CEO Trust, an exclusive community of CEOs and board directors, is proud to announce the addition of Shavonnah R. Schreiber as Houston Chair, CEO Trust. As the company continues to evolve and expand its services, Schreiber will be stepping into a pivotal leadership role, further enhancing CEO Trust’s commitment to providing exceptional services for its members in Houston and around the world.
Schreiber, who brings two decades of B2B experience in the technology, energy, aviation, and professional services sectors, has a proven track record of assessing business opportunities in both start-ups and Fortune 500 organizations. Shavonnah develops effective go-to-market plans, sales strategies, and international marketing campaigns. She will deliver unparalleled value to CEO Trust’s membership base. Her strong background in client engagement makes her the ideal leader to help CEO Trust build even stronger connections.
"Shavonnah is a dynamic leader whose character and experience align with the vision of CEO Trust. Her extensive background in leadership and ability to build meaningful relationships will allow us to strengthen our services and extend our reach in Houston," said Theresa Boyce, CEO of CEO Trust. "We are thrilled to welcome her to the team and look forward to the positive impact she will have with our members and the local business community."
As part of her role, Schreiber will be responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations of CEO Trust’s in-person services, coordinating exclusive events, and facilitating the ongoing growth of the organization’s leadership initiatives. Her addition marks a significant milestone in CEO Trust’s ongoing effort to provide personalized, high-level resources to CEOs seeking to collaborate, grow, and succeed.
"I am incredibly excited to join the talented team and other CEO leaders at CEO Trust and contribute to its mission of supporting CEOs with meaningful connections and leadership development," said Schreiber. "I look forward to working closely with our members to foster collaboration and provide the tools they need to excel in today’s fast-paced business environment in Houston and beyond."
CEO Trust is an exclusive community dedicated to propelling CEOs and their businesses to higher degrees of success, strategic collaboration, and exclusive opportunities. With a commitment to fostering meaningful connections among CEOs, CEO Trust provides a platform for members to collaborate, grow, and navigate the complexities of today’s business landscape.
For media inquiries or more information, please contact:Gail SymanCEO TrustPhone: (719) 209-5277Email: gsyman@ceotrust.orgWebsite: CEO Trust
By Jonathan Peri, Ph.D., J.D., President of Manor College and Lisa Quateman, CEO of Voyager Advisory LLC and Board Director for public, private, and non-profit organizations.
As companies strive to bring varied voices into their corporate boardrooms, new sources of talent have emerged in recent years, from, for example, industry specialists to military leaders. A rich source of talent exists among leaders in academia, where, contrary to assumptions about academics in so-called ivory towers, we find that many college and university leaders bring superb business experience and innovation into the boardrooms that they serve.
In addition to their traditional roles and NGO engagements, college and university presidents increasingly serve on corporate boards, both public and private. They are selected for these positions because their experiences and skills encompass significant depth in the business of education, much of which is transferable to other industries.
Higher education has a lot of moving parts, fundraising, recruitment (sales), facilities, finance and investments, marketing, education as a product and service (think university hospitals and research universities), student services, information technology, human resources, diversity, equity, and inclusion, employees with multi-faceted functions, and a governance structure that intentionally shares power and places a focus on environmental, social, and governance issues. Presidents sit atop at least seven or eight operations, even at the smallest institutions.
As board leaders, here’s why higher education presidents get selected as directors:
Strategic Vision & Leadership: University presidents excel in developing, implementing, and leading strategic plans. Living within a shared governance model, Presidents are consensus builders inside and outside of the strategic planning context. They negotiate the best pathways forward emerging from a diversity of ideas, balancing the concepts developed by lifetime organizational employees with the fresh eyes of new recruits. These attributes help corporate boards facing dynamic markets and demanding stakeholders, including vocal workforces.
Financial Acumen: Responsible for significant budgets and major fundraising efforts, university presidents have a deep understanding of financial analysis, resource allocation, and investment management. This fiscal expertise is invaluable for companies seeking board members with the ability to assess financial health, guide investment strategies, and navigate complex financial decisions.
