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Join Noah Ifergan as he talks to today’s brightest minds in business. Hear the values core to their success and their mindsets through tough times. OU delivers actionable insight to unlock opportunities in your own life and career.
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LinkedIn: Mike Murchison Mike Murchison is the CEO and Co-founder of Ada, a venture-back AI-powered platform that is transforming how businesses around the world, including TELUS, Zoom and AirAsia, provide customer service. Before Ada, Mike answered tens of thousands of customer service inquiries manually firsthand. Using this experience, he set out to build Ada’s platform that puts the benefits of AI into the hands of non-technical support teams to build, manage, and track ROI-driving automated customer experiences. *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
LinkedIn: Laura Adams Laura Adams is currently Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Canada. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Laura worked as a management consultant in Stockholm, Sweden and Washington, DC. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Georgia with degrees in International Business and Finance. Laura is a former NCAA All-American swimmer and has won an SEC Championship and the NCAA Woman of the Year award. She is a member of the Ticker Club, YPO and the Toronto Club, along with being a co-chair of the Right To Play Garden Party. Laura was recruited for the Champions Board by Heather Reisman in 2010. ***. Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
LinkedIn: Jesse Abrams Recently distinguished by the American Marketing Association Hall of Legends as one of Canada’s top 5 “Marketers on the Rise” and by Marketing Magazine as a “Top 30 Under 30” Marketer in Canada, Jesse is an accomplished Digital Marketer and Advertiser who has a passion for growing businesses and never settling for the status quo. Jesse brings this passion for change and growth as the founder of Homewise, where he looks to change the face of the mortgage industry. Prior to Homewise, Jesse was a Partner and VP of Client Services & Digital at Beyond Marketing Group and spent 4 years building the Digital Marketing Department at General Mills. *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
LinkedIn: Aly Dhalla Aly Dhalla is the CEO and co-founder of Finaeo, a venture-backed InsurTech startup that has built a platform to help insurance advisors win in a digital era. Finaeo's operating system provides advisors a specialized CRM, digital tool-kit and paired it with an intelligent assistant/chat-bot, Domo, to create the "Bionic Advisor". Aly spent his early career as a banker at TD before leaving to join a startup as their first employee, which was acquired by Benefits by Design, a national Third Party Administrative company, where he served as Managing Partner before launching Finaeo. Aly also Co-Founded TriCelerate, a not-for-profit tech incubator to help youth progress from idea to product. *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
LinkedIn: Trang Trinh Trang Trinh, one of the few female cannabis CEOs in Canada, decided to step into the cannabis scene after over a decade in the professional services world. While working in M&A consulting at Deloitte, her interest in the industry was sparked when she was sent to Jamaica to set up a vertically integrated cannabis company in Kingston for one of her clients. She eventually connected with partners Charles Khabouth and Basem Hanna to launch TREC Brands, an umbrella company that runs three cannabis labels: Blissed, WINK and Thumbs Up Brand. *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
LinkedIn: Andrew D'Souza Andrew D’Souza is the co-founder & CEO of Clearbanc, the biggest ecommerce investor in the world. Clearbanc has invested $1.6 billion into 4,000+ ecommerce and software companies using data science to identify high-growth funding opportunities in less than 24 hours. This data-driven approach takes the bias out of decision making and helped fund 8x more female founders than traditional VC. Andrew has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital and is an adviser and investor to companies such as WealthSimple, Properly, and Tulip Retail. Prior to Clearbanc, Andrew was the president of Nymi, a wearable platform focussed on identity and security and the COO of education startup, TopHat. Andrew began his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company after receiving his degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo. *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
Ferio Pugliese is Senior Vice President at Air Canada. In his role, Ferio has overall responsibility of multiple areas of the airline including the strategic direction of Air Canada’s regional operations and oversight for all relationships between the airline and various levels of government. Prior to joining Air Canada, he held Executive Vice President positions at Hydro One and WestJet. He has been recognized by Caldwell Partners as one of Canada's Top 40 under 40. As air traffic has grinded to a halt due to COVID-19, Ferio has been on the front lines of the airline industry's battle for survival in Canada. Discussion Highlights: (1:42) Shaping culture based on values and adapting for a crisis. (6:58) AC's repatriation effort and Canada’s unique edge. (9:59) An opportunity unlocked: converting passenger planes to cargo planes. (12:26) What AC is doing to make flying safer (more info at https://www.iata.org/). (14:55) The future of the airline industry. (17:12) Handling the WFH environment under high stress. (19:50) The importance of daily exercise. (22:06) Creating a strong culture in our own lives. *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It’s super quick and very helpful in spreading our positive message. Follow the Podcast on Twitter and Facebook for more exciting episodes!
