Jeff Coppola, Executive - WorldStrides (#59)

We are. It's more than just a champ. We are inspirational creators, difference makers, world changers, and we are one community. Join alums, Jared and Ross as they uncover stories of Penn Staters and their unique professional and personal journeys. We are Penn State, and this is Lion Legacy. right. Episode number 59 of lion legacy and Ross. It was great to see you this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio.

Wish, wish the result on the field was a bit different, but, certainly great to, to spend time with you and, and her friends. Absolutely. And Jared, we ended out alive. We did it all. Yeah, no, but in all serious, I honestly, people in, Columbus were not nearly as, as, as. Brutal to us as I, as I had heard, as we had heard, they might be, but no, it was all good fun and, and they were actually very nice out there. but no, we had a good time.

Look, it was a annual trip, with us and some, and some of our, our old Penn State buddies and, nice to see everybody. We, we rarely get together, unless it's this trip or. someone gets married, but otherwise we don't get to see each other in person too much. And, we had fun. We hung out, went to the game. It was, it was cool to be in the horseshoe. but, the game, didn't turn out. Yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll skip over that part. I think everyone knows how that ended up.

Yeah, but, I also want to touch and maybe I'm, I'm a bit biased here, but we also walked around the Ohio State campus and really just Penn State is such a beautiful place. Like the campus, the architecture, College Avenue right there. And we've been to a number of schools along the way. I've yet to find as nice of a campus atmosphere is as Penn State.

Yeah, we're, we're biased, So we, we walk around and we're like, eh, this is fine, but it's not Penn State and that's kind of what we thought of, Ohio state as well. it's again, the. The buildings are the buildings, the, the, the downtown's the downtown, but it's not, it's not state college. Yeah, that is certainly true. I'm excited already looking forward to our trip next year. Are you going to reveal where we're going already?

I'm going to say, I'm going to say, yeah, we're going to West Virginia. Labor day weekends. As many of you know, 2024 was a home and a home, between the two, universities and excited to go down to country roads, right? That's right. Yeah. It'll be here before we know it. We've got less than a year until the next one. Less than a year. We already got the Airbnb solidified, so we'll be, we'll be all set. But speaking of journeys and trips, segues nicely into our guest today.

Yeah. Hey, we spoke with Jeff Coppola. it was awesome. It was such a fun conversation. Jeff is a VP, at world strides, which is a company that, that does a student learning experiences through travel. we'll get into it. He's going to talk about what the company does, what his role is there. interesting background, like many that we've spoken to in the past, a little bit of a zig and a zag as far as industry and, And, and the type of work that he's done, not going to give it away.

He'll tell us about all that and a really cool journey. just this episode, Jared chock full of lessons. So many put a lot of thought into his answers, very thoughtful, answers in, in the way that he, kind of looks back on his career, what he learned along the way. He had a lot of really cool. I use the word foresight, right?

A lot of really cool, foresight early in his career to the trajectory of where he might go and what might take him there against a little bit of a, a prelude to what he's going to talk about. But, just an awesome conversation. Really had a good, a lot of fun with it. He had some fun stories for us. Yeah. Great guys as well. I've had a chance to get to know him outside of the podcast too. And one of those guys you say, wow, I'm, I'm really proud he's a Penn Stater.

Not just because of what he's accomplished in his professional life, but the, the person that he, that he is and the integrity, and the way he wants to, pay it forward or, or pay it back as well. A hundred percent. All right, Jared. So ready, ready. This is going to be a two parter. You're going to grab your books. You're going to pack your bags. We're going to go learn on the road with Jeff Coppola. RAAAWR RAAWR All right.

Let's welcome Jeff Coppola, a two time graduate with a 1982 bachelor's in business logistics and a 1987 master's degree in supply chain and operations. Jeff has served numerous roles across many industries and currently is the senior vice president of. Product management and voice of customer at world strides, a company focused on educational experiences for youth and students. We're excited to get to know you and your journey, Jeff. Thanks for joining us on lion legacy.

Jared and Ross, it's my pleasure to be here. Thanks so much for having me tonight. Yeah, absolutely. Great to have you with us, Jeff. Hey, world strides, intriguing. it's 55 years and I have to admit prior to the interview. I don't know that we knew much about the company. So let's start high level. Tell us about what world strides

is all about. So funny story. I, I lived here for eight of those 55 years from 94 to 2002. And I didn't know about world strides until I interviewed for a job in 2016. world strides is the, North American market leader. In experiential learning through travel, for students.

And we serve from fifth grade all the way to MBA students and everything in between across a variety of experiential outcomes, both domestically and internationally, we're about an 850 million company that serves close to half a million students a year. And are there specific destinations that students go to? how does it work? So it's an interesting story. In 1968, an eighth grade social studies teacher out of the northern suburbs of Chicago was teaching civics. And he said, you know what?

