How Great Leaders Build Trust: Live at the Penn State Alumni Leadership Conference

Jim Stengel (0:01)

Hi, I'm Jim Stengel. I've helped hundreds of major brands discover and activate their purpose. Because when a brand's purpose is clear, compelling and authentic, profit naturally follows. Each week, I welcome the CMOs, the chief marketing officers of your favorite brands, to speak to how their job is so much more than marketing. These leaders share their inspiration and challenges, along with how they try to build a full, healthy and happy life in and out of the office. And it's that energy that reaches everyone they touch. And we're glad you're here to feel that energy and to learn from these remarkable leaders. So here we go.

For the fourth year, we are taking the CMO Podcast on the road to the Penn State University Campus for a special show in front of a live audience in Recital Hall. Each year, we invite notable Penn State alumni and we probe a different aspect of leadership. This year, we will talk about trust. My guests this year are a special bunch. We have two founder CEOs and two people who have led large legacy organizations, a former US. Army General and a CEO of a Fortune 500 companies. Let's start with the two founders. First up, we have John Waldeisen, an entrepreneur in healthcare technology. Shortly after earning his PhD from Berkeley in 2012, John founded Lucira Health, which developed the first at-home COVID-19 vaccine cleared by the FDA. He is now working on his third startup and is a co-inventor of 50 plus patents across the world. Next, we have Dave Becker, the Philadelphia-based co-founder and CEO of CampusESP. Dave's company is an education tech company that helps more than 500 universities and colleges engage families, support students, and improve enrollment and retention. Now to the two leaders with large organization experience. Cindy Miller is the former CEO of Stericycle, the global B2B company that provides waste management and compliance solutions to healthcare companies and assorted other enterprises. Cindy led the company through its sale to waste management at a valuation of about $7 billion.

Prior to Stericycle, Cindy rose to the ranks of UPS over the course of a 30-year career there, including nine years as the head of Europe. Cindy now serves on the board of the Granger Corporation. Last, we have a man who has held senior leadership roles in one of the largest organizations in the world, the US. Army. Gary Brito is a retired four-star US. Army general. Gary served as the commanding general of US. Army Training and Doctrine Command, and prior to that was the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel. Gary is now president of the Brito Group, a strategic advisory services company. Gary was given the Penn State Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005, the institution's highest honor. Now, to the live event with a theater full of students and members of the Penn State Alumni Association, here we go with an intense discussion of how to build trust, which is the most important thing a leader can do.

Hello.

So it's good to be back. How do you feel? Good to be back?

Yeah. So the plan today, you've been with us before.

We're going to record a show. We'll come to you for questions. We'll run a microphone to you. So in our topic today is going to be trust, which is a really interesting leadership topic, right? It's a very foundational one. But before we jump into that, I want our panel to have a chance to introduce themselves. So we're going to go. They'll do a much better job of this than me doing it. So I want them to introduce themselves to you by saying a word or a picture that describes themselves.

And then I've asked them to give a short paragraph of who they are. So that's a hard brief. I gave them a little bit of notice about this, but not much. So we're going to go, I think, in order of, yeah, we'll start here.

John Waldeisen (3:53)

Thanks, Jim.

Jim Stengel (3:54)

John, yeah.

John Waldeisen (3:55)

I'm John Waldeisen. I guess in terms of a word or a picture that describes me is probably Becker from the Muppets. I started a company that became the first company to get FDA approval during COVID for at-home testing by the FDA. I went to Penn State, proud Penn State alum, I was born and raised here in state college.

I graduated in 2007, went out to California and got my PhD degree there, but then focused in infectious diseases and recently came back home to be closer to family as I raised my family, my wife and I raised our daughter. So thank you.

Jim Stengel (4:33)