and enterprise wide organization capabilities. Prior to this, Tanu has worked on iconic brands like Kohler, Maytag and Whirlpool where she elevated commodity categories to lifestyle brands through a combination of award-winning product design, disruptive innovation and experiential marketing. 

Starting her career with Whirlpool North America, Tanu held a variety of marketing and product development positions over 8 years including an expat stint in Italy. Tanu holds a MBA degree from Rice University in Houston.

Outside of work, Tanu is passionate about creating communities that enable people to thrive. Currently, she serves on the International Student Advisory Board at Rice University and as a board member for the South Asian Women's Professional Network.

As a public speaker, Tanu’s topics include launching and scaling a challenger brand and standing out in a crowded market through creative marketing. As an Indian woman, living in the US and working for a Mexican company (AlEn), she also speaks on navigating multicultural work and market landscapes. Tanu has been been interviewed by Forbes and delivered the keynote address for Coke FEMSA's Annual D&I conference in Mexico City, Women’s Masters Network’s Annual Meetup 2020 and the Houston AMA's Quarterly Luncheon. 

An avid traveler and consummate foodie, Tanu lives in Houston with her husband and son.

Discover more:

Interested in coaching services, check out Live for Yourself Consulting and Dr. Benjamin Ritter