I'm going to take my eighth graders to DC. he got the community around it and fundraising and all that stuff. And they went and they came back and oh my, and it became Mr. Wendell's eighth grade trip to DC. And he suddenly, after three years said. I think I've got something here. And he quit his job, moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, and basically just started recruiting teachers in the greater Chicago, in Wisconsin area. And the rest is history.

but to answer your question, DC, was the anchor, location. and now we go to, I think. Something like 90 countries around the world. for our international catalog, London, Paris, Rome are the big three destinations. we do in the U S DC, New York, Boston, Chicago. we have a. Variety of science products out of the Florida Keys. we have a West coast STEM East coast STEM.

It's, it's quite a catalog Yeah, I gotta say, I'm, I'm a big, big advocate of, I would say outside of the classroom learning at really any level, And you think back. to my own journey, whether it be student organizations and clubs in high school or college, you think about internships as well and the benefits there. When you think about a world strides program, what are some of the benefits of of sending your your child on on one of your programs? it's interesting.

I thought about this question in it. I'm going to start it with our tagline, life changing moments, that's what we deliver. And, it's very interesting. Almost every one of us that are at the company had their lives changed by that internship, by that trip to DC, by that trip to London, by that semester abroad. and we're all driven by that mission and we know how important it was to us and we want to deliver it to other people. So it's, it's basically education and everything we do. So sure.

You could go to DC. And. You could walk the sites and do all those things, but we have course leaders that take those students and they interact with the teacher and the students and they teach them about Congress. They teach them about the Washington Monument. They go to Mount Vernon and walk the grounds and talk about Washington and Martha and, and those types of things, in our K 12 group, as I shared earlier.

All the way from fifth grade in those one day state capital programs, where you went to your state capital with your, with your fifth grade teacher, all the way up to EMBAs, and abroad. But we have history and civics. We have religion and faith, cultural immersion, language, intensive programs, service, learning science, and STEM sports. Sports is one of my favorite. We actually take these high level, sports club teams, Olympic development teams, D1 schools. Number one product is soccer.

And we take them to the UK. We take them to Italy. We take them to Spain. They play their youth level, Manchester United team, Barcelona team, real Madrid team. They get to go to a couple of games. They get to practice with these teams. They get to basically tour West Ham's practice facility, and then see the countryside and, and, and, Experience the cuisine and those types of things that that's my favorite portfolio out of all the portfolios. Yeah, it's really cool.

And then, our higher ed, study abroad and faculty led programs. And then our individual portfolio, we have a whole portfolio around career exploration where you could spend eight days at Stanford in So it's really An advanced law program taught by Stanford law professors on the campus of Stanford or go to Hopkins and spend 10 days in a forensics and CSI intensive program, or go to UC Berkeley into an engineering program.

it's all, it's, it's like I said, 500, 000 students travel this every year across that portfolio of experiences. So that's the benefit of world strides. that's amazing. I'm thinking about as a follow up there, for let's say high school and younger, how does the business model work? Is it like if I'm, if I'm a teacher, let's say I'm a high school teacher, for, we'll just kind of work on your example from earlier. Let's say I teach, government course in high school.

I'm a history teacher and I'm saying, I'd love to get my, get my students to DC and I have no idea how to organize this, but I want somebody that's been there, done that, knows how to do it. Would I, if I'm the teacher, I reach out to world strides and say, Hey, I want to bring my class. Can you help me figure out all the logistics? We do everything. So that's exactly the model either. We, we've, we find that that teacher. that wants to do that or they find us.

Referrals is a big, big part of our business. and in the teacher profession now there's such, there's such mobility in terms of district to district and, state to state, things like that. But yeah, we basically, We help. We do the itinerary. We book all the arrangements. We help that teacher promote, the program in their school. We have a variety of, payment plans, and payment types for our parents.

and it's interesting, Ross, because it's, it's, it's not like you wake up and say, Hey, next week, I'm going to take my kids to DC. It's about a nine to 12 month process, which makes it affordable for parents because they make those monthly payments and things like that. But no, we, we handle everything from, from stem to stern book, the hotels, the buses, the airlines. Like I said, we have a field staff that's led by our course leader that helps manage.

When you get to the hotel, helps you book into the hotel. we have field staff that meet you at the airport and get you on the right bus. so yeah, it's, it's a pretty, it's pretty involved model that we have. And I imagine as much as these students are learning about history and culture, they're actually also learning about themselves as well and making lifelong friends. And there's probably so many benefits from that perspective.

I can't tell you how many times a parent will write us and say, I can't believe the change my son or daughter experienced and a lot of these kids, it's the first time they're going away. And not going away or being at a relative's house, right? They're, they're going with their classmates and their teacher, and they're going to get on a plane and they're going to go to DC for five days and four nights.

and, and we share the itinerary with the parents and everything, but it's, it's, it's a life changing moment for the parents and the guardians of these trips too. But, and then the other thing that always amazes me is two things. One. A lot of these teachers will come back and they'll see the change in their kids and they'll go, I really didn't think so and so had it in him, but he came, he or she came back from this trip and now they're, they're a different person. They're a model student.

They're more engaged. They have a lot more confidence in themselves. But the story that I always love is that eighth grade teacher is going to be at the supermarket or walking down the street. And that eighth grader, who's now a freshman. C's is a, her eighth grade teacher and says, Mr. Coppola, holy smokes. Remember when we went to DC? I got to tell you, that was a great trip. I'm now majoring in X because I went on that trip with you. That's, that's what's really exciting about our model.