Governance & Risk Management: University presidents are well-versed in the principles of good governance. National and statewide associations regularly provide presidents with cutting edge professional development. Presidents oversee intricate board structures and navigate compliance regulations while balancing competing interests within their own institutions. This experience enables them to advise on board effectiveness, mitigate risk, and protect the organization's reputation. This tends to be particularly true when the president is also an attorney or accountant, as is increasingly the case in higher ed.
Crisis Management: As we have seen in the media recently, leading educational institutions involves dealing with unforeseen challenges and public scrutiny, much of which reflects broader geo-political issues The wisdom gained from these experiences is transferrable and these experiences cultivate the composure needed for corporate boards facing difficult situations. College and university presidents are typically adept at thoughtful decision-making under pressure and communicating effectively to restore trust.
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Expertise: Presidents often champion DEI initiatives, overseeing policy development that shapes organizational culture. Most corporations now embrace DEI as a core value, though others have trepidation. College presidents are used to spirited discussions and moving adversarial scenarios to dialogues of “creative friction,” where workable, realistic outcomes are an outgrowth of voices being heard.
Community & Stakeholder Engagement: Successful presidents excel at collaboration with diverse stakeholders, including not only traditional on-campus groups, but also government officials and local communities. They have developed excellent communications skills. This experience translates seamlessly to corporate boards who regularly interact with investors, employees, customers, regulators, and the wider community. This talent also supports development of senior managers who are interfacing with these parties as well as company lenders and service providers. These board members offer a valuable sounding board and mentorship opportunities to internal leaders.
Global Outlook: Many universities have international partnerships, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Presidents pride themselves on being not only well apprised of global affairs, but actively engaged in them, often as a voice of reason and conscientious direction. Presidents gain sensitivity to global trends and cross-cultural communication, an asset in today's interconnected business world.
Keenness with Emerging Trends: Familiarity with university level leading-edge research keeps presidents at the forefront of technological, social, and economic opportunities. These insights can help boards stay ahead of disruptions and identify innovative pathways. To succeed in their careers, presidents must demonstrate curiosity and a commitment to lifelong learning, which make them ideal role models in boardrooms and at the companies they serve.
Network: Due to their many skills and attributes noted above, plus the job requirement of being relationship-oriented, presidents have significant social networks, with access to others who can serve as helpful partners and community builders. When doors open, corporations thrive, and shareholders and stakeholders with them.
In summary, college and university presidents offer astuteness, esteem, experience and knowledge that enhances a corporate board’s outcomes. Their leadership skills, financial expertise, connections, commitment to inclusivity, and their ability to manage complex environments make them ideal board members.
***
Dr. Jonathan Peri is the President of Manor College, a liberal arts institution in the Philadelphia metro region. He is a “double doctor” Ph.D. in organizational leadership and J.D. / attorney. He has served on several boards including as Chairman of Pennsylvania’s Council of Higher Education on its State Board of Education, as Lead Advisory Director for First State Bank of Texas, as a Member of Pennsylvania’s 529 College Savings TAP Board (investments at the time were $6.8B and continue to grow), and on numerous nonprofit boards. He is board certified by CEO Trust’s Board Trust.
Bryan Mattimore's whiteboard technique described in his latest article in Innovation Management is a fun and productive way to encourage innovation and make the "suggestion box" both real and transparent.
By Bryan Mattimore
“Creativity is contagious, pass it on.” Albert Einstein
If you’ve ever had an experience with a suggestion box program – either running one, or more likely submitting a suggestion – the mere suggestion of having a suggestion box program at your organization might send your head spinning – and not in a good way. Truth is, with rare exceptions like Toyota, Frito-Lay and Dart industries, traditional suggestion box programs are – and continue to be — one of the most dismal failures in business. How come? Suggestion box programs do not fail because of a lack of initial employee interest or enthusiasm. They fail because the process for managing, vetting, and developing submitted ideas isn’t as rigorous – or creative – as it needs to be. Most ideas are like newborn babies – cute yes (no ugly babies here), but not able to do a whole lot more than smile, cry and poop when they’re first born. They need constant care and feeding if they are to survive, much less thrive, and reach their full potential. In the world of ideas, this “care and feeding” comes in the form of team idea building and development, rapid prototyping, and testing. Suggestion box programs simply don’t allow for the further development of ideas.
