ROI’s Into the Corner Office Podcast: Powerhouse Middle Market CEOs Telling it Real—Unexpected Caree...

Brandt Handley

The road to the middle market CEO corner office is paved with mile markers that guide in surprising, unpredictable, and some might even say “mysterious” ways! But how do you get such a widely coveted position? This is the question often heard during decades of ROI’s executive search interviews, conducted with top-level executives. ROI’s Into the Corner Office podcast is a new inspiration and answer platform which premieres visionary tales of adventure with great endings and highlights, from powerhouse CEOs driving the formidable success of the U.S. economy’s middle market sector. The CEOs behind this impressive growth reveal insights which equipped them to lead their organizations. Showcasing dynamic leadership stories, Into the Corner Office dives into the heart of what informed and formed these CEOs. Guests share their backgrounds, talk about their early years, and explore what shaped them before they were known for their successes in growing, developing, and leading extraordinary mi... read less
BusinessBusiness
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EntrepreneurshipEntrepreneurship
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Episodes

Gregg Florentin, CEO, TriCity Cardiology
5d ago
Gregg Florentin, CEO, TriCity Cardiology
Gregg R. Florentin is a 30-year visionary leader who has consistently driven innovation, operational excellence, and strategic collaborations in the healthcare industry.  Prior to TriCity Cardiology, Florentin served as the President and CEO of Ahart Healthcare Solutions International in Dubai UAE and Houston Texas for eight years. During his tenure, he forged strategic partnerships with notable institutions such as Inova, Children's National, and SEHA.  Under Florentin’s leadership, AHART grew to over 500 employees where he was instrumental in holding various global interim executive leadership roles for 60 different specialties with mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity, and financial growth.  These experiences were innovative, leveraging Lean techniques, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and patient and employee satisfaction to enhance safety, quality, and cost. Florentin also held various executive leadership roles with Willamette Group, Group Health, Providence Medical Group, and Meritus Healthcare before his move to AHART. His illustrious career began at Community Tissue Services, one of the Nation’s Premier Organ and Tissue Banks.  Florentin has many accolades including: Health Professional of the Year Award, Washington State Volunteers Society 3 Time Who’s Who In Healthcare Executive Distinguished Leadership Award, Medford Oregon Community Executives  AHART Executive Award for outstanding leadership in business and education partnerships.  COO of the Year Providence CEO of the Year AHART Diamond Executive Award for Service Excellence, Dubai Healthcare  3 Time Lean Six Sigma Innovation Award   Florentin’s leadership philosophy emphasizes transparency, rounding for authenticity, kindness, and collaboration. He firmly believes that prioritizing team members’ overall happiness and satisfaction leads to positive outcomes for both the team and patients. In summary, Gregg R. Florentin exemplifies excellence and enjoys sharing his vision as an invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences in the past 8 years sharing his knowledge on innovative healthcare to improving the patient experience, employee engagement, and the future of healthcare.
Re-Release: Cheryl Bachelder, Board Member, Director & Author
May 21 2024
Re-Release: Cheryl Bachelder, Board Member, Director & Author
Cheryl Bachelder is a passionate, purpose-led business leader -- the former CEO of Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. Cheryl is known for her crisp strategic thinking, a franchisee-focused approach, and superior financial performance.  Guided by the servant leadership thinking of Robert Greenleaf, she believes highly caring, collaborative leaders with big ambitions for the enterprise, not themselves, generate the conditions for people to perform their best work. Cheryl Bachelder served as CEO of Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen, Inc., a NASDAQ traded company with over 2,600 restaurants in 26 countries, from 2007 to 2017. The story of Popeyes success is chronicled in her book, Dare to Serve: How to drive superior results by serving others. During her tenure, Popeyes’ stock price grew from $11 to $61, at which time the board sold the company to Restaurant Brands International Inc. for $1.8 billion dollars or $79 per share in March, 2017. Cheryl’s earlier career included brand leadership roles at Yum Brands, Domino’s Pizza, RJR Nabisco, The Gillette Company and Procter & Gamble.   Cheryl serves as a director on the boards of Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (PIR), US Foods Holding Corp. (USFD), and Chick-Fil-A, Inc. She sits on the advisory board of Procter & Gamble’s franchising venture, Tide Dry Cleaners. She is a board member of CEO Forum, an organization that encourages and develops leadership capability in CEOs and senior executives. Cheryl holds a Bachelor’s and Masters of Business Administration degree from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. She is married 38 years to Chris Bachelder and they have three grown daughters, two terrific son-in-laws, and four handsome grandsons. Cheryl and Chris reside in Atlanta, Georgia and attend Buckhead Church. They are avid learners, fans of the classical education movement, and can always be found reading a good book! Website: Serving Performs at www.cherylbachelder.com Former CEO, Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. Director at Pier 1 Imports, Inc. Director at US Foods Holding Corp. Director at Chick-Fil-A, Inc. Author, Dare to Serve: How to drive superior results by serving others
Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, Sovos
May 14 2024
Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, Sovos
Kevin Akeroyd is CEO of Sovos. From a small town in Missouri to Stanford business school and 3-time CEO, Kevin Akeroyd is not the proverbial polished CEO. A man who is not afraid to go off message and proclaims, be “overt, loud and challenging” to get things done. A CEO who declares it his mission to “keep business leaders out of jail” by helping companies traverse the complex and sometimes dangerous waters of compliance. A leader who puts his money where his mouth is and approaches diversity not with PR platitudes but by personally funding an annual college fund for underprivileged youth.​ ​With countless mergers and acquisitions under his belt and having worked for small venture-backed endeavors to being a division head for industry heavyweights like Oracle and Salesforce, Kevin is a builder who works to understand where companies are stagnating, where to innovate and find their break-through potential and ultimately how to move from point solution to platform. ​ Kevin built the enterprise stack for the Chief Communications Officer at Cision, the Chief Human Resource Officer at Magnit and now is working at Sovos to deliver the global compliance system of record for the Chief Financial Officer. The Sovos Compliance Cloud is the first and only platform to bring together tax compliance and regulatory reporting into a single view for business. At Sovos he is building a new category, a new line of business for compliance, and taking the industry on a journey to conquer the complexities and challenges of compliance.​ ​Kevin’s leadership philosophy is that it’s not enough to be brilliant. Transparency and communication are paramount and it’s the job of the CEO to look around corners and see what’s coming. Bad CEOs let things happen and good CEOs make things happen and at the end of the day, everything is your fault. Kevin brings this level of accountability to his customers, partners and employees. His mission at Sovos is to evolve compliance from its current state of being a painful requirement for business to being a force for growth in every company, in every industry and in every country.
Herb Coglino, Founder, Aspire Growth Advisors
May 7 2024
Herb Coglino, Founder, Aspire Growth Advisors
Herb Cogliano leads his own advisory practice, Aspire Growth Advisors, leveraging the Scaling Up Performance Platform, described in Verne Harnish's award-winning book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits-Scaling Up. As an International Business Coach, experienced CEO Scaling Up Practitioner, and Professor of the Scaling Up Masters Business Course, he has learned firsthand what it takes to overcome many business challenges. Herb is pursuing his passion of working with leaders of growth companies to achieve more freedom by helping them create industry leading strategies, a culture of accountability, flawless execution along with a healthy cash flow within their organizations. Herb was formerly CEO of Sullivan and Cogliano Designers, a 53-year privately held family owned, Technology Staffing and Workforce Solutions firm and in 1993, he also founded the Sullivan and Cogliano education business. Sullivan and Cogliano joined a select group of companies that have appeared on the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company list multiple times. The Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth over a four-year period. This achievement puts us in a unique position, especially if you consider that over 27 million businesses are registered in the USA. His firm was a Multiyear recipient of Boston and South Florida Business Journal Best Places to Work Award. This honor recognizes Sullivan and Cogliano achievements for changing the business landscape, in creating a positive work environment that attracts and retains employees through a combination of employee satisfaction, working conditions and company culture. Herb serves on the Carroll School of Management Board of Advisors at Boston College. He has served as a Board of Director of the American Staffing Association. He is past president of the Massachusetts Association of Staffing Services, and previously served on the boards of Employment Resources, Inc. and Junior Achievement. He received his BSBA from Boston College in 1987 and his MBA from University of Massachusetts (International Honor Society Beta Gamma Sigma) in 2016.