Very cool. Say Jeff, we're going to get into your role at world strides here. You oversee product management and you're the voice of the customer. So tell us, what are your responsibilities? What does that entail?

So it was interesting coming out of COVID, as you can imagine, that was, that was quite a, quite a torpedo midship in our business model. But coming out of COVID, we, we realized that a lot of things needed to change for our organization. Over the years, we got to our size through acquisition, but we never integrated those acquisitions. And so we coming out of COVID, we said, Hey, We've got to move from this house of brands to a branded house.

And there were two things, two functions that didn't exist in the business, product management and voice of customer. And so the CEO came to me and said, Hey, we need to stand both these disciplines up and you're the guy to do it as we take these companies and put them all together. We need to get a unified catalog. For example, we had three companies. That we're selling a DC five, five day, four night product. One was called bright spark. One was called Explorer domestic.

One was called, world strides discoveries. And, so it was time, it was time to make that change. ever since I came to world strides, I was a huge advocate for voice of customer because we paid a tremendous amount of attention to the teachers, which we should write. They're the ones that are out there in front of the parents and promoting and wanting to do this.

and we absolutely focused on making sure the experience for the student traveler was the best, but the person I thought we were ignoring all the time were the people writing the checks, which were the parents and the guardians.

If we were really going to be true to being the lifelong learning, experiential travel partner for our families, I felt it was time that we needed to start engaging the parents and having a more holistic voice, a customer approach, and not just when the kid gets home from the trip, but engaging them through their journey with us. And getting that feedback and actioning that feedback. So both of those were stood up in 21.

Of course, getting back to travel was, was quite the challenge in 21 and 22. And we're really going full, full tilt on, on our integration, kind of rebranding ourselves around, around a one world strides brand, putting all the businesses together. So my role is to decide. The best DC five, four in the catalog, decide the best London, Paris, Rome in the catalog, and, and making sure that we've got, we've got the right mix of experiences that our teachers want to promote.

Our parents want to pay for it and our students want to go. Yeah. Let's dive a little deeper into the, the voice of the customer, right? You're giving the customer actually the, the voice you're listening to that customer and then. You as an organization, right? Or working with other departments to essentially make changes. Can you give us some examples of how that plays out?

Sure. one thing I'm really working on right now in my, in my example about the three DC five, four products, we actually have three different surveys that go out to those respective program leaders, all. Asking the same question differently, all with different, satisfaction ratings. So, I'm working on right now to kind of build the one world strides PL survey, but to answer your question specific to that, we do get a lot of feedback, about their expectations and then the reality Of the program.

And we get a lot of feedback on the restaurants, the hotels, the course leader, the itinerary itself. And so we, we take a lot of that feedback and, and action that, in, in terms of rebooking that, that teacher to do another trip. Most recently, on our individual side, we hire a rather large seasonal full time staff to help deliver those programs at Berkeley and Stanford and Hopkins and. St. John's and Yale and all those other 41 different colleges that we deliver our programs in the summer.

And they used to do, end of season survey. It was run by HR, but it wasn't, it wasn't getting really good feedback that you could action in terms of their experience because they're the ones helping deliver the program. So our team took over that survey this year and three things. Number one, the engagement tripled. In terms of, they used to get about 20 percent of the seasonal staff would answer.

We had almost 60 percent of the seasonal staff that answered and the way we pose the questions, and the way we use kind of best practices, satisfaction and scaling, we got some really, really good feedback and then we reached out to that same cohort and had focus groups and drilled down on some of the answers that we got and it got some really good, really good action to take around materials. Around a curriculum around activities that are all going to be baked into this year's delivery.

We're going to keep going with this, with the topic, the VOC topic. So I think about back to my college days, I was a finance major, but I remember having a marketing course. And then you talk about the, the four P's, right? You've got your product, your price, your place, and your promotion. So customer underlies all of those elements.

And certainly there's an increase on the focus of the customer at every one of those touch points, voice of the customer position, probably I could be wrong and it's probably didn't exist like 20 years ago. how have you seen other companies change their thinking over the years as far as that voice of the customer goes?

it's interesting. you're, you're right, Ross, it didn't exist 20 years ago and customer surveys was buried deep into marketing somewhere. It was more focused inwardly, as opposed to being focused out. And I think three things happened. One, the internet and social media, which kind of changed the entire landscape of how your product was viewed through the lenses of others, wrong, or indifferent. Number two, there was this concept of. NPS or net promoter score.

And there was this concept that came out of, the Boston consulting group that said, if you could find people who not only love your product or your service, but promote your product and service, you will have. higher, profits, higher stock, higher X, higher Y, and it's true. the gentleman, the grandfather of, of the NPS has done multiple studies and shown that people that are so dedicated into truly driving promoter score and taking that feedback and actioning it are, are, are better companies.

and then the third thing was, The concept of customer journeys and, and basically interacting with those transactional digital and experiential journeys and getting that feedback and doing something with that feedback to the point where there are a lot of companies now that have a chief experience officer, whose role is to ensure that the frontline, the customer facing. staff and processes are delivering on the expectations that the customer has. And if they're not, what do we have to fix?

