servant-leadership
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Frost Prioleau and the value of thinking small
From a family foundry to Simpli.fi, Frost Prioleau kept returning to customers other people overlooked. His next chapter includes a planned CEO handover and a seat on Fort Worth’s school district board.
Angelo Valletta and the business of being useful
A South Philadelphia upbringing, a career connecting banking systems, and a brother’s advice brought Angelo Valletta to a practical question: what do people need to do their best work? In Bethlehem, his answer includes investment, mentorship, and room to build.
Katie Harvey and the art of letting go
She started a San Antonio PR firm at 24 with $2,000. Three decades later, Katie Harvey’s more interesting project is learning how to share the company, the decisions, and the microphone.
John Saunders Built a Global Career on the Truth Test
He began with a homemade soccer magazine, found his voice behind an RTÉ microphone, and built an Irish agency into a route to St. Louis. Across every turn, John Saunders kept returning to one unfashionably durable idea: reputation begins with the truth.
Ellen Faulkner Took the Long Way to the Top - Then Made Room for Others
She accepted half her salary to learn the agency business. Three decades later, Lewis chose its first woman CEO - a determined operator who believes the real work of leadership is knowing when to let go.
Karin Stevens Learned Marketing in Music. Then She Helped Turn Supply-Chain Chaos Into a Product.
Before Overhaul had revenue, Karin Stevens came in for messaging and stayed to help shape the product. Her route from Scottish coffee counters and music licensing to an Austin control tower is a lesson in getting close to the work.
John Merrill Learned Marketing at the Speed of Wi-Fi. Now He’s Teaching AI to Behave.
The Laserfiche CMO built a career translating waves of technology into useful stories. His current brief is agentic AI, but his durable operating system is simpler: adaptability, service and teams that know why the work matters.
George Zimmer Put the Tuxedo Store in a Box - Then Opened the Door Again
After four decades making men visit a store, George Zimmer built his second act around keeping them home. A decade later, Generation Tux is mixing algorithms, doorsteps and showrooms - proof that conviction sometimes wears a reversible jacket.
Catherine Pearce Builds Biotech Companies From the Assets Everyone Else Forgot
Her career began with a Roche sales bag and came full circle in a $1.8 billion biotech exit. Now the Cincinnati operator is running the play again, with a sharper eye for overlooked science and a bigger table for the people building it.
Matt Scherocman Built a Cloud Company With a Scout's Compass
He learned leadership in Scouting, learned the channel at Microsoft, and built Interlink around a durable idea: technology earns its keep only when people can actually use it.
Marc MacRae Built a Retail Career Like a Coach Builds a Team
Across four decades in sporting-goods retail, Marc MacRae has treated merchandising, mentoring and football coaching as versions of the same job: put people in the right position, then help them win.
Patrice Boone Sells the Thing She Swore She Never Could
She once decided she could never work in sales. Now she runs marketing for one of America's biggest consumer lenders, and the whole job is relationships.
Brad Kreger
Brad Kreger is a medical device and manufacturing executive who became CEO of Baltimore-based CoapTech in November 2025, taking over from co-founder Howard Carolan. He brings nearly three decades of operations experience, most recently turning around metal 3D-printing company Velo3D as its CEO, with earlier senior roles at Fluidigm/Standard BioTools, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Affymetrix. At CoapTech he leads commercialization of the percutaneous ultrasound gastrostomy (PUG) system, an ultrasound-guided method of placing feeding tubes at the bedside that has been used in more than 1,000 patients.
Kya Sainsbury-Carter
Kya Sainsbury-Carter spent over 20 years at Microsoft, most recently as Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Advertising, where she led a global ads business generating more than $18 billion in annual gross revenue. She oversaw the division's transformation through AI-powered and agentic advertising, expanded retail media, and enterprise partnerships before departing in May 2026 - with LinkedIn's Matt Derella named to succeed her.
Paul King
Paul A. King is President and CEO of Stanford Medicine Children's Health and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, where he has led a 5,200-person pediatric and obstetric enterprise since January 2019. He calls himself a 'professional crap-cutter' and ran the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan before heading west.
Kristin Werk
Kristin Werk is the CEO of BookNook, a San Francisco-based edtech company delivering synchronous, research-backed K-8 tutoring in reading and math to students across the United States. A self-described introvert with 20+ years of operational leadership—spanning 17 years at Thomson Reuters, followed by executive roles at Questar Assessment and NWEA—Werk joined BookNook in 2023 as COO, expanded the platform to include math tutoring, and stepped up as CEO in December 2024. She holds a BS in Journalism from St. Cloud State University, an MBA from Capella University, and a stack of certifications including PMP, Six Sigma Green Belt, and Prosci Change Practitioner.