The Indispensables

We're revisiting the best of The Indispensables, starting with Bruce's first guest, General Dennis Reimer.

In this episode, I talk with Brian Colker, Principal and Founding Partner of Linea Solutions, Inc.

In this episode, I talk with Craig Price, Cabinet Secretary of the South Dakota Department of Public Safety, about public service, expectations for leaders, and the impact of individual actions in law enforcement.

This week on the Indispensables, I am joined by Wendy Steele! Steele is the Founder and CEO of Impact100 and the Author of Invitation to Impact.

Wendy lives by the motto “Not I, but we.” She believes that, in order to create a vibrant community, we must understand the community first. For Wendy, the most rewarding part of leading Impact100 is visiting local chapters to celebrate triumphs, big and small, and encouraging more than 30,000 women to make a difference.

For more information, please visit https://impact100global.org/.

This week on The Indispensables, I am joined by Dr. Tom Bigda-Peyton of Springboard Labs and Catholic Health!

Dr. Tom Bigda-Peyton is Co-founder and Executive Director of Springboard Labs, a social venture organization founded in 2023 to transform corporate learning and organizational development. Dr. Bigda-Peyton is also a Senior Advisor on Organizational Development and Learning at the Center for Performance Excellence, Catholic Health. 

He joined Catholic Health in 2015 as Chief Learning Officer and VP, of Organizational Development. Prior to that, Tom led several major change initiatives, including the Ontario Health Transformation Learning Partnership, the Safety Across High-Consequence Industries Conference, and the Innovation Expedition in Healthcare. 

Tom has led several consulting practices and currently serves as a co-facilitator of Learning industry roundtables, cross-industry learning labs, and virtual learning labs for executives. He has an EdD and an EdM from Harvard University, with a concentration in organizational behavior and intervention. 

www.springboardlabs.org

For Episode 100, I am joined by an old friend of mine Wyatt Closs. 

Wyatt Closs is Senior Vice President of Creative & Cultural Strategies for Spitfire, based in Los Angeles. He has spent the last 20 years on explorations of art and design for social change, progressive politics, creative advocacy, writing and organizing for social justice. He is considered an early practitioner in a field now known as cultural organizing or culture change work.

Most recently, Wyatt served as the creative force behind DearFrontline.com, an interactive property where art honors essential workers; the Strike for Black Lives Murals series in eight cities in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd; and Creative Resilience, a large-scale pop-up art show and community action space about economic justice.

In 2013, he founded and served as the creative director of his company, Big Bowl of Ideas, which focused exclusively on the intersection of creativity, arts, politics, digital strategies, and social justice.

Prior to his culture for social impact work, Wyatt was a political consultant and strategist for 25 campaigns across the country, including those of the DCCC, NARAL’s first independent expenditure campaign, and an independent expenditure campaign for Kamala Harris for California attorney general. He worked for SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and its locals, wearing a number of hats – civil and human rights director, community partnerships director, government affairs director, and public affairs director.

This week on The Indispensables, I am joined by the Chief Strategy Office at Fuel Cycle, Rick Kelly! Kelly and I had the opportunity to discuss his career path and the tools he uses to be a successful leader for his team.

Learn more about Fuel Cycle below!

https://fuelcycle.com/

This week on the Indispensables, I am joined by Yuchun Lee, CEO of Allego.

Yuchun Lee is CEO and co-founder of Allego, a software company focusing on transforming corporate learning and development. Mr. Lee is also the executive chairman of Clarabridge, a customer-experience management software company. Prior to Allego and Clarabridge, Lee served as vice president and general manager at IBM, with global responsibility for software for chief marketing officers. He joined IBM in 2010 as part of its acquisition of Unica, which Lee co-founded and led from its inception to a successful IPO and subsequent sale to IBM. Prior to Unica, he worked at Digital Equipment Corporation and MIT Lincoln and Media Lab. He holds bachelor’s and master’s of science degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT and a master’s in business administration from Babson College.

www.allego.com

The week on The Indispensables, I am joined by Chief Evangelist at 3Pillar Global, Scott Varho! We talk about how Varho built a career around building cultures that sustain high-performing teams.

Scott is the Chief Evangelist and SVP, Global Head of Craft and Communities at 3Pillar. His passion lies in building cultures that sustain high-performing teams optimized for return on investment for clients through a product mindset, craftsmanship, collaboration and technology. He has spent close to 20 years working in or leading fast-paced delivery teams accountable for building products that support core business objectives. 

Scott is a 2nd generation native of Southern California. He holds a BA from Amherst College and a Master’s in Political Economics from Palacký University in the Czech Republic. He used to speak Czech and German fluently, but now mostly struggles to keep up with his 2 children.

The Indispensables are back! This week on The Indispensables, I am joined by President of MGK, Steve Gullickson. Gullickson is continuing the family legacy at MGK and we discuss that and more on episode 96.

Born and raised in Minnesota.  University in Vermont.  Started with A.C. Nielsen in Marketing Research (Chicago, Cleveland, Sacramento, San Diego in 2 ½ years).  Exposure to consumer goods lead to Bristol Myers Products in Sales.  Moved to NYC in Trace Marketing.  Started Trace Marketing at Ciba Geigy Consumer which became Novartis Consumer Health.  Joined my family business, MGK, at the end of 1998.  Initially focused on sales and marketing then became President in ’06.  Sold a majority of the business to Sumitomo Chemical in ’12 and remained President.  Today, I also serve on the board of three companies as well as industry trade associations.  Two kids, one in Seattle in graphic design and one in Los Angeles in private air sales.  My wife runs her own counseling business.  

www.mgk.com

www.rainmakerthinking.com