ROI’s Into the Corner Office Podcast: Powerhouse Middle Market CEOs Telling it Real—Unexpected Caree...

Stacey Tank is a 20+ year Fortune 500 veteran and currently Chief Executive Officer for Bespoke Beauty Brands (BBB), owner of high-growth cosmetics brands Jason Wu Beauty and KimChiChic Beauty, which can be found in places like Target, CVS, Walmart, JCPenney, Amazon, the TikTok Shop and beyond. BBB was founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneur Toni Ko who sold her first cosmetics company, NYX, to L’Oreal. Prior to BBB, Tank was based in Amsterdam in the role of Chief Transformation Officer for HEINEKEN (AMS: HEIA) with €29 billion in annual revenues and over 100,000 employees. As a direct report to the CEO and member of the executive committee, Tank co-created and later shepherded the company's growth strategy, "EverGreen," to ensure the organization adapted amidst a rapidly changing environment including a focus on top quartile growth and multi-billion euro cost out. In addition, Tank was responsible for the company's sustainability strategy, Brew a Better World 2030, including the design of its net zero carbon ambition. Tank formerly led the multi-billion dollar Home Depot Installation Services and Home Depot Measurement Services businesses for The Home Depot (NYSE: HD), the world’s largest home improvement retailer with $132 billion in sales and 500,000 employees. During her tenure, Tank led the exit of four unprofitable lines of business and returned the remaining businesses to double-digit growth while strengthening the organization’s culture, talent bench and innovation pipeline. Dedicated to the intersection of business and positive impact on society, Tank has repeatedly authored large-scale movements across enterprises like General Electric, HEINEKEN and The Home Depot including launching a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar commitment to veteran housing and a $50 million shop class program that is infusing 20,000 skilled tradespeople into the US economy. Before joining The Home Depot, Tank was a Senior Vice President for HEINEKEN USA @StaceyTank Stacey.M.Tank@gmail.com (AMS: HEIA), the leading importer of upscale beers in the US. Tank reported to thenCEO Dolf van den Brink and as part of the company’s management team, navigated a difficult and successful turnaround period. Previously, from 2002 to 2011, Tank worked at General Electric (NYSE: GE), where she held a variety of global finance, audit, communications and marketing roles across GE Healthcare, NBC Universal, GE Capital, GE Energy, GE Aviation and GE Corporate (including GE’s Communications Leadership Development Program and Corporate Audit Staff) in countries including Mexico, Brazil, Germany, the UK, France, Canada and the US. Tank is the founder of Our Happy Place (OurHappy.org), a 501(c)3 non-profit serving children, educators and families navigating childhood mental wellness. She also sits on the board, audit and compliance committees for Blackstone-owned Interior Logic Group, the leading US installer of interior finishes for new home construction. Tank previously sat on the boards of the Heineken Africa Foundation, American Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlands, Woodruff Arts Center (nominating and governance chair), Serenbe Playhouse, Ad Council, Home Depot Foundation (former president), Homer Fund, Bright Pink (executive board), Academy for Systems Change (finance committee), Arthur W. Page Society (digital committee), Westchester Business Council, Beer Institute, Institute for Public Relations and Subrosa (sold in late 2017). She is the former vice chairwoman of the National Association of Beverage Importers and the former chairwoman of the Heineken Good Government Fund. Tank is a 2020 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (YGL), a 2019 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a 2014 Academy for Systems Change Fellow. She graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School and Whitman School of Management where she was recognized as a University Scholar, the university’s highest academic honor. Tank has been married for nearly 20 years and has three sons, two human and one canine.

Jeff Taylor is the general manager and past president of Crafts Technology, part of the Precision Solutions Group of Viperion Materials and Technology. Crafts specializes in converting powdered-metallurgy products into finished, high-precision, high-performance engineering tooling and wear solutions. Jeff's 40-year professional career includes working in a variety of roles, including as a toolmaker and then a manufacturing manager at New England Carbide, and in sales leadership roles at AW Chesterton. Jeff's tenure as CEO at Crafts Technology includes forming an ESOP to purchase crafts from private ownership. Jeff's education includes an A.S. in manufacturing engineering technology and a Bachelor of Manufacturing Management from the University of Minnesota. He's now working on his master's degree. Jeff is the father of two wonderful daughters, both of whom are now attending college. His hobbies include traveling, skiing, rollerblading, mountain biking, running, and he's a PADI-certified rescue diver.

Emeric is the co-founder and CEO of Agorapulse, a leading social media management platform he grew to $20 million in revenue without external funding. Under his leadership, Agorapulse has distinguished itself in the competitive landscape by ranking #1 across top software review sites like G2, GetApp, Capterra, Appvizer (France), and OMR (Germany). Emeric’s strategic vision and commitment to innovation have set industry benchmarks, including the first-ever social media inbox in 2014 and pioneering ROI tracking and analytics features for social media—patented innovations that help marketers prove the value of their investments.

