“How do we think about building an inclusive product that represents what families look like today, which might be very different than what families looked like 200 years ago. We want voices from all over to help us shape that product.” With 20 years of experience in the technology sector – including stints at eBay, PayPal, and an executive position at Facebook – Deb Liu now leads the high-tech portal where access to 30 billion genealogical records can provide a deeper understanding of one’s uni...
Mar 18, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 126
“We need to attack extreme poverty. Of course, the pandemic brought additional challenge to that. But, we provided emergency aid for an extensive part of our population, around 60 million people. Of course it's a fiscal challenge, but we did more on a relative basis than all the other countries.” As one of Brazil’s wealthiest men, André Esteves could easily keep his head down and just take care of business. But the senior partner of BTG Pactual – the largest investment bank in Latin America, wit...
Jun 07, 2021•36 min•Season 1Ep. 125
“Asian Americans are now beginning to find our voice. We’re learning that we need to be full participants in our democracy. The rise in violence and hateful rhetoric against the Asian American community during the COVID 19 pandemic has brought this community to a greater realization of the need to participate more fully in our country’s institutions, and be more vocal and visible.” As the excited 8-year-old girl watched the land of her birth recede from her view as her cargo ship pulled away fro...
May 28, 2021•40 min•Season 1Ep. 124
“In protecting our business, we are not talking about protecting AB’s business, but everybody in the chain that was relying on AB to maintain their business continuity. And that came from the farmers to the people in our breweries, to the wholesalers that we service to the retailers that they service and for the consumers, that they would need to have some sense of normalcy.” An event like a pandemic can make one reexamine personal and professional priorities. For Brazilian-born Michel Doukeris,...
Feb 02, 2021•32 min•Season 1Ep. 123
“We all have learned the things that a few months ago we thought were not possible were really possible. … As I think about manufacturing, I think about two big changes. First is the creation of more decentralized manufacturing networks, where companies will be able to produce closer … to where their customers will be. The second big change will be driven by personalization.” After launching his 30-year career at HP with an internship, Enrique Lores was named CEO in November 2019. In between, he...
Jan 26, 2021•34 min•Season 1Ep. 122
This Podcast Features: John Grisham Author Neal Kassell Founder and Chairman, Focused Ultrasound Foundation “Once I realized the potential of this non-invasive surgical procedure to save countless lives and improve the healthcare of millions of people, I realized how important this work can be and is.” —John Grisham Friends and neighbors for 25 years, author John Grisham and neurologist Neal Kassell are on a mission. Together, they are raising awareness – and funds – for a promising, non-invasiv...
Jan 15, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 121
“The crisis happened at a time of exponential change in technology that was already transforming the way we work, how we engage with clients, how we make decisions. … And then you instantly had behavioral change at a scale that we've never seen in the past.” Julie Sweet believes large companies should be flexible and light on their feet. Case in point: her own Accenture. When she became CEO of the multinational professional services company in 2019, she instituted sweeping changes to its operati...
Jan 13, 2021•14 min•Season 1Ep. 120
“Diagnosis goes hand in hand with vaccination, and of course with therapies as well. What CRISPR is doing is providing for rapid turnaround testing at a lower cost and higher throughput than we've had with other technologies. We'll see that happening in various testing labs, certainly around the U.S. And the nice thing about that is it really does go hand in hand with these vaccines that are coming forward.” When Jennifer Doudna first spoke with Mike on the podcast four months ago, she was looki...
Jan 08, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 119
“The process of digitization – whether that was e-commerce in retail, or online gaming for media, online streaming in the media business, digital platforms for the public sector – was already underway. But it enormously accelerated with the pandemic.” In his two years as CEO of Google Cloud, Thomas Kurian has seen revenues for his company’s services soar more than 40 percent. The Indian-born former president of Oracle believes that the “new normal” of telecommuting will continue to help drive fu...
Jan 08, 2021•14 min•Season 1Ep. 118
“The bigger part of our response over the next year, and then really over the next five years, is how do you really help countries get bigger private sectors, more jobs, including jobs for women and education for girls.” When David Malpass began his five-year term as president of the World Bank Group in 2019, he could not foresee that months later his institution would face its greatest test since the post-World War II era. Since its founding in 1947, the World Bank has had one mission: to end e...