Opportunity Unlocked hosted by Noah Ifergan is an exciting new podcast hosting discussions with today’s top business leaders about opportunities for personal and professional growth during the CV-19 pandemic. Spreading a positive message in the midst of tough times, we explore the most pressing questions of today’s environment: How can we be strong leaders during this crisis? How can we seek out new business opportunities? How can we motivate ourselves in isolation? How can we effectively prepare ourselves for the uncertain future? You will hear the inspiring answers of the best and brightest executives from companies across all industries on this podcast.
LinkedIn: Denise Broady Denise is CMO at Appian. She has over 25+ years of experience as a change agent scaling businesses from start-ups, turnarounds and complex software companies. Prior to Appian, Denise was COO at SAP and CMO/COO at WorkForce Software. She is also a two-time published author of GRC for Dummies and Driven to Perform. Denise holds a double degree in Marketing and Production and Operations from Virginia Tech. ***Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
LinkedIn: Dominique Simoneau-Ritchie, Brett Huneycutt Dominique Simoneau-Ritchie is the Vice President of Engineering at Wealthsimple. Prior to joining their executive team, she established Lever’s first R&D teams outside of San Francisco; created and grew successful teams at Shopify and Blackberry QNX; and held various roles at IBM and several startups. Brett Huneycutt is Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Wealthsimple. Prior to Wealthsimple, he co-founded photo website 1000memories.com which was acquired in 2012 by Ancestry.com where he became Director of Product. Brett is a former engagement manager at McKinsey and Rhode Scholar at University of Oxford. Wealthsimple is a Toronto-based fintech company bringing smart, simple, online financial products to market. Their products include investment management services, equity and crypto trading, peer-to-peer cash transferring, and a tax platform. In May 2021, the company raised $750M CAD at a valuation of $5B CAD. ***Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
LinkedIn: Eric Cross Eric Cross is Chief Revenue Officer at Appian. He has 20+ years experience leading and scaling high growth go to market organizations. He brings a diverse background with organizations sub $25M to $1.5B in direct and indirect revenue models spanning a diverse set of established and emerging technology categories. Recently, he was a member of the senior leadership team leading Apigee from mid stage start up through successful IPO and eventual acquisition by Google. Prior, he served in various senior leadership roles with Blue Coat Systems, Citrix Systems, and PeopleSoft amongst others. Eric is a graduate of the University of Georgia.***Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts.Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
LinkedIn: Eric Cross Eric has 20+ years experience leading and scaling high growth go to market organizations. He brings a diverse background with organizations sub $25M to $1.5B in direct and indirect revenue models spanning a diverse set of established and emerging technology categories. Recently, he was a member of the senior leadership team leading Apigee from mid stage start up through successful IPO and eventual acquisition by Google. Prior, he served in various senior leadership roles with Blue Coat Systems, Citrix Systems, and PeopleSoft amongst others. Eric is a graduate of the University of Georgia. *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
Socials: LinkedIn, Twitter Michael Serbinis is the founder and CEO of League. With more than $1B of exits, he is known as a visionary leader and entrepreneur who has built several transformative technology platforms across industries. Serbinis worked alongside Elon Musk at Zip2 and founded and helped build Kobo, Critical Path, DocSpace, and now League. League is North America’s leading enterprise health OS, a data-driven platform designed to provide a personalized, single access hub for employees to find, understand and use their health, well-being and benefit programs. This new “front door” to healthcare eliminates the current sea of point solutions via an integrated ecosystem of over 100 insurance carriers, healthcare partners and HRIS systems and provides employers with a direct line of sight into the health of their workforce. Customers like Unilever, Uber, Shopify, and Lush Cosmetics are amongst the hundreds of employers currently using League to get more out of their healthcare investments. *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
LinkedIn: Ellen Hyslop Ellen Hyslop is the Co-Founder of The GIST. The GIST is a sports media startup that creates sports content, experiences and community that are by women, and for all sports fans. For the last two years, The GIST has shaken up the male-dominated sports media space by creating an inclusive and accessible community for all sports fans through our irreverent, fun and female voice. Ellen is Co-Founder and Head of Content for The GIST. She is mainly responsible for The GIST's content strategy including being the voice of The GIST. Prior to starting The GIST, Ellen was an Underwriter at Chubb Insurance and graduated from Queen's Commerce in 2014. Ellen is a lifelong learner, traveler, and passionate sports fan. Follow The GIST: Website: thegistsports.com Twitter: twitter.com/thegistca Instagram: www.instagram.com/thegistca/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/thegistnews-ca/ Facebook: facebook.com/thegistnewsca/ *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
