Event Archives

Roundtable, How CEOs are using AI to Measure, Diagnose and Fix Revenue
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2024
Location: ZOOM

AI exploded onto the business scene in 2023 due to its ability to process and analyze massive amounts of data in real-time enabling new applications in virtually all aspects of business operations. While major players such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Nvidia are investing billions to become leaders in the next wave of innovation, most CEOs are still uncertain about how they can go beyond experimentation to monetization - particularly those running mid-sized businesses.

The Alliance of CEOs hosts a series of CEO Roundtables to discuss the complicated and ever-changing aspects of AI in our organizations. This was our second session and we dove deep into the monetization of AI, showcasing CEOs who are already leveraging their data to increase revenues and profits by applying AI in their marketing, sales & customer support operations and more. A recording of this Roundtable can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Our moderator, Matthew Swanson, Managing Partner of Silicon Valley Software Group, is a 3x founder who specializes in bringing AI productivity software to the enterprise. He was joined by Mike Adams, CEO of Pop, who shared how the organization turned around a revenue challenge by developing an AI solution that allows prospects to be distinguished from leads. With this new ability, Pop can now prioritize lead assignments to high performing reps, leading to a 3x increase in conversion rates. Matthew's slide deck can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Roundtable, How CEOs are Using AI to Make Money
Date: Thursday, February 22, 2024
Location: ZOOM

AI exploded onto the business scene in 2023 due to its ability to process and analyze massive amounts of data in real-time enabling new applications in virtually all aspects of business operations. While major players such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Nvidia are investing billions to become leaders in the next wave of innovation, most CEOs are still uncertain about how they can go beyond experimentation to monetization - particularly those running mid-sized businesses.

The Alliance of CEOs hosts a series of CEO Roundtables to discuss “How CEOs are using AI to make money” and this was our first session. A recording of this Roundtable can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Our moderator, Matthew Swanson, Managing Partner of Silicon Valley Software Group, is a 3x founder who specializes in bringing AI productivity software to the enterprise. He was joined by Sam Levan, CEO of MadKudu, who showcased how his marketing team uses Generative AI to mine their internal sales calls in order to determine marketing attribution. Sam shared how these AI capabilities have led to a 20% increase in MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) for his company.  Matthew's slide deck can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Roundtable, Engaging Employees in a Post-COVID World
Date: Friday, October 13, 2023
Location: ZOOM

In our post-COVID world, CEOs have designed their organizations to engage with employees in a wide variety of environments, ranging from 100% virtual to 100% in-person and a mix of variations in-between.  During this Alliance Roundtable, the following leaders shared real-world examples, key factors and fresh ideas for how they designed their organizations, and what they’ve learned thus far as they strive to maximize employee engagement, productivity and idea generation while enhancing their company cultures: Bernard Coulie, CEO of Pliant Therapeutics; Chris Shipley, Author of The Empathy Advantage: Leading the Empowered Workforce; Everett Harper, CEO of Truss; Jessica Yuen, Advisor to People-Focused Leaders; Mike Slessor, CEO of FormFactor; Stan Schneider, CEO of Real-Time Innovations; and Stuart McFaul, Principal of Stuart McFaul Associates. A recording can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Alliance Visionary Leaders Roundtable, "Future of Health & Healthcare"
Date: Wednesday, August 23, 2023
Location: ZOOM

A recording of the “Future of Health & Healthcare" Alliance Roundtable can be accessed by clicking HERE. The “Future of Health & Healthcare” Alliance Roundtable was the sixth of our “Visionary Leaders” Series where we bring leaders together to share their visions, and debate how the future will evolve. Prior to breaking into smaller groups for our interactive discussions, Alliance Founder & CEO Paul Witkay moderated a panel discussion with the following leaders: Amir Dan Rubin, CEO of One Medical; Ash Zenooz, CEO of Commure; Freddie Bowie, CFO of Eikon Therapeutics; Jeffrey Margolis, Sr. Advisor of Blackstone Healthcare Industry; Maria Freire, former President of FNIH; Mary Rozenman, CFO/CBO of insitro; Mathai Mammen, CEO of FogPharma; and Rachel Haurwitz, CEO of Caribou Biosciences.

