Modern CTO Tech Titans: How Do You Lead When No One's Looking? with Jack Tam, Intuit
Apr 27, 2026
Jack Tam, SVP and CTO at Intuit Mailchimp with 20+ years in engineering leadership. He talks about authentic leadership and why integrity means doing the right work even when no one’s watching. He describes staying calm under pressure and practical habits that sustain long careers. He also explains spotting coachable technical leaders and why today’s AI moment is thrilling.
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Define Core Leadership Attributes Early
- Authentic leadership starts with identifying your core attributes like integrity, transparency, and delivering customer outcomes.
- Jack Tam learned these over 20+ years at Intuit and emphasizes demonstrating them consistently in how you engage people and organizations.
Integrity Shows Up In Engineering Habits
- Integrity means holding engineering and operational standards even when no one is inspecting you.
- Jack cites clear operational metrics, adherence to architectures, and accountability for repeated rebuilds as examples of that private discipline.
Learning Courage From Leaders Outside Technology
- Jack learned integrity and courage from observing former Intuit CTO Talo Stansbury in a high-profile situation.
- He also studies Warren Buffett as an external role model for sticking to principled decisions amid contrary trends.