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CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - INTRODUCTION - - 3 - C EO T O D A Y USA A W A R D S 2 0 2 2 To see the full list of winners, turn to page 19 Welcome to the 2022 edition of the CEO Today USA Awards. Every year, the CEO Today team takes a look back at the achievements and strategic victories of CEOs across the breadth of US business. The winners of the CEO Today USA Awards are gleaned from a combination of annual reader voting data and a thorough sector-by-sector analysis to discover the most insightful and driven business leaders working in the US and internationally. This year’s award winners are high achievers in their respective fields, with every sector of US industry represented. 2022 has seen the return of the working world to something approaching a state of normalcy, and the leaders identified in the CEO Today USA Awards have gone above and beyond to steer their organisations through all of the new challenges that this has brought. Two such featured winners this year are Nature’s Sunshine CEO Terrence Moorehead, previously featured in the CEO Today Global Awards for his excellence in the nutrition sector, and Merchant Lynx Services founder and CEO John Kucyk, Exclusive interviews with both of these visionaries, along with many more award winner profiles, are included in the pages of this latest edition. We at CEO Today are proud to present this special publication. Congratulations to all of our winners.
WINNERS EDITION OUT NOW Click here or visit www.ceotodaymagazine.com for more information Each year, the CEO Today Global Awards recognise strong and innovative leadership amongst the most inspiring and innovative CEOs and business leaders across the globe. C EO T O D A Y
F E AT U R E D W I N N E RS TERRENCE MOOREHEAD CEO Nature’s Sunshine Page6 JOHN P. KUCYK President & CEO Merchant Lynx Services Page12 MADELEINE HOMAN BLANCHARD CEO The Ken Blanchard Companies Page 14
www.naturessunshine.com “I have been leading companies around the world for the past 25 years. I began my career as a management consultant with Booze Allen & Hamilton, then proceeded to go into the health and beauty aids industry with Avon and travelled around the world with them, running and transforming businesses in Italy, Canada, and Japan. I was later the CEO of a great European beauty company called Dana Beauty and the CEO of a women’s luxury apparel company named Carlisle Etcetera. I joined Nature’s Sunshine, a leading nutritional supplements company, in 2018. The board brought me in to turn around and transform the company and help the company get our fair share of this fast-growing and dynamic industry, as well as make sure that we had a future that continued to position us as a leader in the marketplace. Nature’s Sunshine is the first company to encapsulate herbs. It was founded in 1972 by Gene and Kristine Hughes, who first came upon the idea back when there was no wellness industry. They were looking for a solution to solve some personal health issues, and Kristine Hughes came up with the idea of putting some herbs in capsules in order to make them easier to take and easier to digest. And lo and behold, it worked! Fast-forward to today and we are doing business in 40 markets around the world, selling our products through specialty retailers, health practitioners, affiliates and business builders, and direct to consumers online. It is an exciting time to be a part of Nature’s Sunshine as we continue to transform the business.” CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 6 - - UTAH -
Terrence Moorehead CEO of Nature’s Sunshine When we last spoke, you talked about how you were looking to reimagine Nature’s Sunshine and its business by way of data and digital tools. How far has that come along since this summer? It has come quite far along, and we have continued to build out our web tools. When building a website, there is a lot of work that has to be done behind the scenes to make sure that it is fast enough, that you have all the keywords and search words, your customer reviews and all your SEO built into it. We have put in a lot of the basic building blocks of getting our website to be more effective and done a lot of work to make the user interface more effective. We have also continued to work on our customer acquisition techniques, looking at what media and which touchpoints work most effectively for us at different points in the year. We are working with some new data partners on that as well. We continue to make progress – and it is a continual process. On top of upgrading your web tools, what challenges have you had to contend with this year? The largest issue is that consumers are having to allocate their dollars to the basics: gasoline, food, etc. People are still very conscious about and focused on their health, but they are making trade-offs between how often and how much they might want to spend on any particular product. What we have to contend with is making certain that Nature’s Sunshine is at the forefront of people’s minds. Just acquiring new customers is harder in this environment. But then we are also having to work harder to retain those customers. We are always doing both of those things, but again, we now have more headwinds in this marketplace. So you have made more stepped-up marketing efforts to keep hold of your strong existing customer base? Absolutely. And it is across every dimension. You just have to be better at every single thing that you do, whether it is your targeting of new people or retargeting old ones, or what you have to talk to them about, or what the offer that you might have with them is at any particular time. You just have to be sharper with everything that you do right now. And of course, your competitors are also stepping up their efforts to keep pace with the current economy. They are. I think the difference that we are seeing with the current competition is that they seem much NATURAL HEALTH & WELLNESS COMPANY OF THE YEAR CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 7 - - UTAH -