Dec 31, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 117
“When we get out of this pandemic, I suspect people are going to want to flock to the movie theaters. But they're also going to say, I still want my content delivered . So, the movie industry is going to face a decision. Do they offer it both ways – on your iPad the same day as the release in the theater? What's the model? They're determining that as we speak. And I think COVID has upended the movie business even more than usual.” Most actresses who come to Hollywood don’t end up running a major...
Dec 29, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 116
“It has been a year of terrible tragedy. … And yet, it's also been a year of heroism: the first responders, the healthcare providers, putting themselves at risk to try to help those who are suffering. But I also think there are heroes that have risen to this challenge in the research community, in the business community.” When NIH Director Francis Collins first spoke with Mike in April of 2020, he was marshalling an army of researchers among his 6,000 research scientists to tackle the coronaviru...
Dec 23, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 115
Sir Andrew Witty President, UnitedHealth Group; CEO, Optum; Co-Leader, COVID-19 Vaccine Development, World Health Organization George Yancopoulos President and Chief Scientific Officer, Regeneron Esther Krofah Executive Director, FasterCures “Are we willing to do for life sciences and global defense what we were willing to do for the financial environment in the 2008 financial crisis? Because if you compare the trillions of dollars committed to stabilize the financial systems to the billions of ...
Dec 22, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 114
“The efficacy of these vaccines is spectacular. It's 95%, the same whether you are an African-American or Hispanic or over 65 years old. … Remarkably, these two vaccines developed in different companies, two different continents, give incredibly similar results, totally independent, which is also enhancing the likelihood that these data absolutely are real.” In a triumph of modern science and leadership, millions of highly effective doses of COVID-19 vaccines are currently being manufactured, di...
Dec 18, 2020•23 min•Season 1Ep. 113
Albert Bourla Chairman and CEO, Pfizer Alex Gorsky Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson “I think history has shown us to have major leaps forward almost after every crisis. Whether it's a war, a natural disaster, or frankly a big challenge such as going to the moon, these kinds of inflection points force us to go in new directions to collaborate and to accelerate technological breakthroughs.” – Alex Gorsky Two of the most important CEOs in the world today – Pfizer’s Albert Bourla and Johnson ...
Dec 16, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 112
Sarah Murdoch Co-Chair, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) Kathryn North Director, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI); David Danks Professor of Child Health Research, University of Melbourne Hamish Graham Paediatrician and Senior Research Fellow, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI); University of Melbourne; Royal Children’s Hospital “With COVID, there's been this renewed focus on the importance of medical research. … With more funding and with philanthropic partners,...
Dec 14, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 111
“The UAE was among the first countries in the world to make sure it implemented and successfully executed a testing policy. We ramped up on capacity, on ICU space, on respirator supplies. And that resulted in one of the lowest mortality rates in the world.” As the Group CEO and Managing Director of Mubadala Investment Company, H.E. Khaldoon Khalifi Al Mubarak is responsible for creating sustainable financial returns for Abu Dhabi, overseeing more than $230 billion in assets across 50+ businesses...
Dec 08, 2020•23 min•Season 1Ep. 110
Himisha Beltran Medical Oncologist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Felix Feng Radiation Oncologist and Vice Chair for Translational Research, UCSF Department of Radiation Oncology Christopher Haiman Genetic Epidemiologist and Professor of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC Deborah Scher Executive Advisor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Jonathan Simons President and CEO, Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) “The road to curing COVID runs right through lots an...
Dec 03, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 109
David Feinberg , Vice President, Google Health; Advisory Board Member, FasterCures Esther Krofah , Executive Director, FasterCures “What we've really tried to do is get information out there to the public, to researchers, to public health folks, so they can make better decisions about what's happening so that we can all get through this.” – David Feinberg When the history of COVID is written, David Feinberg and Esther Krofah will be among those rightfully celebrated for their work in furthering ...
Nov 23, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 108
“There were a lot of hedge fund blogs out there saying software is going to get destroyed. … And guess what happened? Our recurring revenue stream was really nearly untouched in a pandemic. Corporate customers paid their subscription software revenue, but they didn't pay rent. It was more stable than real estate.” To this day, Orlando Bravo would rather have played Wimbledon than become the first Puerto Rican-born billionaire. As a teen, he was a top-40 junior player; as an adult, Bravo eventual...