What do we have to change to do that? So I think it's those things. I think the other thing is that, customer lifetime value. And wallet share are two big things, and you can't increase either of those without having a very focused and engaging customer experience journey with them. So I think that's where voice of customers really become. Now it's going into another phase. Phase one is the marrying of employee experience and satisfaction data with your customer.

Experience and satisfaction data and finding where the sweet spot is, right? And then the second thing I think that's going to just change it is AI because AI now will allow you to very quickly parse the written feedback and very quickly figure out what the sentiment and what the right action should be at a, at a speed so much higher than the human can do. So those two things I think are going to really change the voice of customer and really make it very important for companies.

Yeah, great answer there. Also being in the marketing field myself, I've seen this evolution to from, company somewhat being in the center to customer being in the center and that laser focus on, Hey, what is the customer want? What do they desire to your point? What's the journey that they're on as opposed to people just being laser focused on their product and their, or their service? Yeah, really?

It's gone from why aren't they buying this stuff or what do I need to do to make this experience the best for my customer and how and in doing so have them promote promote us because that that's, that's priceless marketing right there. Completely, completely agree there. I want to keep on the theme of evolution. You actually started your career in supply chain, which I mentioned in the intro, which is certainly more operations focus.

Yes. What did you learn early on in your career that allowed you to take new roles outside of the supply chain scope like? You are today.

it's funny. I'm dating myself here, but I was a proud student of Dr. John Coyle and, who, who introduced me to, to logistics. And I, I walked away from that class going, this is the coolest job in the whole world. Cause you get to work with everybody. You get to work with marketing, get work operations. You get to work with accounting, you get to work with sales and you get to work with the customer. This is great. This is the job for me. but I'm going to give you a quick story. So I worked.

I worked out of school out of undergrad. I worked for RCA at the time when RCA was still here, but I was with their government systems division and we were building the weapon system for the Aegis cruisers. And after about four years of working really hard and getting promoted in a variety of. Of more responsible roles, I looked around me and suddenly realized, God, all these guys and gals have been here for 30 years and they're sitting at the same desk. No, I, I, I can't do this.

This, this will kill me. And so I went to a grad school and, I suddenly realized, the scene in the graduate where they go, what, what am I going to do? And the guy goes, plastics, it's plastics. My moment was technology. It's going to be technology. And I went to my grad advisor and I said, look, I know I've got to take these many supply chain, master level courses, 405 level courses, but I really want it to, I really want to do technology. And I think, and I don't want to lose.

my operations chops because I came out of the, you know, off the floor, so to speak. And he said, okay, that makes sense. And when I got recruited, by Pricewaterhouse out of grad school, which was not my, that's not why I went to grad school was I was not going to be a consultant, but it was a great opportunity. I suddenly realized, Oh my God, it's technology. It is technology.

And the great thing about at Pricewaterhouse is I got to be with different clients in different businesses in different industries, solving different problems, whether it was their accounting problem, a systems problem, enterprise requirements, systems definition or implementation. I got to see all these different things in my four years there and. That's where I knew that, supply chain's about process.

Most everything else is about process, but being exposed to all those other things, that's when I kind of realized that, It was people, technology, and process. Those three things were going to be what the 90s were going to be about. And I wanted to be there. So that's, that's why I've been really very fortunate. I think luck beats skill, but it was that time at Pricewaterhouse and me at grad school, recognizing that it was going to be technology.

It was going to be technology that was going to drive a lot of change. A couple of comments there. So one, kudos to you for having the foresight back then to see technology, right? I think there's a lot of people that may have been in that time. And right. Ali, why this is the late eighties, mid eighties, mid eighties, early nineties. You're right. So people were probably resistant to it, right? It was just so new now. It's just, you know, it's plateaued a bit.

It's we're still getting new technology. It's just not. Shooting up in a way that it was back then. And so I think it's really impressive that you, you saw that as being the future. And you're like, I'm going to kind of mold my career where I'm headed based on that. Number two, this is more of just a funny thing. So my sister actually worked for PWC when she was graduated from college. I remember her mentioning the same thing, people, process and change.

So they, they, they still stuck with that and that's not that they've been holding up to that for the last 40 years. It's interesting that the thing that, getting into PW at that time, really the reason technology took off was IBM introduced.

The AS 400, which was kind of this midframe computer that suddenly allowed technology not to be at the fortune 100 companies, but now these mid cap and smaller companies could get out of index cards and Rolodex is, and get their general ledger on a computer system, do the clothes in five days and all that kind of stuff. it was really about. like I said, luck beat skill. I saw that and I went, Oh, this is, this is where it's going to happen right here. And I want to be there when it does.

So we're going to keep going on this because you have great foresight to our next question here. So, you kind of told us what you saw and what you, what you had the, kind of the prediction for, for the future at that point. And then you ultimately went on to work. In a variety of industries, you worked in consumer products, construction, defense, contracting apparel, consulting, you mentioned, the learning industry.