more inclined to go straight to product discounts and promotions. Our products are premium products for a reason. It is because of cost of the ingredients and the quality that we put into them, and the care that goes into sourcing and finding those ingredients and ensuring that they are pure and potent. We do a lot of things like wild crafting, where we send people out into the woods to forage ingredients. They forage for cascara, ginger and other things by hand and that is an expensive endeavour. That is how Nature’s Sunshine does business, but it is not necessarily how these other companies are doing business. Again, the way we do business is why we are able to give you products that deliver results you can actually feel. You can discern the difference with products that actually have potency and purity behind them. We take extreme care in that, so we are not leaning heavily on that discounting arm; we are really just leaning more heavily on the fact that our brand offers themost powerful supplements on the planet. That really is meaningful to consumers, because they are not wasting their money. The manufacturing process is where all the magic happens. You can give somebody the formula and all the ingredients and everything that they need, but it will not work the same way. I am not a good cook – you can give me all the ingredients you want to, but they are not going to come out of the oven at the quality of what a Michelin Star chef is going to deliver! We have craftsmen who have been working with us for 25-30 years who really know the process and what they are doing; they are artisans. It really makes a difference when you have that, and it is at every stage of the manufacturing process from the mixing to the processing. Again, that is where our products deliver results. We also do more testing than other companies and will reject ingredients that other companies are perfectly happy to sell. That may be as simple as basic testing for the presence of ash in a product. Ash is dirt – that is where things like E. coli would reside, or salmonella, or heavy metals. It is a simple test that other companies do not use. We also do more sophisticated tests on the purity and potency of our products, and we have the equipment that will allow us to do that. Again, this is equipment that other companies just do not have. We are one of five companies in North America that have a particular machine that allows us to break down products and then discern what is actually in them and how potent they are. If you think about the 500 companies that are out there selling suplements in America alone, and the 30,000 products that are out there, that is how much difference there is between what Nature’s Sunshine does as one of those five companies and what the other 500 are doing. It is pretty thin air up here where we do business versus the other 495 companies that are out there. In addition to the extra efforts that you are taking to shore up your existing base of loyal customers, have you witnessed any other emerging trends in the nutrition sector at this time? People want to make sure that they are getting their basic nutrition – their fruits and vegetables, the importance of multivitamins, sleep and other things that help to reduce anxiety, just these basic bodily functions. There used to be a craze around things like CBD (which, when done right, is an excellent herbal healing aid), but we have seen a shift of people towards simply trying to take care of their basic health. We are focusing on the herbal side of that. Herbs and botanicals in particular are very popular. People want ingredients that are natural and to work with companies they can trust, and those things are very important today. “The care we take in building our products is important, but we also have 600 different products; we literally have something for everyone and for every ailment that someone might have.” CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - UTAH - - 8 -
Regarding your career achievements so far, is there one that you would consider yourself proudest of having accomplished? That’s like asking me to choose which is my favourite child! I believe that the transformation going on right now is both significant and meaningful. I often think about the founding roots of our company with Gene and Kristine Hughes sitting around their kitchen table, when the wellness industry did not exist. If you wanted to take herbs or get involved in the space, you had to do the research yourself. You probably had to make some awful-tasting teas or some other miserable concoction in order to take them. They started this industry as adventurous pioneers, learning what they could, experimenting, charting new waters for the industry and also for this company. Here we are 50 years later, trying to reimagine Nature’s Sunshine as truly the nutritional supplement company of the future. That not only has to do with how we create products and what we have to offer consumers, but also how we work with consumers to improve their health – and that has to do with leveraging technology more effectively. We talked about the digital side to an extent, making sure that we can work with people to get them the products they are looking for in a manner that they want to buy them in, but we are also providing personalised solutions for people – truly personalised solutions. I believe that Nature’s Sunshine is uniquely positioned to do that, unlike a lot of other companies that talk about “People want ingredients that are natural and to work with companies they can trust, and those things are very important today.” CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - UTAH - - 9 -