Socials: Instagram, LinkedIn Jay Rosenzweig is an internationally renowned social impact entrepreneur, investor, humanitarian, trained lawyer, and leadership strategist. The founder of Rosenzweig & Company, Jay is an expert in designing, building and attracting world class teams. He consults to public and private companies, including large global corporations; emerging growth to mid-sized businesses; professional services firms; and private equity and venture capital firms. He sits on the boards of several emerging growth tech companies across California, New York and Ontario. Jay has been immersed in global human rights causes for well over two decades, and has been internationally recognized for the Annual Rosenzweig Report on equality, which he has published for the past fifteen years. Rosenzweig’s Annual Report has received endorsements and contributions from a wide range of influencers such as Justin Trudeau, Alyssa Milano, Sheryl Sandberg, Deepak Chopra, Andrew Yang, Van Jones, Zainab Salbi, Chrystia Freeland, John Tory, CEO’s and Board Chairs of major corporations, and several other artists, humanitarians, politicians and business leaders. *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. Follow the Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook for more exciting episodes!
Joe Jackman is the Founder and CEO of Jackman Reinvents, the hybrid management consulting, design, and branding agency working with huge clients like Staples and JCPenney.Joe is a Reinventionist – a pioneer of business growth reshaping businesses back to relevance and success. From his early years as an Executive VP at Loblaws, to overseeing successful reinventions at Duane Reade, Old Navy, and Dave & Busters, Joe has guided companies to become the most powerful and relevant versions of themselves in record time. At Jackman Reinvents, Joe and his team of over 100 multi-disciplinary reinventionists have completed hugely successful transformations and engineered hundreds of billions of dollars in sales. In his first book, The Reinventionist Mindset, Joe unveils his human-centric approach to corporate transformation and how to reposition change as a force to be embraced. This mindset is especially relevant in the COVID environment where massive change has forced businesses worldwide to react and adapt. Discussion Highlights: (1:28) Who is Joe Jackman and what is Jackman Reinvents? (3:11) Why is there a resistance to change among businesses? (7:59) The difference between ‘strategy’ and ‘reinvention’. (11:53) The Jackman approach to reinvention. (17:29) Reinventionist principle: embracing uncertainty. (25:50) Reinventionist principle: seeking insight everywhere. (30:39) Advice to struggling companies right now. *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It’s super quick and very helpful in spreading our positive message. Follow the Podcast on Twitter and Facebook for more exciting episodes!
Carl Liebert is a global business executive with more than 30 years of experience leading powerhouse organizations. He served as Executive VP and COO at USAA, the Fortune 100 company offering financial services for US military members and their families, where he led their business strategy and various subdivisions of the company which themselves drove $28 billion in annual revenue. Before his time there, Carl served as President and CEO of 24-Hour Fitness, overseeing the operations of 415 fitness clubs across the US and Asia. He was also Executive VP for The Home Depot, managing the operations of more than 2,000 international stores. He held additional leadership roles at Circuit City and General Electric, and most recently, Carl served as the CEO and President of AutoNation, the largest automotive retailer in the US. Before Carl started his career in the business world, he was a Naval Officer in the US Navy and is now actively involved in many organizations that support the navy and cancer research. Carl has fought through many crises throughout his career as an executive including the 2008 financial, Hurricane Katrina, and 9/11. The stories of the human-driven responses he’s seen are inspiring and have informed the amazingly positive perspective he has on what is happening in the world today. Discussion Highlights: (1:08) The story of his career. (4:23) What inspires him in a leader / company. (5:39) Optimism as a core component of his mindset. (9:13) Mentality through crises in the past. (11:38) Story: Circuit City during 9/11. (17:18) Crisis offering the opportunity to break the rules and a "license to move with speed”. (20:49) Inspiring stories of responses by small businesses. (25:52) Breaking the standards of bureaucratic industries like healthcare, finance. (29:39) The attitude we need to create a better future. *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It’s super quick and very helpful in spreading our positive message. Follow the Podcast on Twitter and Facebook for more exciting episodes!