Now, there's a lot of people that stay in one industry throughout their entire career, but I guess specific to you, how did, how were you able to find success across all of those industries? And, I guess you, So I, got in supply chain, but kind of go off that for a little bit. For you personally, how, how were you able to find success across all those industries?

A couple of things, and I won't belabor technology, but having my head wrapped around it really kind of put me in front of a lot of people. A lot of opportunities that I got hired into was that the organization was great. Was really struggling with that transition to technology, that transition to the processes and the people that had to change around that technology. the other thing I think is that, I, I love to learn. I think if you're not learning, you're dying.

And so I, I'm, that stuff doesn't scare me. I love taking on challenges and learning new stuff. Again, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a process geek.

I'm around continuous improvement in process, so that's a skill, I think, and I know this gets a lot of play these days, but I don't want to underestimate emotional intelligence and having that to be able to kind of transition from those different industries and those different challenges that those companies have I think everybody's born with it, but then you gotta sharpen the saw, so to speak around emotional intelligence. and then the other thing is, and Pricewaterhouse taught me this.

And you're looking at a guy who flunked Dr. Nelson's accounting one on one course the first time. It's all about the numbers. You gotta understand the numbers. If you don't understand the numbers, I don't care if you were straight a marketing, if you don't get the numbers, you can't do a budget. You don't understand the basics. That's, that's not going to help you.

And so my ability to very quickly kind of ascertain the situation through the numbers, the technology, through the people, through the processes, again, whether you're making an Aegis weapon system or behind the head ear warmers, or, private label, feminine hygiene products, it didn't matter. It wasn't about the product. It was really about those things. And that's, what's really been. Kind of my secret sauce for the last 40 years.

I want to reemphasize that for a second for and I think maybe for the students that are listening because I I too am a numbers guy and i've seen over the course of my career You know, I I can corroborate what you're saying here. I've worked with people in let's say non numbers related functions. I've worked with, I've worked with, people that are in the, on the business side, on the commercial side, I've worked with lawyers, I've worked with marketers. It doesn't matter.

The people that do the best in those functions are those that not only are good in their technical areas and like where you have that expertise, but also. Understand the numbers. Yep. When you can, when you're in your career in one of those, specific functions and you can find the juncture of both, your area of expertise and understanding the business and understanding the numbers. Those are the people. Again, I'm kind of reiterating what I just said. Those people that will do the best Yep.

In the company. Yep. Yep. my parents get all the credit for that 'cause they, they, they made sure. That, we, we met or exceeded what they thought our potential was. And my, my dad said, even though I flunked, by the way, I flunked because I was pledging my fraternity and that was more important to GK Nelson's class because I got an A on it when I took it the second time. But, and the irony of it was I was Price Waterhouse's subject matter expert on activity based costing. So go figure.

But, yeah, My parents get all the credit for that, for sure. Fantastic. So again, you, you touched on this a little bit a moment ago, but specific to the success that you found, what other challenges did you see along the way? you, we were working on your, you mentioned emotional intelligence, right? You're trying to keep up with, changes that are moving very quickly and on the technology side, what, what did you face?

challenge wise, over the course of your career that, that ultimately was a learning experience for you.

first of all, full, full transparency, I've. I've been out of work throughout my career, not, not by any fault of my own, just the circumstance. And, I, I can tell you that as challenging as that was, like around nine 11, that wasn't a good time to be out of work. and other times it was those skills that helped me kind of manage to do that and, and actually get to the other side in a much better place than where I started that journey. So that was really good.

But, Ross, the two things for me, probably my career was. Was when I was in a senior leadership position and the, and the leader I worked for, he and I just didn't see eye to eye on leadership. And that was really, really, really difficult for me and I ended up leaving both situations, but that was probably the biggest challenge.

And I dug deep, on all the skills, but there were, you came a time from a. A character and an integrity and what I stood for and all the EQ things that I just, you know, I, this isn't going to work and I'm going to have to move on. And those were difficult. cause I. I have a saying I tell, I always tell my staff, look, there's only two outcomes in life, winning and learning. There's no losing you, you win and you win or you learn.

And what I learned in both of those situations is that regardless of the situation, never compromise who you are. and what you stand for. because at the end of the day, it's not about the title or the house of the car. It's, it's about your integrity and character. And I wasn't willing to compromise those in those two situations. So that, that was probably the most difficult for me.

because I, I've been very fortunate to surround myself, or have the privilege of leading a team of very, very capable people and just getting them to all row in the right direction was all that. Needed to happen. They, they had the wherewithal to get it done. So it's been more of a personal challenge than a, than a work or a business challenge. Yeah. That's some great advice there.

I think one for anyone who's listening, but of course, students credibility, integrity are, are paramount, And, and mean everything. I think. one to, to both of us, but we've come across it, people in our own lives, From business that you're like, this is not a person that I really want to do business with, work for. And I think, as we advance in our career, you really kind of want to align with people that you really respect, you trust, you admire.

And those are really what's paramount at the end of the day, as opposed to sometimes even like the specific job. Agreed. 100%. So those were the challenges. there isn't, there isn't a business challenge that I, that I haven't met yet that, that had me run for the exits, but I need to do it in an environment that is, empowering, and, and one with tremendous integrity and character. and that, cause that's how I, that's how I lead and I expect. the leaders I work for to lead the same way.