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 10 - - UTAH - personalisation. This is because of the fact that we do the research, testing and manufacturing ourselves. The care we take in building our products is important, but we also have 600 different products; we literally have something for everyone and for every ailment that someone might have. That is why we may be the best equipped company to provide personalised solutions for people and use technology to bring it to them right in their homes. This is something that we have been doing for 50 years; we have just been doing it through our network of thousands of herb shops and tens of thousands of health practitioners and specialty retailers around the country and around the world, providing personalised solutions for people based on their individual needs. Now we are taking that to the next level, incorporating new steps in technology and broadening access to those products on both a national and global scale. So you expect to be building on this personalisation initiative in the coming three to five years? Exactly – and really incorporating it into our DNA. That journey really has reignited our passion in our company, but it has also attracted tens of thousands more consumers to our business over the past 18-24 months or so since we started this work. What else can we expect to see from Nature’s Sunshine and the wider nutrition sector in the coming years? From the serious players in themarket, there is going to be a greater emphasis on linking diagnostics to results; looking at what are your personal aids are as defined by some type of diagnostics and then determining a specific response to that. I think that is going to be an increased focus throughout the industry. You are also going to start to see more specialty products. We have such a diverse range of consumers in the marketplace, so there is a vast array of competitors also playing in the space. Consumers also have more information than ever; they can just find things specifically designed for them. You will start to see more specialty products in the market place, so probably some more fragmentation. From us specifically, you are going to start to see a much greater focus on personalisation. If you, a customer, are looking for a particular product regimen or have a particular issue you are trying to address, we can find something specifically for you. And given the range of products we have, it will be just for you. Also, I expect we will be spending a lot more time focusing on our ‘mega brands’ and building out some of them, just to make it easier for people to shop
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 11 - - UTAH - Nature’s Sunshine. I talk about having 600 products, and that is fantastic, but if you are coming to the store for the first time, we are obviously not going to lay all of those out in front of you. That would be a bit daunting. But there are a couple of products that really do shine, some of which are already in our portfolio and some of which will be launching in the course of the next 12-18 months. We will spend a lot more time focusing on some of these foundational products that are really good for everyone and everyone’s health. I think the difference with what we do – as in everything that we do – is that the emphasis will be on providing powerful, potent products that deliver tangible results. There are a lot of other companies introducing products in the marketplace who talk excitedly about how they have 70 superfoods inside them... and then you stop and think about it for a second, and you realise how little that means in a teaspoon of product. That is why, when you take some of the competitors’ products, the biggest complaints that consumers have is that they do not feel any different. They do not have any more energy or vitality. That is because there may be 70 ingredients in the product, but they are not at therapeutical levels. When we develop our products, we always ensure that we hit the right levels, and that is a huge difference.
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 12 - John P. Kucyk President & CEO of Merchant Lynx Services John Kucyk is the president and CEO of Merchant Lynx Services. He boasts more than 28 years’ worth of experience in product marketing, strategy and business development, with a particular emphasis on building business partner relationships for success. In his capacity as CEO, John is responsible for the organic growth and strategic direction of Merchant Lynx, emphasising value-driven philosophies that result in best practices that are recognised and encouraged throughout the company’s operations, producing bottom-line results for its clients. Over its 28 years of operation, Merchant Lynx has offered its clients innovative equipment, cash advances, cheque processing and gift card services, and unsurpassed rates in the merchant processing industry. Its forward-thinking leadership hires the most qualified ethical professionals, continually analysing and revolutionising its culture and brand. PAYMENTS SOLUTIONS LEADER OF THE YEAR www.merchantlynx.com john@merchantlynx.com www.linkedin.com/company/ merchant-lynx-services - FLORIDA -