Nick McLean, Co-Founder and Partner, Four Pillars
Apr 16 2024
Nick McLean, Co-Founder and Partner, Four Pillars
Nick is a Co-Founder and Partner at Four Pillars, a Private Equity firm that partners with entrepreneurs and investors to purchase and operate lower middle-market businesses ($20M to $250M in sales) with an untapped potential for growth. Four Pillars isn't your typical PE firm. We take a relationship-first approach and aren’t about financial engineering or extreme cost-cutting. Instead, we leverage our experience as entrepreneurs to help grow companies in terms of revenues and employees.  So far, they have invested millions of dollars in seven businesses, including Southwest Steel Fabrication, the longest-operating steel fabricator in the Kansas City region, involved in projects like fencing around the White House and work on bridges and dams nationwide. To make these purchases, Four Pillars has worked with well known capital providers including Capital for Business (nearly $1 billion in portfolio company revenue) and Peninsula Capital ($2 billion in assets under management). Nick has 15+ years of experience as a private equity investor and is highly regarded in the PE community for his ability to find and invest in businesses that last far into the future. Over at Four Pillars, most of Nick's activities revolve around fundraising as well as deal origination and execution. He also runs a popular YouTube channel with over 250K+ views, where he regularly shares knowledge about the ins and outs of private equity investments with his growing audience of over 1,700 subscribers.
Re-Release: Todd Stewart, President, Gulf Winds International
Apr 9 2024
Re-Release: Todd Stewart, President, Gulf Winds International
Todd Stewart is President of Gulf Winds International. He graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a B.S. in Marketing and immediately joined Gulf Winds International in 1996. Beginning as a fork-lift operator, he has served within or led every department within the company, leading to his current position of President. Todd is primarily responsible for working with key stakeholders to establish and maintain a culture that reflects the mission, values and overall strategic "world class" vision for the organization. Through being an active C12 Group member, Todd Stewart continues to learn how Gulf Winds International is here to serve a greater purpose and holds strongly to the biblical servant leadership model that empowers team members to grow personally, professionally and spiritually. He is passionate about how the gospel of Christ can restore hope in local and global communities. In 2017, this led Todd to found More Than The Move Foundation which exists to aid life-changing non-profits such as International Cooperating Ministries, Steiger International and Ground Wire via corporate generosity, corporate volunteerism and corporate advocacy. Gulf Winds International, Inc. is a second-generation family-owned business that was founded in April 1996 near Port Houston. With a mission to glorify God by providing world-class logistics services through continual investment in people, clients, community and the world Gulf Winds continues to have a clear direction and a broad horizon. Two things that separate Gulf Winds from other logistics companies is its authentic core values and common sense business strategy. Driven by Values Gulf Winds is driven by values and those values are intentionally and continually instilled in every employee in the company.
Re-Release: Corey Lindley, CEO, doTERRA
Mar 19 2024
Re-Release: Corey Lindley, CEO, doTERRA
For over three decades, Corey has been engaged in the global world of direct selling. He has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Japan, China, Australia and, of course, the United States, solving complex business issues. Corey has worked in senior C-level positions for two billion dollar-plus consumer product companies that market products through direct selling–one being doTERRA. Developing competent and loyal teams has been the hallmark of Corey’s professional career. He holds a BS degree in accounting and an MBA degree, and began his professional career in 1987 working for one of the world’s largest public accounting firms prior to beginning work in the direct selling world in 1990. He loves all sports, especially golf, but Corey is quick to point out that his favorite pastime is being with his amazing wife, Janis, along with his eight children and their families including 20 grandchildren doing whatever it is that they want to do. About doTERRA: doTERRA sources, tests, manufactures, and distributes pure essential oils and natural wellness products to over nine million Wellness Advocates and customers. Our products are shipped to 86 countries and counting. Through industry-leading, responsible sourcing practices—Co-Impact Sourcing®—doTERRA maintains the highest levels of quality, purity, and sustainability in partnerships with local growers around the globe. The doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation®, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, offers resources and tools to sourcing communities and charitable organizations, raising self-reliance, increasing access to healthcare, promoting education, advancing sanitation, and fighting against human trafficking. With our social impact mission to triple our impact by 2030, doTERRA is helping the world heal—one drop, one person, one community at a time. To offer everyone the best personal essential oil education and experiences around the world, doTERRA uses the power of people via our modernized direct selling model. This approach allows distributors to work with customers, which allows people to learn about and experience essential oils from somebody they know and trust. This model also creates the opportunity for individuals and families to achieve their dreams of self-reliance. Over three million Wellness Advocates now use and sell doTERRA products around the world.