Nov 19, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 107
George Yancopoulos Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Regeneron Joseph Vinetz Professor of Medicine, Yale University; Infectious Disease Physician Tal Zaks Chief Medical Officer, Moderna “We're going to need vaccines to create as widespread herd immunity as we can, but we're also going to need drugs that are targeted against the virus that can provide immediate protection and also treat those who are already sick. So we have multiple clinical trials ongoing with our antibody cocktail, both...
Nov 10, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 106
“It goes back to opportunity and jobs.… Government can only do so much. The private sector needs to step up and ensure that they are creating opportunities for a broad swath of the population who don't have those opportunities.” When Maria Bartiromo became the first journalist to report live from the floor New York Stock Exchange in 1995, she was well on her way to another honor: the first female journalist to be inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame. Throughout her career, the two-time Emmy Awar...
Nov 02, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 105
“There was this ventilator company that needed help. We realized there was one part on the ventilator that was very similar to the way a transmission is designed and they were having quality issues with it. We brought in transmission engineers and they figured out a way to improve the part and the ability to produce it.” Just before this interview was recorded, General Motors announced it had completed a contract with the federal government to supply 30,000 ventilators for COVID patients. It’s j...
Oct 16, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 104
“You've got to think big to solve problems. … Some of the present bills [have] the potential to solve the major inequality problem in the United States.” (Friedman) “Given the historically low rates, what we're saying is the government can be the catalyst for effecting long-term change.” (Wilson) As co-CEOs of EJF Capital, Manny Friedman and Neal Wilson oversee more than $6 billion in assets, with clients in 22 countries and offices on three continents. Their innovative strategies focus on trend...
Oct 09, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 103
“Every society is more fragile than we realize, and every society can be taken advantage of. So I think it's incumbent on everyone to fight for community, to recognize the humanity of everybody. … It’s what keeps us safe, and it's what gives the future to our kids.” Just out of college in 1982, Peter Laugharn joined the Peace Corps, setting him on a lifelong journey of service. Today, with more than 25 years of leadership – including seven years at the Firelight Foundation and six years at the B...
Oct 02, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 102
“Throughout our organization, we're continuously pushing on how do we continue to add diversity, and I think we're a young enough group where that has always been the way we've approached the world. … Our culture has been that diverse groups make better decisions.” Todd Boehly strives for an organization as diverse as the holdings of Eldridge Industries itself. As co-founder, chairman, and CEO, he manages and builds companies in wide-ranging sectors including technology, credit, insurance, real ...
Sep 30, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 101
“We need to have an organization that reflects the millions and millions of guests we serve each and every day. From the bottom up we've made a commitment to diversity and inclusion. Of the 1,900 stores we run in the United States, over half are led by female store directors, over a third are diverse, and we build that pipeline in the organization.” For more than three decades, Brian Cornell held executive roles in the consumer goods sector. But when he became chairman and CEO of Target in 2014,...
Sep 18, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 100
“Venture capital is concentrated in … three states: California, Massachusetts, and New York. We know that not all the good ideas come from those three places. And so it's really important that we think hard about how we make sure that all small businesses can access capital.” With a career that effortlessly spans public and private sectors, including successful forays into entrepreneurism and philanthropy, Maria Contreras-Sweet is lauded for her ability to bring efficiencies and modernization to...
Sep 15, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 99
“We have to rebuild with a more inclusive capitalism, and I emphasize both of those words … so that as we go forward with crises – and there will be crises – the impact of those crises will not be so heavily defined by the color of one's skin.” As President and CEO of TIAA, Roger Ferguson manages 1.1 trillion dollars in retirement funds and services spanning the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields. As one of only four Black CEOs currently leading a Fortune 500 company, he knows the ...
Sep 11, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 98
“What we've done during COVID in many ways, we've taken 10 years of technology adoption and crammed it into three months. I'm certain we're getting ready to have a slew of new ideas that you and I haven't thought of, but that we're going to be delighted to support.” Bob Pittman was 15 when he started in radio – and he never looked back. The Mississippi native and current Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia has been hailed as a visionary and belongs to multiple broadcasting and advertising halls of f...
Sep 08, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 97