Another shortcoming of most suggestion box programs is that submitted ideas – and that means all ideas regardless of their inherent merit – need to be taken seriously. Employees need to know that the time they spent thinking about ideas to improve the business wasn’t a waste of time, even if their ideas didn’t ultimately make the cut. Otherwise, employees will become cynical of the process, and the number and quality of suggested ideas will decline precipitously.
A simple way to overcome the shortcomings of suggestion box programs is by using a simple technique I call the Whiteboard Technique. Think of it as a kind of “interactive” suggestion box where ideas can easily and effectively be built on by others. The Whiteboard Technique… How to! Here are 9 simple steps for creating a whiteboard idea suggestion program. 1) Post a whiteboard in a public area (conference room, hallway, or cafeteria). Or if you’re company is primarily virtual, a “whiteboard” can be posted on an internal, team, department or company-wide sharing program like Slack. 2) In the center of the actual or virtual whiteboard write down a challenge for which you want some new ideas: i.e. “How do we do a better job serving our customers?” “How do we motivate a multi-generational workforce?” “How can we cut costs?” etc… Whatever could be a timely and important subject for which new ideas are needed. Consider using generative AI programs to help you generate a wide range of possible questions, both general and specific. 3) To create a sense of urgency (and provide a means of closure for each challenge), set a timeline/deadline for each challenge: typically, seven to ten days… by writing the numbers 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 at the bottom of the whiteboard. 4) “Prime the pump” by writing down some preliminary ideas and/or facts on the whiteboard. Again, AI programs like ChatGPT or Google’s Bard can help you here. 5) Then encourage your co-workers to freely add their ideas over the seven days. 6) Each succeeding day of the challenge cross out the corresponding number at the bottom of the whiteboard. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 7) At the end of the seven days, the challenge is over. A new challenge is then posted on a blank whiteboard, and the process is begun again. 8) At the end of each challenge, summarize the ideas on the whiteboard for yourself and your co-workers to react to. And then… take some kind of action, to demonstrate to your co-workers that their posted ideas, and their effort put in in creating them, was valued. 9) The action taken could include: a. identifying the winning ideas, along with their plans for further development, or b. using the ideas as thought-starting triggers for a group ideation session.
That’s it. Very simple. But a powerful tool for turning “water-cooler time” into a vehicle for generating creative and original new content ideas.
An interesting advantage that the Whiteboard Technique has over a traditional ideation session is the creative “soak time.” Time allows the wonderful pattern-finding, idea-combining power of the subconscious mind to work its magic, magic that anyone and everyone can and should be a part of… making unexpected – and sometimes profound — connections between seemingly unrelated fragments of ideas on the whiteboard.
The Whiteboard Technique is a simple and efficient way to liberate organizational creativity. But don’t let its simplicity fool you. Many of our Fortune 500 clients, government organizations and non-profits have achieved extraordinary results with it. And as such, it has been a great vehicle for generating a wide variety of business-improving ideas… not to mention a great way to improving employee satisfaction – and happiness – at work, whether in-person or virtually.
Bryan Mattimore is the Chief Idea Guy at Growth Engine, a 23-year-old innovation agency based in Stamford, CT. His six books on ideation and innovation processes include “21 Days to a Big Idea,” “Idea Stormers,” and the new AI-assisted book, “Quirks.” Bryan’s workshop, “AI Ideation and the Total Innovation Enterprise,” integrates the use of generative AI programs with empirically validated, group ideation techniques to help generate product and process improvement ideas across an entire organization. Bryan can be reached at: bmattimore@growth-engine.com
As we celebrate our nation's birthday, I am grateful that, as CEOs in America, we have the opportunity to build businesses that create jobs, contribute to the economy, and make a difference in the world. We have freedom to innovate and take risks, and to pursue our dreams. We also have a heavy load of responsibility. I am grateful to my fellow CEOs in the CEO Trust that we share this journey together, and I appreciate you and the role you play. I am proud to see fellow CEO Trustees be successful, overcome obstacles, lead businesses with integrity and ethics, and give back to our communities and within the CEO Trust.