Cory Sherman, Founder of Safety Systems Management (SSM), is a pioneering entrepreneur and safety management professional based in Newnan, Georgia. Cory has over 13 years in the construction and safety management industry.  He earned a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management from Georgia Southern University and a Master of Science in Safety, Security, and Emergency Management from Eastern Kentucky University.  Additionally, Cory is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) as well as a Construction Health and Safety Technician (CHST) from the Board of Certified Safety Professionals. Cory established Safety Systems Management in 2016 while working full-time for top General Contactors.  Despite humble beginnings of working on prototypes out of his garage, Cory's relentless commitment to innovation saw him develop and patent the Mobile Communications Tower, showcasing his ingenuity and dedication to construction safety technology.  Transitioning to full-time entrepreneurship in 2023, Cory has steered SSM to become a leading provider of safety solutions.  With unwavering dedication to excellence, Safety Systems Management has a reputation for delivering comprehensive safety services, safeguarding lives, and driving organizational success.

FranBridge is led by its Founder, Jon Ostenson, a top 1% Franchise Consultant in the US, and a frequent contributor on franchising across a variety of outlets and publications. Jon is a multi-brand franchisee himself, and along with his business partners, he has great operators leading these ventures. As a result, he is able to commit over 90% of his time to helping others achieve their own dreams of freedom and wealth generation through business ownership. Prior to FranBridge, Jon was the President of ShelfGenie, a national franchise system with 200 locations. Before he began his franchising career with ShelfGenie, Jon spent 15 years in the corporate world, most recently as the Vice President of Sales for Carter’s Inc., responsible for over $350M in annual sales. Jon began his career as a Consultant with Accenture, often working internationally on behalf of clients. Jon serves on the Board of the Entrepreneurs Organization and is active in supporting charitable organizations, including Growing Leaders and Hope International. Jon has BBA and MBA degrees from the University of Georgia and lives in Atlanta, where he and his wife, Jenny, have 3 children and are very active in the community.

Patrick was born and raised in Saginaw, Michigan.  He grew up hanging out with his dad at work on Saturdays and has spent 30 years working here at Fullerton. As a kid, he'd caddy for his dad and Dick Terry during Fullerton's golf league. In 1989, Patrick started working at Fullerton in the steel department doing piece work and eventually moved to engineering (where there may still be a few of Patrick's auto cad tool drawings in the system). Throughout time, Patrick moved to the estimating department, became the office manager, and in 2002 moved into sales and became Vice President for Fullerton. In 2006, he became involved in international sales, and in 2008 he became President. Patrick truly loves this industry and manufacturing; he serves on several State and National boards that focus on manufacturing and local economic development. Patrick went to Central Michigan University, graduating in 1993 with a BSBA in Industrial Engineering. While there, he met the love of his life Jenny in a business fraternity and the two have been married for the past 26 years. They have three children, Greyson (24), Aidan (22), and Isabella (13). They also have a silver lab named River and a tabby cat named Royal. They attend St. Peter Lutheran Church in Hemlock, Michigan. Patrick also enjoys attending a men’s Bible study group with a few co-workers and local business associates. Patrick also is a major sports fanatic thanks to his dad's influence and is a huge outdoorsman absolutely loving to fish, hunt, golf - especially with family and friends.

Anthony Leo is President of IPR Robotics. He is passionate about using his entrepreneurial mindset and experience to develop, grow, and cultivate strong customer relationships. He believes success comes down to three things: the people, the product, and the processes that keep communication and customer feedback flowing. He enjoys building long-term partnerships and working with customers on projects of any size.