Roundtable, What CEOs Need To Know About AI
Date: Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Location: ZOOM

During our August 2023 Alliance of Chief Executives Roundtables, Alliance Director Jim Cook, Cal Lai of AskVet, Kat Orekhova of Vareto, and Andrew Antos of Klarity, orchestrated an enlightening deep-dive into AI, sharing fresh insights on What CEOs Need To Know About AI. A recording can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Roundtable, The Value of Advisory Boards
Date: Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Location: ZOOM

During this Alliance of Chief Executives Roundtable, we discussed the value of Advisory Boards and how to create a high-performance board. Prior to breaking into smaller groups for our interactive discussions, Alliance Founder & CEO Paul Witkay moderated a panel discussion with the following leaders: Louise Broekman and Renee Lahti of Advisory Board Centre, Jim MacDonald, CEO of R.F. MacDonald & Company, and Lena Wu, former CEO of Intabio.

Panelist Louise Broekman was kind enough to share her slide deck with us, which you can access HERE. A recording of this Roundtable discussion can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Roundtable, Alliance Discussion of the Silicon Valley Bank Closure and How Leaders Deal With Crises
Date: Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Location: ZOOM

Following the Silicon Valley Bank closure by the FDC on Friday, March 10th, our Alliance community immediately began sharing up-to-date information and recommendations. Now that the FDIC has stepped in to protect all deposits and SVB appears to be back in operation, we held an Alliance of CEOs Roundtable to discuss what we can learn from this latest “black swan” event and take appropriate actions to address any current and future potential risks to our organizations.  Alliance Director Jim Cook led off the discussion by a conversation with Chris Stedman, Head of Technology Corporate Banking for SVB and then shared his “Crisis Communication Playbook” for leaders who are dealing with this latest “shockwave.”  (click HERE for his slide deck). We ended with a Q&A session with our attendees. Jim is one of Silicon Valley’s most respected and experienced CFOs with experience from Intuit, Netflix, Mozilla and others.  

Alliance Visionary Leaders Roundtable, “Future of the Built Environment”
Date: Tuesday, February 07, 2023
Location: ZOOM

A recording of the “Future of the Built Environment" Alliance Roundtable can be accessed by clicking HERE. The “Future of the Built Environment” Alliance Roundtable was the fifth of our “Visionary Leaders” Series where we bring leaders together to share their visions, and debate how the future will evolve. Prior to breaking into smaller groups for our interactive discussions, Alliance Founder & CEO Paul Witkay moderated a panel discussion with the following leaders to discuss how the changes in our built environment will impact our lives in the future: Rahul Bammi of View, Jessica Carps of Skyline Enterprises, David Gensler, former CEO of Gensler Architects, Kevin Kujawski of Menlo Equity, Jane Macfarlane of The Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley, Jes Pedersen of Webcor Builders, and Jeff Sprau of Legence.

Alliance Roundtable, Keystone Leadership
Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Location: ZOOM

Our September 27/28 Alliance Keystone Leadership Roundtable brought CEOs together from 12 different countries and 6 continents to reflect on the wonderous “learning lab” of nature, the impact Keystone leaders have on others, and the tracks they leave for others to follow. You can find resources from this discussion here.

Alliance Visionary Leaders Roundtable, “Future of Transportation & Mobility”
Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Location: ZOOM

A recording of the “Future of Transportation & Mobility" Alliance Roundtable can be accessed by clicking HERE. The “Future of Transportation & Mobility” Alliance Roundtable was the fourth of our “Visionary Leaders” Series where we bring leaders together to share their visions, and debate how the future will evolve. Prior to breaking into smaller groups for our interactive discussions, Alliance Founder & CEO Paul Witkay moderated a panel discussion with the following leaders who are building our transportation systems of the future: Gary Gysin of Wisk Aero, Stefan Heck of Nauto, Mark Joseph of Mobitas Advisors, Jane Macfarlane of The Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley, Dragos Maciuca of Meta Reality Labs, Tekedra Mawakana of Waymo, Peter Murley of Aluminium Revolutionary Chassis Company, Arwed Niestroj of Sakuu, and former Deloitte Managing Director, Future of Mobility & Smart Logistics Leader Rasheq Zarif.

Alliance Visionary Leaders Roundtable, “Future of Energy & Environment”
Date: Tuesday, March 01, 2022
Location: ZOOM

A recording of the “Future of Energy & Environment” Alliance Roundtable can be accessed by clicking HERE.   The “Future of Energy & Environment” Alliance Roundtable was the third of our “Visionary Leaders” Series where we bring leaders together to share their visions, and debate how the future will evolve.  Prior to breaking into smaller groups for our interactive discussions, Alliance Director Reyad Fezzani,  Chairman & CEO of Regenerate Power, moderated a panel discussion with the following leaders: Atul Arya of IHS Markit, Iain Conn of Blackstone, Gary Dirks of Carbon Collect, Raffi Garabedian of Electric Hydrogen, Klaus Lackner of The Center for Negative Carbon Emissions, and Laurence Mulliez of Siemens Energy .

