Episode 291: Alisa Cohn, From Start-up to Grown-up (replay)
Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim
Release Date: 08/22/2025
Episode 305: Dr. Wayne Baker, All You Have To Do Is Ask (replay)
Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim
This week, we revisit our interview with Wayne Baker. Wayne is the author of the book All You Have to Do Is Ask, and the Robert P. Thome Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Management & Organizations at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. He is also a Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan and Faculty Associate at the Institute for Social Research. He currently serves as Faculty Director of the Center for Positive Organizations. His teaching and research focus on social capital, social networks, generosity, positive organizational...
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Episode 304: Susan Ashford, The Power of Flexing (replay)
Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim
This week, we revisit our interview with Susan (Sue) Ashford, who is an award-winning scholar and Professor at the University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business. She is the author of "The Power of Flexing: How to Use Small Daily Experiments to Create Big Life-Changing Growth". Sue’s passion for helping people to be maximally effective in their work lives has driven her teaching and research work on self-management, proactivity, change from below, and leadership and its development. Her research has been summarized as advice for managers in the Harvard Business Review, the...
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Episode 303: Andy Bass, Start With What Works (replay)
Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim
This week, we revisit our interview with Andy Bass. Andy is a consultant, author, and speaker who works with businesses to find and exploit their hidden assets. He has worked with organizations in the UK, US and Far East including International Automotive Component Group, Rolls Royce, L’Oreal, Trimas, Deutsche Bank and The Advanced Propulsion Centre. Prior to his consulting career, Andy was a lecturer at Aston Business School and has also taught at Oxford Saïd, Warwick and Strathclyde Business Schools. Andy has a PhD in Software Engineering and describes himself as a geek who learned to...
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Episode: 302: Ken Sher, What's TRUST Got To Do With It?
Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim
This week, we interviewed Ken Sher, who is an Executive Coach, Career Coach, Keynote Speaker, and, most recently, an author. Ken spent more than 25 years at Johnson & Johnson in leadership roles across Sales, Marketing, Recruiting, Training, and Leadership Development. Through his experience, Ken has seen that technical skills alone don’t make leaders successful. The best leaders are compassionate, authentic, and know how to build strong, trusting relationships that help teams thrive. He brings these lessons to life in his book, What’s TRUST Got to Do with It? Transforming Leadership,...
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Episode 301: Dr. Andrew Denton, President, Crown College
Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim
This week, we interviewed Dr. Andrew C. Denton, President of Crown College. Andrew is the 17th president of Crown College. His vision, directed by the Lord, is for Crown to be the boldly Christian college of the Midwest. He provides a high level of vision, strategy, and execution to Crown while remaining deeply committed to leading Crown to be a boldly Christian, academically excellent college that fosters a lifelong, authentic community. Since beginning his presidency, Dr. Denton has led Crown through nearly $ 20 million in capital investments across campus, including the...
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Episode 300: Amir Abolfathi, Healthcare Executive, Board Member & Leadership Mentor
Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim
This week, we interview Amir Abolfathi. Amir is an experienced innovator and medical device executive with a proven record of building and scaling successful enterprises. He was a founding team member of uLab Systems, Tusker Medical (acquired by Smith and Nephew), and Sonitus Medical. Amir also served for 6 years as an Officer and Vice President of R&D at Align Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN), the creator of a unique, invisible orthodontic product. Previously, Amir was the first member of the senior management team at Embolic Protection Inc. (acquired by Boston Scientific), where he...
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Episode 299: Pam Fox Rollin, Growing Groups into Teams (replay)
Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim
This week, we revisit our interview with Pam Fox Rollin. Pam coaches executives and top teams in Silicon Valley and globally. Pam also facilitates technology and healthcare organizations to succeed in strategic transformation, executive development, and culture change. Her bestselling books -- Growing Groups into Teams and 42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role -- are described as indispensable for leaders at all levels. Pam and her team at Altus Growth Partners work with highly capable people to take on their next round of leadership and strategic growth. Pam’s MBA is from Stanford...
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Episode 298: Joe Mandato, CEO, VC, Author
Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim
This week we revisit our interview Joe Mandato. Joe holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Case Western Reserve University, where his research focused on the evolving role of boards in ensuring effective corporate governance. He was a 2011-2012 Fellow of Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative and served as Co-Chair of Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Coalition. He is a Managing Director at DeNovo Ventures, Senior Advisor at Apercen Partners, Advisor to Sonder Capital, and 15-year Lecturer at Stanford University. He has served on more than 20 public and...
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Episode 297: Fouad Al Noor, CEO, ThinkSono
Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim
This week, we revisit our interview with Fouad Al Noor. Fouad is the Co-Founder and CEO of ThinkSono. Prior to ThinkSono, Fouad was an entrepreneur with Entrepreneur First, where they created a medical software startup. Fouad has also worked as a Research Assistant at Imperial College London, where they worked on the design of data logging and battery optimization circuit for a portable EEG sensor. This device is used to help with sleep monitoring using brain signals. Before that, Fouad worked as a Software Engineer at SAP, where they worked on front-end UI for a large...
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Episode 296: Shawn McCormick (replay)
Motivated to Lead Podcast - Mark Klingsheim
In this week’s episode, we revisit our interview with Shawn McCormick. Shawn has 30 years of financial expertise and operational experience in the medical device and life sciences industry. Most recently, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Aldevron, a private equity-backed CDMO. Shawn joined Aldevron in 2020 and remained until February 2022, following the sale of the company to Danaher, Inc. in 2021. He served as the Chief Financial Officer of Tornier N.V. and Tornier, Inc. from September 2012 until the completion of the merger with Wright Medical in October 2015. He also served as...
info_outlineIn this week’s episode, we revisit our interview with Alisa Cohn. Alisa is an Executive Coach who has worked with C-suite executives at prominent startups (such as Venmo, Etsy, Draft Kings, The Wirecutter, Mack Weldon, and Tory Burch) and Fortune 500 companies (including Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Pfizer, Calvin Klein and The New York Times.) She is the author of From Start-up to Grown-up, which won the 2022 Independent Press Award, and the creator and host of a podcast of the same name.
A frequent keynoter, Inc. Magazine named Alisa one of the top 100 leadership speakers, and she was named the Top Startup Coach in the World at the Thinkers50/Marshall Goldsmith Global Coaches Awards and the #1 Global Guru for Startups.
She is the executive coach for Cornell’s New York City tech incubator, and she has coached leaders from around the world, including the first female minister of the transition state of Afghanistan and the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. She has guest lectured at Harvard, Cornell, The Naval War College and Henley Business School. Her articles have appeared in HBR, Inc, and Forbes, and she’s been featured as an expert on BBC World News, Bloomberg TV, and in the NY Times and Wall Street Journal.