Justin Roethlingshoefer, co-founder, Own It Coaching
Feb 27 2024
Justin Roethlingshoefer, co-founder, Own It Coaching
Justin Roethlingshoefer centers his performance-enhancing programs on a holistically integrated approach to health and performance. His core philosophy is that performance is realized when health is optimized and we cannot separate physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.  He is the co-founder of Own It Coaching, a multiple seven-figure coaching company that applies this health and performance philosophy to clients ranging from NHL stars, to Fortune 500 executives, to entrepreneurs looking to take that next step and level up. He’s also the creator of the Own It App, which provides simple data collection, meaningful insights, and personalized plans to help users OWN their habits and improve recovery, health, and performance. Justin has spoken at dozens of events, including the TEDx stage. He’s the host of the Sports Science and Recovery Podcast and The Own It Show. Additionally, Justin is the author of three books (Amazon bestsellers), including Intent: A Practical Approach to Applied Sports Science for Athletic Development and Own It.  Whether in his coaching, writing, or speaking, Justin is well-regarded for his ability to take complex scientific topics and distill them into practical, applicable action steps. He has a rare combination of the ability to understand the science of sports performance, sleep, and recovery on a deep level, while being able to translate and distill the complex topics into a form others can actually use.
Chad Jenkins, President & CEO, SeedSpark
Feb 20 2024
Chad Jenkins, President & CEO, SeedSpark
Chad Jenkins is the President & CEO of SeedSpark. Chad's bio: I bring a distinctive blend of attentive listening, curiosity, and strategic principles to the forefront of business innovation. My mission lies in the relentless pursuit of that elusive 'secret sauce' that drives businesses to soaring heights of growth and prosperity. Horses were my initial foray into the world of business, instilling the foundational lesson of non-verbal communication and cooperation. The lessons learned from equine entrepreneurship naturally extended to my landscaping business in middle school, which flourished for some time before I sold it to focus on a rapidly expanding new venture. The success of these ventures in my younger years was a practical application of what would later become the Growth FlyWheel principles™. By 21, I became part of a revolutionary retail concept in partnership with Purina — America's Country Store. My role there segued into a pivotal alliance with Nextel Communications, where the applications of my unique methodologies pushed me to become the top distributor in the Carolinas within just eighteen months. It was through observing the friction customers experienced with billing that I spotted another opportunity — a service to rectify billing inaccuracies, saving my clients millions and securing a substantial competitive edge. My success at Nextel Communications propelled me into the software domain with the inception of SeedSpark, a venture dedicated to equipping clients with strategic advantages. Today, SeedSpark stands as my primary venture, fostering partnerships and providing services that embody the very principles of my successful entrepreneurial blueprint. At the core of my SeedSpark Growth FlyWheel™ approach exist three frameworks: 🔵 Remove the FILM™: A strategy that peels back layers of inefficiency to reveal a clear path to improvement. 🔵 Just Add A Zero™: An audacious goal-setting tactic that propels businesses toward ambitious growth. 🔵 100X Collaborations™: Leveraging partnerships to amplify impact and reach exponential success. This triad of principles has proven transformative as I collaborate with industry leaders to identify and capitalize on growth opportunities, overcome barriers, and create formidable competitive advantages. With a vision that goes beyond conventional business wisdom, I am humbled to be a catalyst for change, growth, and innovation in the entrepreneurial world.