Matt McGowan has had a multifaceted career with many accomplishments as an entrepreneur and leader in the tech world. He started his career out of university working in financial services on Wall Street at Charles Schwab. He decided the traditional financial services industry was not for him and made the decision to leave the company and join a Silicon Valley startup, Headland Digital Media. The startup was eventually sold to Pearson, after which Matt did his MBA at University of Oxford and then moved into leadership roles in the startup world including becoming COO at PropertyRoom.com, an online auctioning platform, and and Managing Director at Incisive Media, a business media company. After his successes there, he jumped into the world of big tech becoming the head of ad strategy at Google, working in New York on the strategy and operations of their business. Matt then became president of Adestra, a marketing technology company, where he led the sale of the company to Upland Software in 2018 for $60M. Now, he is in his position as Director and General Manager for Snap Inc., where he is leading their growth in Canada. Discussion Highlights: (2:00) Story of his career, being open to opportunities, and having North Star. (8:01) Making the decision to sacrifice and getting excited by the unknown. (11:39) Weighing the risks when making big decisions. (17:08) Why is Snapchat so popular? (19:13) Snapchat's secret sauce - ephemerality and AR. (26:06) From the inside: Snapchat’s fight during COVID. (29:46) WFH from a WFH vet. (35:56) Responsibility of social media companies as we go deeper into the digital world. (38:03) Is social media good for the world? (41:39) “If you take what they give you, you deserve what you get.” *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It’s super quick and very helpful in spreading our positive message. Follow the Podcast on Twitter and Facebook for more exciting episodes!
Jenna Caira is the Captain of Canada’s Senior Women’s National Softball Team. Jenna started out at Syracuse University’s D1 Softball team in 2009, captaining the team for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. As their pitcher, she became the first player in the history of the Big East Conference to record 1000 strikeouts and the all-time leader at Syracuse for games played, wins, shutouts, and innings pitched. She was named an All-American in 2012. Jenna joined Team Canada in 2009 and has been team captain since 2013. She has won five medals competing for Canada including one Gold and two Silver at the Pan American games and two Bronze medals at the World Championships. Jenna and Team Canada qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that were postponed until 2021. Jenna is also a mentor and coach for many up and coming softball players. Discussion Highlights: (2:00) Lessons learned from athletics. (3:30) Canadian pride on Team Canada. (5:05) Leadership values as captain. (7:04) Her reaction to the Olympics being postponed. (8:54) Maintaining a strong team dynamic in isolation. (11:44) Exercise and nutrition in isolation. (14:20) Motivating the olympic team virtually. (19:45) Canadian Tire’s COVID effort. (21:12) Mental toughness through COVID - “If it’s raining outside, don’t lie and say there’s sunshine.” *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It’s super quick and very helpful in spreading our positive message. Follow the Podcast on Twitter and Facebook for more exciting episodes!
Tom Anselmi is the President of Business Operations and COO for the NHL's Edmonton Oilers and an accomplished Canadian sports executive. He had a 17-year career at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and served as President and COO from 2011-2013. As part of his role at MLSE, he oversaw the development of the ACC and the creation of Maple Leaf Square (also known as Jurassic Park). He then moved on to become the CEO of the Ottawa Senators until 2018. Prior to his time at MLSE, Tom helped to develop the Rogers Centre and also served as the Vice President of Canucks Sports and Entertainment in Vancouver. Tom is a member of the board of Canada's Walk of Fame, the NHL Alumni Association, University of Saskatchewan Huskie Athletics and the Huntsville Hospital Foundation. For his active role in supporting the Canadian military, he received the Chief of Defence Staff commendation in 2011, the highest military honour for a civilian. In 2012, he received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal and was inducted into the Etobicoke Sports Hall of Fame. Tom studied Landscape Architecture at Ryerson University and Engineering at University of Saskatchewan. Discussion Highlights: (1:47) From studying engineering to becoming a sports executive.(5:33) The vision for the ACC and Jurassic Park. (8:34) How the Oilers are treating the downtime from the postponed season. (9:44) The reaction when things were cancelled: "This is bigger than hockey." (10:59) What he would like the continuation of the NHL season to look like. (12:07) Sports without fans. (12:59) The life of a sports exec without sports. (14:26) Message to fans who miss the sports that they love. *** Have any questions or comments? Email me at noahifergan@gmail.com If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It’s super quick and very helpful in spreading our positive message. Follow the Podcast on Twitter and Facebook for more exciting episodes!
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