I am grateful to be in the CEO Trust with many of this country's best CEOs and board directors. Happy Fourth of July!
Theresa
Join us for CEO Trust's Navigating Private Equity - Webinar with Mike Lorelli on January 27th. In anticipation of that event here is a related article:
By Michael K. Lorelli, CEO Trustee and upcoming webinar keynote
Working with, or for, a private equity backed company, is the ‘new age’ of building your career success, and career credentials.
In a now-famous, Wall Street Op-Ed piece on November 17th, 2017, they cited that the number of public companies with over $500 million in revenues, was cut in half, as a result of all the M&A over the recent decades. Many people thought this was a typo. It wasn’t. And every day that you pick up the WSJ, there is another one of those public companies, that was bought.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-have-all-the-public-companies-gone-1510869125
Personally, we wish the article would have gone on to showcase that in that same timeframe, private equity has quietly exploded to the point where there are 18,000 private equity portfolio companies. That’s more than 4 times as many as public companies, and growing, not imploding. You don’t “see” that explosion, because the public company news is on Page A1of the Wall Street Journal. Private equity, is, sadly, covered on Page B4.
Why is one sector shrinking, while the other sector is exploding? The answer is simple. Investors aren’t stupid. They place their bets on annual returns. The chart below speaks for itself.
So let’s presume that we may have increased your interest in placing your next career bet on building your experience in the private equity sector. In the public sector, there are the companies that do 150% of things right... Apple, Google, and the like. Similarly, the same is true in private equity. The chart below shows that Audax Group has risen to now be the largest private equity company in terms of activity (deals), with 87 companies in their portfolio. They are indeed, the ‘Warren Buffett- Berkshire Hathaway’ of private equity firms.
Most Active P.E. Firms in the US
1 Audax Group 87
2 HarbourVest Partners 64
3 Genstar Capital 58
4 The Carlyle Group 45
4 Shore Capital Partners 45
4 ABRY Partners 45
7 Kohlberg Kravis Roberts 42
8 Insight Partners 41
8 Summit Partners 41
10 Harvest Partners 38 Source: PitchBook 2019 Rankings
And Accent Foods is extremely pleased to have Audax as our ‘Parent.’ They are obviously dedicated to our success, and as such, they provide us a wealth of experience and resource that simply would not be available to us, on our own. And we enjoy the synergistic relationship that the senior leadership team has with them. It makes coming to work every day, not ‘coming to work’ at all. It’s thrilling.
Really informative panel today facilitated by @Marc Hodak and @Randy Zeno, and featuring @Murtaza Ali, @Kurt Brykman and @RJ David, three PE company operating partners. Among them their businesses cover the range, from distressed assets to lower middle market to large enterprises.
In spite of the diversity of their portfolios and investment theses, there were common themes that stood out:
1. Significant change from the "old days" of PE where investors could generate returns by leveraging a high percentage of the asset's value to create more value. Now all are focused on creating value by ensuring great talent is in place who can operate the business to generate real growth, and supporting the teams' success.
2. Exit multiples are now lower than entry multiples -- a departure from past expectations. In addition to focus on talent, this change in business model dynamics has led PE investors to focus with greater urgency on the value they can bring to their portfolio companies: They invest in capabilities that are important to their success, e.g., digital transformation, human capital, IT, government affairs, purchasing.
3. All are putting some emphasis on ESG, but mainly to this point on ensuring progress on DE&I goals.
For those who couldn't make it, look for information on the replay.
Thanks to CEO Trust, Marc and the panelists for a great session.