That's great. Outside of your day job, I want to shift a little bit. you're on the board of the Virginia Institute for Autism. want to recognize the work that you do here. can you share a little bit more about how you got involved in the organization and why it's significant

to you? Sure. so. My, my wife and I are the proud parents of a 25 year old autistic man. I can't, I still remember bringing him home from UVA hospital, 25 years ago. But, we've been on that journey with him since he was diagnosed when he was three. And, When I, we got the opportunity to come back to Charlottesville in 2017, he was a junior or senior in high school.

And when we got back here to Charlottesville, Admiral school district said, we think your son would really thrive in the Virginia Institute of Autism post high program. they do stuff in the community, it's a lot of life skills and things like that. and I don't know if you, if you guys knew this, but state of Maryland. They're on the hook until it till your child's 21. So they have to provide something till your child's 21 in Virginia.

It was 22. So Addison actually got an extra year at the Virginia Institute of Autism. Very, very dear friend of mine, David Rathburn was on the board. And I remember when he joined the board, he called me, I was still living in Maryland. He said, Hey, I wanted to let you know, I just, I just joined the board at Viya and I did it for Addison, for our son. So when I got back to Charlottesville, he introduced me to, the chairman.

He introduced me to, gentlemen who ran governance, nomination and governments and the CEO. And they asked me to join the board. And I had a set of. experience and skills that they were really looking for specifically around strategic planning and finance. and so I've been very, very involved with them since 2018. So I've been on the board since 2018, variety of positions right now. I'm the nomination and governance chair. and we've gone through an incredible expansion.

We just merged with a like organization from Southwest, Virginia, Roanoke, Lexington, Lynchburg area. So we've doubled in size. And, we have three, three basic pillars. We have, occupational services, speech behavior, those types of things. we have a K through 12. school. So where the county can't serve, we, we serve those kids. we have the post high program and then we have the adult program, which is the one my son's in now. so yeah, it's a mission driven organization. and I really like.

What they do, the CEO, the staff, they're all just incredible people. I dropped my son off there every day and he jumps out of the car and runs in the building. So, if he's happy, I'm happy, I'm a big believer in serving leadership. and, it's been great. I was on the due diligence team for the merger. and I've done some other stuff that's, that's really helped help the organization. So I'm really proud of that. Yeah, that's, that's fantastic.

My, my wife actually is a teacher in the New York City public school, for kids with, with autism. So that, also holds a very special place in our lives. I want to ask you a follow up question on that. how challenging was it? What is it, to have a full time job, continue to rise up the ranks and then also be raising, a child with special needs. Like how are you able to, to manage it all? two things, number one, an incredible wife and partner and mother. and it's interesting.

I didn't know this statistic. It's, it's funny cause your wife will tell you this, Jared, that, I. I would show up for the IEP meetings with my wife and they'd go, you're both here. Yeah, we're both here. What do you mean? but a very high percentage of, of families dealing with autism end in divorce. so number one, incredible mother, incredible wife, incredible partner, and actually companies and bosses that I've worked for that understood. And it's great. And my son, God bless him.

He, he also has had seizure disorders since he was eight and, was diagnosed with type two diabetes, two years ago. And the, the challenge is that, we got a call on Friday and we picked up Addison on Monday. So we know nothing about his, his family history or his medical history. It was a social services adoption. obviously my wife, Mary, who's, mother of the year.

And, and a great partner and then I've had just some great bosses that have been incredibly understanding and, I've had more bosses that say, Jeff, you're the least of my worries to go do what you need to do, because I know it'll get done. Yeah. I think that just also speaks to the comment earlier, Around working with people that you respect, admire the trust, the credibility, those are paramount at the end of the day, more so than what the company does or maybe the job itself.

Yeah. I think at the end of the day, those drinks after work or dinner with X, those things I unfortunately have to pass on, but, it's, it's worth it. That's great.

Let's put you in the lines then brought to you by our friends at Lion's Pride and reminisce about your time at dear old state where you spent certainly a number of years. Remember to visit lions pride. com to pick up all your Penn State fall sports apparel and gear. Okay, lion's den. Here we go. Here we go. So Jeff, so we haven't touched on this yet, but you are a graduate of State College High. I'm a little lion. Yes, sir. There you go. So I think you actually may be.

our first local to state college guest. Is it Jared? Is this true? this is factually correct. There you go. 58 in front of me and none of them were state college high grads. None of them were from, were state college local. So congratulations. so tell us, what was it like growing up in the university shadow? and in your mind, so it's a two part question in your mind, was it always a given you go to Penn state? So interesting.

My father is a Penn State grad and, he, went to Penn State, didn't start at Penn State. He was, in the army and did the Maryland extension for two years, came out. So I was an RA at the Nittany dorms, which no longer exists, but these were these Quonset huts that the guys on the GI Bill, that's the dorms, the guys in the GI Bill went, And my dad was an RA for all those guys. And he was a graduate of Penn State.

