mentoring
(12)
Alastair Turner and the Icarus Problem
A school project about flying too close to the sun gave Aspectus’s Group CEO a useful business lesson. His career reveals the work of building confidence while keeping pride in check.
Vetri Vellore and the trouble with Monday morning
He built software for mentors, then for goals. After selling Ally.io to Microsoft, Vetri Vellore is pursuing the part of company life that a clear objective still cannot fix: getting through the week together.
Michael Bender and the art of getting back to the customer
Before he became Kohl’s CEO, Michael Bender had run stores, helped build an online business and advised the people in charge. Now he has to make all that experience count for the shopper walking through the door.
Lori Koch and the careers hiding in plain sight
She built a finance career inside DuPont, then became its CEO. Now Lori Koch is helping students see the possibilities beyond Wall Street while reshaping the company she joined in 2003.
Peter Cowan’s thirty-year lesson in a split-second business
From cash-machine connections to PayPal’s Australian business, Peter Cowan has spent three decades working on what happens when money moves. His story turns on trust, a brief spell doing every job himself, and the people behind the payment.
Gail Boudreaux and the art of the second possession
Before she ran Elevance Health, Gail Boudreaux collected 1,635 rebounds at Dartmouth. Her story turns on what happens after the first shot - and who gets the next chance.
Gregory Kallinikos and the value of being nearby
From a Singapore clearing business to an expanding Asian network, Gregory Kallinikos has built a career around getting closer to the people who use financial markets. The next connection is often a local one.
Dan Wall and the interview that almost ended his career before it began
He joined Expeditors to earn a paycheck until he could drive a truck. Thirty-eight years later, Dan Wall became CEO - and the second chance that started his career had become a program for hundreds of young people.
Kathy Mazzarella took a wrong turn. It led to the president’s office.
She walked into Graybar looking for directions to another job interview. Four decades later, Kathy Mazzarella is still showing what can happen when ambition meets a company willing to let people grow.
Neil Matheson Knows Who to Call Next
Twenty years after hiring a colleague, Neil Matheson brought her back onto his team. The New Zealand-born entrepreneur’s career offers a close look at what survives when companies change hands: the relationships.
Jane Barwis and the Business of Staying
She founded BRG Communications in 2001. Nearly a quarter-century later, Jane Barwis is still testing a deceptively simple proposition: an agency can keep growing while giving people reasons to stay.
Michael Feathers
Michael Feathers is a software consultant, author, and Chief Architect at Globant whose 2004 book 'Working Effectively with Legacy Code' redefined how developers think about untested code - coining the now-universal definition that legacy code is simply code without tests. With over 25 years consulting hundreds of organizations, he pioneered dependency-breaking techniques that gave teams a way into codebases they feared. Today he explores how AI reshapes programming, writes the 'mechanisms' newsletter on Substack, and continues speaking at conferences worldwide.