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 13 - How have you seen the payment industry change since founding Merchant Lynx Services in 1994? There have been many changes in the payment industry since I founded Merchant Lynx Services over 28 years ago. One of the big changes is the way credit card companies charge fees. It used to be that there was only one fee, whereas now interchange is assessed, and other unconventional fee structures have also come about. What impact has this had on your approach to leading your company? Merchant Lynx Services used to be a sales office and grew into a sales company or ISO (Independent Sales Organisation). Now the company is a full-service ISO, acquiring portfolios as often as possible to expand our base. If you had to pick one of your career successes that you are especially proud of having achieved, what would it be? Being able to expand our business while keeping the same central employees together for so many years is very exciting and important to the foundation of our success. Long-term employees such as Vic Fattore, EVP, Gena Bickham, agent relations director and Jessie Stavovy, Agent Relations Manager, all of whom have been with Merchant Lynx Services for a long time, are the true leaders of the company. Is there a creed, motto or philosophy that motivates you to achieve the best possible results for your employees and customers? “Never give up, never give in!” Can you share anything about exciting company projects for 2023 that you are currently working on? Merchant Lynx Services will continue to work toward becoming one of the largest acquirers in the industry by introducing new payment acceptance methods and technology and providing world-class service. The company projects $48 million in revenue for the 2022 fiscal year. Looking towards 2023 and beyond, what does the future hold for Merchant Lynx? 2023 is very exciting for us. We plan on introducing new forms of payment acceptance, acquiring more portfolios and being one of the largest full-service ISOs in the industry. What does it mean to you to be recognised as the Payment Solutions Leader of the Year? Winning this award means everything to me. It is recognition that Merchant Lynx Services is doing things right and moving in a positive direction. The award is as much about how great the team and employees of Merchant Lynx Services are and how our company achieves its goals each year. That is very exciting. On a personal note, it is wonderful to have my two kids, Shane and Travis Kucyk, working at Merchant Lynx Services daily, contributing to the success of the company. My wife Cynthia and I are very proud of where the company is today, and we are excited about our future. - FLORIDA -
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 14 - - CALIFORNIA - www.kenblanchard.com Madeleine Homan Blanchard is the Chief Coaching Architect of The Ken Blanchard Companies® and a co-founder of Blanchard Coaching Services. She is also a co-creator of the Coaching Management System, Blanchard’s proprietary software designed to help deliver coaching on a large scale in organisations. Blanchard strives to help companies all over the world take better care of their people with extraordinary leadership development content, consulting, training and coaching. Madeleine has 30 years of coaching experience, during which she has often worked with organisations to leverage professional coaching, teach coaching skills to leaders and create a coaching culture. Her areas of coaching expertise are numerous and include personal purpose work, leadership presence and effectiveness, strategic focus, selfawareness and impact with others. Madeleine is also a co-author of Blanchard’s programs Blanchard Management Essentials® and Coaching Essentials® and speaks frequently on the topics of coaching and neuroscience. Madeleine has long been a pioneer in the coaching profession, serving as a senior trainer and founding advisory board member of Coach University and a founding board member of The International Coach Federation, where she served for six years. She developed The Manager as Coach for The Ariel Group and spent two years with Bregman Partners as the director for a coaching program taught to 2,100 people at Goldman Sachs. She is a also Certified Mentor Coach, a Certified Master Coach, and a graduate of Coach University. Madeleine received her Bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Performance Studies from Georgetown University and her Master of Science degree in NeuroLeadership from the University of Middlesex
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 15 - - CALIFORNIA - What are your prime focuses in your role as Chief Coaching Architect? In my role as a subject matter expert in how companies can use coaching in all its forms, I: • oversee the quality of our coaches, starting with ensuring we hire only the best; • continually improve our coaching systems so that our coaching clients get the most out of their coaching and our client sponsors and stakeholders are delighted with the results of the coaching; • help our international partners to develop their coaching strategy and avoid mistakes we have made; • stay abreast of leadership, coaching and neuroscience research and developments in the coaching industry; • support customisationof our Coaching Essentials® content, which equips managers and leaders with a coaching mindset, a coaching process and core coaching skills; • write and speak on the topics of leadership, the coach approach for leaders, building a coaching culture and how the latest developments in social neuroscience can help coaches; • coach senior leaders and the executive sponsor of the coaching engagement in organisations. I am currently working on a Blanchard Leadership Coach Certification, which we are piloting with our coaches and will launch to the public in Q3 of 2023. How do you work to achieve your goal of ‘creating a coaching culture’? Like any culture work, creating a coaching culture is always a work in progress. It requires behavioural role modelling as well as constant reinforcement from top leadership. Because every company must decide for themselves what they mean by a coaching culture, no two cultures will look the same. For most companies, simply defining what they mean by coaching is a first step that takes a lot of work. Madeleine Homan Blanchard Chief Coaching Architect of The Ken Blanchard Companies COACHING SERVICES FOUNDER OF THE YEAR