--written by Amy Radin, Board Director, Author, Transformation Expert
Leadership can be very lonely. It’s cliché, but it’s also true. For most CEOs, it comes down to having no real source of encouragement and appreciation for what they do, says bestselling author and Chief Executive columnist Patrick Lencioni. “What may be worse is that so many resort to doing what that old country music song says: looking for love in all the wrong places.” That’s why so many CEOs end up in trouble, writes Lencioni. Looking for praise from assistants, subordinates, customers, consultants, spouses or their board—none of which is really going to help. “Even the most involved spouse can’t adequately understand the depth of a CEO’s accomplishments and challenges without being part of the day-to-day activities of work. At best, they can be a sounding board or a sympathetic ear.” So, where should CEOs seek to escape loneliness? Lencioni’s contrarian answer will surprise many of you: your leadership team. “When CEOs build real, deep, vulnerability-based trust with team members and understand the different contexts of conversations they are having, they can get the support they need while maintaining the authority their role requires. “And even if it presents occasional problems and challenges along the way, it’s a far better tightrope to walk than trying to earn the approval and consent of a board chair or a lone sympathetic employee.” Importantly, the CEO Trust can be a fantastic resource to connect with peers and peer groups to propel each other ahead, and for a camaraderie to mitigate the loneliness.
Leadership can be very lonely. It’s cliché, but it’s also true. For most CEOs, it comes down to having no real source of encouragement and appreciation for what they do, says bestselling author and Chief Executive columnist Patrick Lencioni. “What may be worse is that so many resort to doing what that old country music song says: looking for love in all the wrong places.”
That’s why so many CEOs end up in trouble, writes Lencioni. Looking for praise from assistants, subordinates, customers, consultants, spouses or their board—none of which is really going to help. “Even the most involved spouse can’t adequately understand the depth of a CEO’s accomplishments and challenges without being part of the day-to-day activities of work. At best, they can be a sounding board or a sympathetic ear.”
So, where should CEOs seek to escape loneliness? Lencioni’s contrarian answer will surprise many of you: your leadership team. “When CEOs build real, deep, vulnerability-based trust with team members and understand the different contexts of conversations they are having, they can get the support they need while maintaining the authority their role requires.
“And even if it presents occasional problems and challenges along the way, it’s a far better tightrope to walk than trying to earn the approval and consent of a board chair or a lone sympathetic employee.”
Importantly, the CEO Trust can be a fantastic resource to connect with peers and peer groups to propel each other ahead, and for a camaraderie to mitigate the loneliness.
An article recommended by CEO Trustee Scott Siers. McKinsey Featured Insights: CEO LEADERSHIP FOR A NEW ERA. It explores four shifts in how CEOs lead. From what we've seen the fourth point is particularly valuable.
Written by CEO Trust Leader:
The investment management firm Gerstein Fisher hosted the CEO Trust on October 23 for a market and economic discussion. After a generous dinner, John Trezza introduced Chris Meeske, CIMA and Senior Portfolio strategist. Chris provided a broad and insightful overview of market and economic developments. A major theme was the contradictory signals the markets seem to be sending. US large cap stocks have performed pretty well, if a bit choppy, indicating that equity investors have a positive outlook on the economy. The fixed income market, which is much larger than the equity market, is sending a different signal. The tendency to yield curve inversion, or at least flattening, indicates that fixed income investors see economic risk ahead. And gold’s positive performance, unusual when equities are positive, indicate that some market participants are willing to pay up for safety. Chris pointed out that not all these signals can be correct, but how it will resolve itself is impossible to predict and recommends broad diversification.
The discussion was lively. Reflecting the manufacturing interests of several CEO’s in the room, the topic of to where manufacturing will move from China dominated. Pros and cons of India, Vietnam, Brazil, and other countries were discussed.
Thanks again to Gerstein Fisher.
- written by Philadelphia member - Philadelphia Chapter CEO Trustees met on March 13th at Synovos in Radnor, PA for a roundtable business discussion. We had a lively and engaging conversation on several business topics including leadership alignment, talent attraction and retention, on-going self-development and other top-of-mind topics. We also had an overview of Synovos business in the MRO supply space and some of the priorities for the team. Overall, it was a very engaging discussion and an excellent networking event.
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