The Alliance community is all about our amazing members. Alliance members lead companies in virtually every industry and market sector ranging from early-stage private companies to global public companies. And, to be expected, their personal backgrounds are as diverse and wide-ranging as their companies. We’ve never been able to figure out how to describe the Alliance to someone who hasn’t experienced it. Therefore, we invited a few of our members to describe their "Alliance Experience" using their own words.
Geoff Rego says that the ROI value of the Alliance is huge, not only from its "give and take" sharing, but from listening and learning to the mistakes and successes of other Alliance peers. Geoff is the Co-Founder & CEO of Hushly, an anonymous vendor engagement platform, which allows B2B buyers to communicate and ask questions of multiple vendors at once without disclosing their identity. Hushly is also a research and collaboration tool that empowers decision-makers and buying teams to make informed purchase decisions faster and with way less hassle.
Watch VideoTim Danison remembers his first Alliance meeting in 2013, where there was no hesitation with his participation and involvement in the group discussion. He says he has a breakthrough moment at almost every Alliance meeting he attends. Tim is the Director of Navia Benefits Solutions, which has been around since 1989. The company began as Flex-Plan Services, a family-owned and operated third-party administrator of FSA plans serving school districts and other public sector employers in Washington State. They’ve grown from their humble beginnings to be considered one of the premier administrators on the West Coast with a national reach of clients from coast to coast. Over time, even with an increase in service offerings and overall growth, they’ve maintained the qualities and principals that the company was founded on: respect, communication, and treating clients and participants like family. He is the former CEO of Tracker.
Watch VideoRick Martig views the Alliance as an investment in himself, which ultimately helps him to be a more effective manager. What he learns from other Alliance executives in different businesses and industries, he applies to his own. Rick is the CFO of Nexenta Systems, the inventor and global leader of Software Defined Storage solutions. Nexenta delivers secure, high-performance, ultra-scalable, cloud- and virtualization-optimized storage software solutions on any hardware platform.
Watch VideoRichard Stone joined the Alliance during a critical time in his firm when he needed help working through "uncharted territory." By counseling CEOs in different industries, it brought him strategies that he was able to use within his own firm. Richard is the Founder & Chairman of Private Ocean, which provides wealth management, financial management, financial planning services. Private Ocean was named to the Bay Area's list of the Fastest-Growing Private Companies in 2007 and 2011 by the San Francisco Business Times and the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal.
Watch VideoPaulo Rosado describes the "balcony time" received when participating in the Alliance - time spent away from day-to-day operations and look into the "ballroom" of your business and its moving parts. Paulo lives in Portugal and travels to the Bay Area to participate in the Alliance. He is the CEO of OutSystems, which provides the only open, high-productivity application platform (PaaS) that makes it easy to create, deploy and manage enterprise mobile and web applications.
Watch VideoEd Lehrman, member since 2008, says the amount of value he gains and the number of better decisions, new implementations and ideas he receives from the Alliance, far outweigh the time he commits to it. Ed is the CEO of Vine Connections, a Sausalito, California-based importer and the exclusive U.S. representative of some of the world's most unique and exciting wines and Japanese sake.
Watch VideoGrant Pickering discusses the peer-to-peer relationships that one can establish by participating in the Alliance of Chief Executives. Grant is the President & CEO of SutroVax, a biotech firm that harnesses the Xpress CF™ proprietary cell-free protein synthesis platform to develop novel vaccines against major infectious diseases.
Watch VideoHear why Peter Hladun describes the Alliance of Chief Executives as a strong, business, family community. Peter is the Vice President & General Manager at Cork Supply USA, which supplies premium quality natural corks for the world's finest wines.
Watch VideoOliver Mellows talks about how the Alliance provides fresh ideas outside his own architectural industry, which allows him to look at challenges and issues in a completely different way. Oliver is the Principal/Controller of MBH Architects, which provides professional architectural services in the retail, commercial, hospitality, restaurant, and multi-family housing fields. MBH Architects was named to the East Bay Business Times' Fastest Growing Companies list in 2005.
Watch VideoJerry Turin discusses the Alliance methodology and structure of a typical Alliance group meeting, and the benefit of being a "receptacle of input" from the other attending members. Jerry is the CFO of Intematix, which offers the widest selection of phosphor solutions to the largest LED lighting companies in the world.
Watch VideoKaran Yaramada talks about the candid and honest culture of the Alliance, and how he feels the Alliance is like an extended "business family." Karan is the President & CEO of Jade Global, a global information technology systems and solutions company. Karan Yaramada and Jade Global were named to the INC 5000 list of Fastest-Growing Companies for 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Watch VideoJeff Kuhn talks about the power of diversity within the Alliance of Chief Executives, and why the culture of confidentiality is important to him. Jeff is the Managing Partner of FLG Partners, the premier solution for comprehensive board advisory and CFO consulting services for Silicon Valley companies, ranging from A-round to billion dollar public companies.
Watch VideoGlenn Fishler describes the Alliance culture, and how he benefits from the connections he's made. Glenn is the Founder/CEO/President of EORM (Environmental & Occupational Risk Management, Inc.), which provides a range of strategic, management and technical consulting solutions with its clients to achieve their environmental, health, safety and sustainability goals.
Watch VideoHear what Gene Banman says about his Alliance of Chief Executives experience, and why he's been a long-time member since 2004. Gene is the CEO of DriveScale, a stealth-mode startup composed of a highly experienced team creating solutions for agility, balance, and scale of Big Data infrastructure.
Watch VideoDirk Schapeler discusses his experience with the Alliance of Chief Executives, and why he joined in 2011. Dirk is the VP Digital for Bayer LifeHUB, the Digital Health division of Bayer HealthCare, which seeks innovation opportunities that can support drug development, patient monitoring, clinical trials, research and marketing/sales. Prior to joining Bayer LifeHub, Dirk served as President & CEO of Artificial Muscle (AMI) from April 2010, after the acquisition through Bayer MaterialScience, until 2014.
Watch VideoNathan Harding describes the Alliance as a support group for CEOs and says there is always someone to talk to with the CEO point-of-view. He discusses the challenges of the CEO role – always being “on,” and having the feeling of personal responsibility to your company. Nathan is the CEO and Co-Founder of FoxEye Robotics, which is pioneering the use of robotics, artificial intelligence and machine vision to create an entirely new category in the gigantic and lucrative beauty industry. Prior to co-founding FoxEye Robotics in 2016, Nate co-founded and took public Ekso Bionics. Nate was the co-inventor of Ekso Bionics’ core exoskeleton technology. His technical and leadership skills were honed working at the Department of Energy, Carnegie Mellon's Field Robotics Center, Berkeley Process Control, and the Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory. Nathan holds several patents.
Watch VideoThe Alliance of Chief Executives is an active community of business leaders that focuses on deep strategic exchanges, challenging existing assumptions and generating fresh ideas.
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