And so growing up in New Jersey, we've watched the Penn State games and get all excited about Penn State. And then my dad comes home I said, Where's that? He goes, Penn State. I go, no, no, dad, that's university park. Cause that's all you'd ever see on the football games on ABC university park, Pennsylvania. No, no, son. It's state college. Trust me. we moved there when I was 16. and it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

It is my love for college towns formed when I moved to state college. That's why I live in Charlottesville, Virginia now home of UVA, but it was fantastic because We got to train with Harry Groves and the Penn State cross country team. we, we got to use the facilities. and I'll tell you what, I went from a high school of 100 kids in my class, the 650 kids in my class at state high, but it was, it was some of the smartest people I was ever around.

It was, some of the best athletes I was ever around. I mean, our marching band was 250 strong and we did a different show every weekend. we've started practice in June for, for the fall six games. it was just a totally different level. in terms of academics and extracurricular and all those things, and it was fantastic, to answer your second question. No, I actually applied to Chapel Hill, Marquette, and at the behest of my parents, Penn State. Got accepted to all three.

I'm going to Chapel Hill. I'm so excited. I can't wait. My parents call me into the kitchen. I'm the oldest of four in a row. My sister and I are Irish twins for Pete's sake. that's how four in a row we are, right? So my parents sit me down and say, son, out of state, Chapel Hill is just It's not going to happen. your, your mother and I have saved enough money for you kids to go to one year of college. After that, it's on you. And I'm like, dad, I don't have any money saved.

He goes, that's why we think you should go to Penn state, which was literally 10 blocks. from my house, matter of fact, if you went out through my backyard, I'm on university drive. If you go out to my front door in the bottom of the street, I'm on Westerly Parkway. I was close to the campus and, I'm like, Oh no. So I say, okay, fine. I, I, I'll go to Penn state. This is great. I get the letter. You're going to Barron. I'm like, Oh no, no, no, no, no. If I'm doing this, I'm going right here.

And I marched up to admissions and I sat for two hours waiting to talk to this person and they're like, we send people there to their branch campus. I go, no, I live here. This is my branch campus. I should be going here to university park. And I convinced the lady to go to university park, but no, I was not, it was not a given. and you know what? It was the best four. Years of my life. Great story. And, and yes, sir.

we wish that everybody that comes on says exactly what you just said, because I know for Jared and I, that's true as well. So then tell us though, but more specifically, how did Penn State prepare you for the early part of your career and the professional life that you ended up taking on? it's funny. So, like I said, my parents saved enough money so that we could live on campus and not have to worry about tuition. We were still on the hook for our books, but they, they did the tuition.

And so I get, I get my letter and off to Beaver Hall, I'm going right, which is like at the time I think it was the most men in a building dorm in the United States, Beaver Hall, of course, that's probably been surpassed by now, but at 19 set the fall of 78, it was quote unquote, and we have seventh floor, seventh, 10th and we were called. And suddenly you had to figure out how fast you were going to make friends with 40 guys because if you didn't, your life was going to be really miserable.

I think also I've had some really great professors. And I've been very blessed to have a lot of great mentors in my life. Dr. Coyle was one. and then just living the campus life. And it was interesting back then you, you owned your mistakes and there were plenty to be made. and then I, I, I want to do a shout out for Greek life. the summer before going into school, animal house came out. And so I go to the movie and I'm like, Oh, I, that's, I got to do that. That's going to be really fun.

My parents were so mad at me cause we were trimesters back then that literally going into the winter. Yeah. The second of the three trimesters I'm pledging, right? My dad's this is not going to go well. He was right. It didn't go well. But I think, I think Penn state and just the campus, the campus life, the coursework, the professors and, and the Greek life really prepared me.

Cause look, if you live in a house with 40 guys and you don't like 20 of them, you figure out pretty quick how to, how to navigate all that. And that's what life's all about is just navigating, navigating all that stuff. So, and I spent my summers at the Jersey shore bartending so I could pay for school. so all those experiences in those four years really got me ready for, for life. Fantastic. I love it. Toughest question of the podcast by far. Favorite Penn State memory? Boy, this is tough.

cause to your, to your point, there's quite a few, I'm, I'm going to share two. one was my senior year when we decided, And we decided that we were going down to watch Penn State play NC State at, in Raleigh. And we just piled in my car and we were only going to go down for the game. And we ended up staying there for a week. And it was just a, it was just a great time. And then the second.

Probably was, getting accepted into grad school because I was not accepted when I sent my application and I reached out to Dr. Coyle. I said, Dr. Coyle, I said, look, I know I was a hack as an undergrad and I know my GMAT scores suck, but I'm going to quit my job. And this is, this is the real deal. I'm going to do this. Could you please go to the grad school admissions council and see if they'll change their mind? And he calls me back the next day and he said, I did it.

Yeah. You're in, I'm telling you right now, Coppola, no Cs, you're bounced out and please try to do better than Bs. I said, Dr. Quill, I won't disappoint you. Graduated with a 4. 0 in the highest honors. And so that was, that's, that's my, that's my biggest memory so the lesson out of that is, well, I don't want to spoil it because you're going to ask me the next question and I'll tell you.