I started in the family manufacturing company in 1978 after being encouraged by my parents. Shortly after starting I began a formal, two years, machinist apprenticeship. I worked on the manual machines in the factory for about six years when my father tasked me with implementing CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machinery in our company. It was highly successful. For the next decade, I worked and managed the operations of the family business and segued into administrative roles; Procurement, Quoting, HR, Business Development, Sales, Marketing and PR. I literally learned the family business from the back door to the front door. After years of encouraging my father to create a business succession plan, we did, and in 2004 I became President and sole shareholder. Running a small business is challenging as we wear a lot of hats in our day to day. I kept pushing through those roadblocks; recessions, employees, customers, vendors and more and in 2007 we had our most profitable year. But as we all know the Great Recession came along – it hit us in the 4th quarter of 2008 – and we had to layoff 60% of our workforce. It was not pleasant and it was gut-wrenching to one by one tell my veteran employees, who I cared about there was no work for them. I vowed I would never let that happen again so made a decision to start working on the business rather than in it. I reached out to our long-term manufacturing association – the TMA and started learning about marketing and networking. It was out of my comfort zone but knew if I pushed myself the rewards would come and they did. I was encouraged to join committees, peer groups and attend industry-specific networking events around Chicago. I met like-minded people that ironically all shared the same pains and stories of my decades in the business. I became friends with these peers and created a small, personal Board of Directors with them, people that I could trust and could ask anything. It was and still is one of the most rewarding experiences in my business career. I found I had an innate ability and passion for marketing and suddenly found myself mingling with these professionals too. We would share our frustrations, successes and technologies with each other which helped me grow my personal and business brand – which I found out are together as one. As my networking evolved, I was asked to join the exclusive TMA Board of Directors and in my third year was voted by my peers to move into the executive chairs, culminating into Chairman, the highest Board level position. I was humbled and accepted. Through this networking platform, I was presented with an opportunity to be interviewed on a local Chicago AM radio station and share my marketing savvy and wisdom with their audience about how I was using social media to brand my manufacturing company – nobody was doing it at that time. Also at my interview was Jason Zenger, the President of Zenger’s Industrial Supply. My company was a premier vendor who was buying industrial cutting tools from his business for years. We had never met but knew of each other. Jason was there to add to the discussion about what he was doing differently as a third-generation business owner at his company. We hit it off. Shortly after our interview aired he called me to ask if I had heard of or listened to podcasts. I said yes, I knew of that media but was not actively listening. Jason said, “I think we have a deep knowledge of our industry, we are not competitors, are highly connected to the community, have a commanding presence and no one relevant in our industry was in that space.” Suddenly a light bulb in my head went off – that a-ha moment – I had felt that feeling when I started using social. I wanted to be the trailblazer and this seemed like a fairly low-risk proposition. I agreed. The only caveat was I would only do it if it was well structured, thought out and quality was the overwhelming key. We planned for a year doing research on the average American commute, joined online podcast communities to learn tips on what other successful podcasters were doing, hired professional voice talent and sound editors and at the onset of 2015 released our first show. It was immediately well-received and in two weeks we were on the iTunes New & Noteworthy List of Podcasts. A few major trade publications did some articles on us and of course, we used our social media savvy to target our audience. We were on our way. What we didn’t realize is that although our mission was to equip and inspire manufacturing leaders, with the hope that we could garner some thought leadership and interest in our respective manufacturing companies, major brands that sold to our audience started to notice us and inquired about advertising on our show. We were excited but didn’t know how to react. This was strictly a grassroots project and neither of us knew much about this space. Of course, we accepted and the rest is history. We are new an income-producing, bona fide brand, that is known among our community and we have lucrative contracts with some of the largest players in our industry. The next step. We are definitely busy people, me running my manufacturing company, conducting interviews and shows with Jason and to retain the level of networking that helped me grow into what I am today. It’s not easy but as my father always used to tell me: “Jim, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it”. He couldn’t be more right.

Jeff Greenfield is an entrepreneur, advisor, and disruptor with three decades of strategy, growth, and marketing leadership. Jeff is currently building the next generation of AI-Driven Attribution as the co-founder and CEO of Provalytics, which is a 'cookie-less' attribution & measurement solution that enables marketers to prove the impact from upper funnel channels like CTV and grow their budgets. 

John Rossman the Managing Partner and Founder of Rossman Partners. He is a business strategist, operator, and expert on digital transformation, leadership, and business reinvention. He has consulted with many great brands including Novartis, Fidelity Investments, Microsoft, Walmart, and Nordstrom. He served as senior innovation advisor at T-Mobile and senior technology advisor to the Gates Foundation. He is an operator and builder whose love is diving into business problems and customer needs designing solutions and business opportunities. EXPERIENCE Former Amazon Executive Responsible for the launching and scaling the merchant integration team and played a key role in launching and scaling the Amazon marketplace business, which is now over 50% of all units sold at Amazon.com. Also responsible for the enterprise services business with responsibilities for Toys R Us, Target.com, NBA.com and other great brands. Media Analyst Sought after expert commentary regarding Amazon as interviewed by New York Times, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, BBC, Geekwire and many others. Author Author of Big Bet Leadership: Your Transformation Playbook for Winning in the Hyper Digital Era. Releases Feb 27, 2024. Author of Think Like Amazon: 50 1/2 Ideas to Become a Digital Leader. Author of The Amazon Way on IoT: 10 Principles for Every Leader from the World’s Leading Internet of Things Strategies. Author of The Amazon Way: Amazon’s 14 Leadership Principles. Assignments - Interim chief technology officer for the Gates Foundation - Innovation advisor to T-mobile - Interim CIO for a national retailer Speaker Keynote speaker on innovation, leadership and digital transformation. John leads workshops on a wide variety of innovation, internet of things, digital strategy, and creating a culture of agility, trial and error, scaling and accountability. His goal is to give audiences tools they can immediately use to operate differently. Advisor Rossman Partners helps it’s clients compete and win in the digital era. I work with my clients to both define strategy and create change for the organization. Bringing a broad range of expertise and trusted partners to the table, I first listen and understand, and then help create a customized approach for your situation.