Kelley Thornton, Founder & CEO, Tiege Hanley
Feb 13 2024
Kelley Thornton, Founder & CEO, Tiege Hanley
Kelley Thornton is the Founder & CEO of Tiege Hanley. He was born and raised in Towson, MD. He moved to Brookfield, CT to finish up high school and start his first entrepreneurial pursuit, house painting. With the money he earned from the business, he financed his college tuition at the University of Connecticut, where he would meet his future business partner and co-founder of Tiege Hanley, Rob Hoxie. After college, Kelley entered the Metropolitan New York area workforce as a sales representative in the point-of-purchase display and packaging industry. A few years into his career he was tasked with developing a Chicago presence for his company, Phoenix Display & Packaging, which later became part of International Paper. He relocated to Chicago, IL in 1993 and continued his trajectory to National Accounts Manager and ultimately Regional Sales Manager. After a successful 20-year career in the throes of Corporate America, he left the industry to found his second company, Purchase Point LLC. Purchase Point helped CPG companies think differently about their in-store merchandising platforms. Growing quickly with global customers such as Unilever, Mars Wrigley, Bayer, and Pfizer, Kelley brought a creative approach to captivating consumers during the last seven seconds along their Path to Purchase. Through his experience at Purchase Point, Kelley found the rapidly growing men’s care industry inspiring. In 2016 he stepped away to found his next company, Tiege Hanley, a 6-year-old e-commerce company with the mission of helping men look and feel amazing. The business has evolved from selling three distinct Skin Care Systems to boasting a wide variety of products, including deodorant, bar soap, body wash, and a detoxifying clay mask. Tiege shipped its 1.5 millionth box in July 2022 and has over 350,000 customers worldwide. Kelley is focused on enriching the experience for all customers and guiding men to healthier lifestyles founded on self-confidence.
Satyam Kantamneni, Managing Partner & Chief Experience Officer, UXReactor
Feb 6 2024
Satyam Kantamneni, Managing Partner & Chief Experience Officer, UXReactor
Satyam Kantamneni is the Managing Partner & Chief Experience Officer of UXReactor.  Satyam founded UXReactor in 2014 together with his brother, Prasad. Under his leadership, UXReactor has become the fastest growing specialized experience design firm in the USA, with a team of 60+ employees spread over three continents. Before starting his entrepreneurial journey, Satyam served as Managing Director of Product Design at Citrix in San Francisco, where he played a crucial role in growing the product design team from four members to over 100+ practitioners. Satyam was instrumental in building PayPal’s Global Design Center in India while leading a design team in Silicon Valley. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School’s famed General Management Program, studied Design Thinking at Stanford University, and holds a master’s degree in Human Factors from Wright State University. While at Harvard, Satyam realized that most businesses aren’t leveraging the full power of UX as an engine for strategic growth. Companies either don’t have the in-house design expertise or relegate design to a support role — even when hiring external UX agencies. Satyam resolved to change that. Through UXReactor, Satyam is demonstrating that UX can and should drive enterprise-wide innovation and business outcomes. UXReactor has enabled clients to generate multiple billions in additional value from user-centered innovation. Satyam has also advanced the UX discipline by developing the PragmaticUX framework: a consistent, replicable, measurable, and scalable approach to innovation. UXReactor relies on this proven framework to lead user experience and product innovation for multiple Fortune 500 Companies. He lives in Pleasanton, California with his wife and children. Together with his brother and business partner, Prasad, Satyam leads UXReactor’s global service operations, headquartered outside San Fransisco in Pleasanton.
Chase Harmer, Founder, Wishes
Jan 30 2024
Chase Harmer, Founder, Wishes
Chase Harmer is the founder of Wishes. After receiving a full track and field scholarship to Cal Poly in 1998, he decided to attend another college called "The School of Hard Knocks" and started his first business in the payments industry at 19. That business would eventually become a 40 million per year business before Chase was 32. As the founder at Wishes, he and his team have focused on the biggest problems in the charitable giving space today by making donations for social impact instant, fully transparent, tax-deductible, and rewarding, in addition to delivering funds to recipients 10X faster than any competitor in the market. At Wishes, they are passionate about redefining the charitable giving experience and creating a more connected future for all humanity. Prior to Wishes, Chase Harmer spent seven years as the founder at ProfitPay, which was acquired by the travel platform OnRiva. As a non-tech founder, ProfitPay was the single greatest challenge of his career and he learned more meaningful lessons in those seven years than the combined 27 previously. ProfitPay was a massive product, with many moving parts, hundreds of employees, and partners which had us moving 100 mph at all times. The end product delivered an all-in-one platform that included payments, a proprietary gateway, and card issuing tech with integrated fraud prevention which made payments centralized, easy, and more secure for online stores and marketplaces. Chase has spent nearly three decades in payments and has built products and infrastructure on both the acquiring and issuing sides. Chase brings a diverse and rare perspective from his time in the trenches, producing positive outcomes for connected partners and internal stakeholders.