As a 27 year old, what I would have told an 18 year old, but I'll tell you what I would have tell Jeff Capullo, the 18 year old right now, which is number one, don't date your high school sweetheart in college. Just, just don't, don't, don't do it. Okay. Stop. Don't. Second thing. Go to class, do the work. If you do that and just even put 50 percent in, you'll be 90 percent ahead of all your classmates. And then the third thing is just take advantage of much of this campus life as you can.

Intramurals, theater, concerts, do it all because you'll never have this time back. And when you do get into life and you do get a family, you don't regret that you didn't get to do all those things while you were there those four years. So Dr. Coyle really went to bat for you. He did. And, I remember Dr. Stanger was my advice. he didn't want to be my advisor at the end. Funny story. I, I defend my thesis and I'm in the committee. Dr. Stanger is my advisor. I'm in the. Thesis committee.

And they said, Jeff, we've, we've done a lot of work and we think you should go get your PhD. And so we've secured a spot for you at the university of Tennessee. it's a four, three year program. And when you get done, you have a job here. I'm like, I never even gave them any indication that I wanted to teach, but you know, it's funny. People say, Hey Jeff, if you didn't have bills to pay, what would you be doing right now?

I'd say one of two things, I'd be a college professor, or I'd be a D1 basketball coach. One pays nothing, the other pays millions, but those are the two things I would do. I love it. Do you follow Penn State basketball as well? yes. And so, I follow thanks to the Big Ten network. I follow all Penn State men and women. I love the women's soccer team. I even follow the women's basketball team. So thank, thank goodness for the Big Ten network that allows me to do that.

but yes, I'm a, I'm a big Penn State athletics fan and follow it. Fantastic. I want to, you, you touched on a little bit that you are in the backyard right now of University of Virginia. However, if someone comes to you and says, Jeff, I'm considering schools, Penn State's on the list. What do you tell them? Why should they go there? look, campus of 60, 000 kids isn't for everybody. so I, I would tell them Three things. Number one, it's just a great place to go to school.

they call it, there's a reason they call it happy Valley. It, and if you're looking for a place where you can be totally engaged and immersed and not miss out on the arts, not miss out on sports, not miss out on stuff that you thought you were going to miss by going as Bobby Knight would say on a camping trip. yeah, I would tell them that and say, look, The world's your oyster up there. but engage in it. don't, don't be afraid and, and have, and, and make sure you have a good winter jacket.

Cause the walk between your eight o'clock and your 11 o'clock is probably going to be three miles. It is all true. And then lastly, how do you feel most connected to the university today? it was interesting coming out of grad school, into the nineties. Oh, I, I would go up and guest lecture. I would, I would, be invited to, to talk to the incoming freshmen. I started two different internship programs at my companies.

and then when I got here to central Virginia, it was, it was much harder to, to, to do that. Cause I lived outside of Philadelphia, pop on the turnpike, hang left up three 22, and then you're there. But, then, then the Joppa thing happened and then my fraternity, not once, but twice got kicked off campus. And I got a little disenchanted, like some of us alumni, but I do live vicariously through the through the Penn State alumni magazine.

I read that cover to cover, when that comes in, as I mentioned earlier, the big 10 network. And all my professors have either unfortunately died or have retired and then left the university. I really would like to reconnect candidly. So if anybody in the business department's listening, I'd love to reconnect and, do that guest lecturing, help with the incoming freshmen. I've, I've signed up for some mentor things, but never got picked.

but I really would like to, to get a little bit more involved like I was in the early nineties and two thousands. We'll, we'll make sure, the Penn state. School gets this podcast. We usually send it out to each college, based on, the, the graduate, but this has been a fantastic time this evening. I circled this word, as you were talking and it's journeys. And I think it just. Really speaks to who you are and it's your journey through numerous industries and solving problems.

Certainly your job today, And around customer journeys and the voice of the customer, the work with world strides around student journeys and the impact of your programs. And then your personal journey of giving back, through the Virginia Institute of Autism. And those are some amazing journeys, certainly some great stories, but really just also speaks to who you are as a person. And I love the point around the credibility and the integrity that you have along each journey as well.

So we really appreciate you joining us tonight. thank you. I'll leave you with one quick story. As I share with you, I was in a fraternity and, and we had our fair share of, knucklehead moments in late night fraternity and since, but I am truly amazed that, the brothers, we are all credibly Successful servant leaders, to a person, to all my plate brothers, the guys ahead of me, guys behind me, we stay in touch and LinkedIn is senior VP of the CEO of that CFO here. I'm like, we were all hacks.

Holy smokes. How did we do that? But I'll tell you how we did it. It, again, it was Penn state. It was the Penn state because at the end of the day, yeah. You get done. That's what we, that's what Penn State is. You get it done. They, you matriculate and you learn how to get it done. And if you know how to get it done, you're probably ahead of 90 percent of the world. So that's what I'll, that's my plug for Penn State. We graduate people who get it done. Get it done. I love it. I love it.

What we always end the podcast with, we are... Penn State. RAAAWR RAAWR Lion Legacy is a Bar Ruter production. If you enjoy this Labor of Love podcast, we'd certainly appreciate it if you would subscribe and write us a review on your favorite podcast platform.