Alliance Visionary Leaders Roundtable, “Future of Food & Agriculture”
Date: Thursday, February 17, 2022
Location: ZOOM

A recording of the “Future of Food & Agriculture” Alliance Roundtable can be accessed by clicking HERE. The “Future of Food & Agriculture” Alliance Roundtable was the second of our “Visionary Leaders” Series where we bring leaders together to share their visions, and debate how the future will evolve. Prior to breaking into smaller groups for our interactive discussions, Alliance Founder & CEO Paul Witkay moderated a panel discussion with the following leaders: Jackie Applegate of Bayer, Wade Barnes of Farmers Edge, Mike Borel of The Context Network, former CEO of Corteva Agriscience Jim Collins, Rob Dongoski of Ernst & Young, Jim Flatt of Brightseed, and Jugveer Randhawa of Compass Digital Labs.

Alliance Visionary Leaders Roundtable, "Future of Health & Healthcare"
Date: Wednesday, February 09, 2022
Location: ZOOM

A recording of the “Future of Health & Healthcare” Alliance Roundtable can be accessed by clicking HERE. This was the first of our “Visionary Leaders” Series where we bring leaders together to share their visions, and debate how the future will evolve. Prior to breaking into smaller groups for interactive discussions, Alliance alumnus Walter Moos of Pandect Bioventures moderated a panel discussion with the following leaders: Rachel Haurwitz of Caribou Biosciences, William Jeffrey of SRI International, Ted Love of Global Blood Therapeutics, Mathai Mammen of J&J, John Murphy of Virtual Incision, Amir Dan Rubin of One Medical, and Joseph Wu of Stanford Cardiovascular Institute.   

Loretta Hillberry, VP Human Resources,Triple Ring Technologies
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Location: ZOOM

Loretta Hillberry, VP of Human Resources for Triple Ring Technologies provided her strategies for enabling employees to work in their scientific laboratory environments in San Francisco and Boston.

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Mario Ochoa, VP Corporate Real Estate, Facilities & Employee Services, Flex
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Location: ZOOM

Mario Ochoa, VP, Corporate Real Estate, Facilities & Employee Services for Flex, described how they are addressing the unique challenges within their global manufacturing facilities.

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Greg Chauhan, SVP Safety & Field Supervision, Webcor Builders
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Location: ZOOM

Greg Chauhan, SVP of Safety & Field Operations for Webcor Builders, told us about how they are enabling their workers to work safely in the construction industry.

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Terese Kemble, Corporate VP Human Resources, Lattice Semiconductor
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Location: ZOOM

Terese Kemble, Corporate VP of Human Resources for Lattice Semiconductor, discussed her strategies for dealing with the wide range of employee issues related to returning employees to their workplaces.

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Scott Seidewitz, Principal, The Seidewitz Group
Date: Thursday, March 12, 2020
Location: Foster City

A graduate of MIT, an ex-P&G branding expert and a former political activist, Scott Seidewitz has never shied away from challenging the conventional wisdom.  With a sharp business perspective and deep understanding of market research best practices, Scott specializes in showing how conventional research often stifles innovation and growth.  He offers business leaders provocative new approaches to using customer insights to drive business results.  One of the key areas where Scott has innovated is in applying the science of memory and motivation to marketing.  

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Alliance Voices, East Bay Alliance Leaders Share Business and Life Stories
Date: Friday, February 21, 2020
Location: San Ramon

At our February 21st East Bay Regional Meeting, in the spirit of sharing the awesome collective wisdom of our Alliance community, we were treated to outstanding examples of the extraordinary wisdom and experience of our community of Alliance members as four members presented their “Alliance Voices." We heard from Alliance members Anu Shultes, CEO of LendUp Global; Dave Dutton, CEO of MDC Vacuum Products; Dennis Heath, Founding Principal of MBH Architects; and Hugh Coppen of Winning Leadership.

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Eamonn Kelly, Chief Futurist, Deloitte
Date: Friday, February 14, 2020
Location: San Francisco

Eamonn Kelly, author of "Powerful Times" and Chief Futurist of Deloitte, advises senior leadership at leading corporations across multiple sectors, key global and national public agencies, as well as major philanthropic foundations. He also develops and delivers programs to help current and future leaders acquire the knowledge, judgment and skills required to succeed in a complex and unpredictable future. Prior to joining Deloitte, Eamonn served as CEO of Global Business Network (GBN), the pioneering scenario planning consultancy and futures think-tank where he led GBN's thought leadership about the future and the development of insights, tools and methodologies for mastering change and uncertainty.

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