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 16 - - CALIFORNIA - Many companies never make it past that first step, or they skip it altogether, which is a common cause of failure. Some companies focus more on the performance aspect of coaching while others are focused on the development and learning aspects of coaching. Research shows that a coaching culture is more likely to be achieved when organisational values, and the behaviours associated with them, align with a coach approach. Finally, the organisation needs to put real investment into the quest. This means addressing the need for coaching at all levels by providing professional coaching from internal and external coaches, teaching coaching skills to managers and leaders, and incentivising and rewarding defined coaching behaviours. There must be a way to measure accountability. This can be done with engagement surveys and performance reviews. When an organisation receives high scores on questions such as “I feel like my manager cares about my development” and “I can use my strengths and skills in most of my work”, it is an indication that things are moving in the right direction. Is there a particular creed or philosophy that informs your work? Our vision for Blanchard Coaching Services is that we love our client sponsors and create an environment in which their leaders can leverage coaching to realise anything and everything possible for themselves and their organisations. Our purpose is to help our clients be their best possible selves. To do this, we help them to: • achieve clarity about what is most important right now and what is most important in the long term; • set compelling goals and take steps toward achieving them; • have more awareness of themselves, their impact on others and their environment, and what it will take to be effective and to achieve their goals; • incorporate and integrate everything they learn as they move toward their goals and to use that knowledge to continually grow. There is a lot more. Suffice to say we have a detailed credo and exhaustively detailed definitions of what coaching is and is not, and what a coach does and does not do. How do you measure your success? Measuring the success of coaching is a bit of a holy grail. The keys are setting a clear agenda and organisational objectives at the outset and gaining the commitment of the client sponsor to help us gather feedback at the end. Measures require a baseline starting point and feedback when finished. If we cannot get feedback from coaching recipients and from their boss and direct reports, we cannot provide reliable ROI information. If we do not have a clear picture of what the organisation is trying to achieve by offering coaching, it is impossible to measure — so clarity is key. This is also true of setting goals with individual recipients of coaching: the clearer the goals are, the easier it is to assess the extent to which coaching helped clients reach those goals. We strive to ensure every client who receives coaching would recommend it to others; but, ultimately, “I loved my coach” or “I enjoyed my coaching experience” are worst-case scenarios. Examples of organisational objectives on which clients can track progress are: • increasing the quality and quantity of communication; • learning new ways to accelerate their own and others’ performance; • increasing objective metrics on business outcomes; • strengthening buy-in to stated cultural norms. “Like any culture work, creating a coaching culture is always a work in progress. It requires behavioural role modelling as well as constant reinforcement from top leadership.”
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 17 - - CALIFORNIA - Ideally, through online surveys and interviews, we learn that individuals can point to specific behaviour changes that have explicit results, e.g. a key employee who was planning to leave and take her best people with her decides to stay with the company. This kind of thing can be monetised because we know the cost of replacing one employee can be three to four times their salary. How has your interest in neuroscience informed your attitude toward coaching? The volume of research being done in the field of social neuroscience has essentially confirmed everything we have learned from the great leadership gurus — Warren Bennis, Peter Drucker and, if I may, Ken Blanchard. Of course, this is a perfect example of confirmation bias, so I work hard not to get too carried away. Until we had all the research, it was too easy for bottomline-focused businesspeople to dismiss what we teach as ‘touchy-feely’. However, not a week goes by without a new paper being published that unequivocally demonstrates that managers who create a psychologically safe environment attract and retain the best people and get the best from them. Did we need research to tell us that when people feel appreciated and respected they will work harder, take more appropriate risks, have more and better ideas and collaborate more effectively with their teammates? Apparently, we did. I could go on all day about this stuff. It makes me gleeful. Do you have any particular pieces of advice for less experienced coaches who may be able to learn from your success? Not all coach certification programs focus as much as I believe they should on what I think of as Personal Foundation. This means having a deep awareness of oneself — strengths, frailties, values and core psychological needs. I think the best coaches have such clarity on those things that they can better put their own agendas aside and be 100% present to serve the client. The most overlooked skill that is the hallmark of mastery is self-regulation. What does this award mean to you? I am tickled pink. I have spent the last 33 years working passionately on first making coaching a legitimate profession, then experimenting with the application of coaching to improve large, complex systems. Scott Blanchard and I created the very first Coaching Management System and it took me decades to understand how revolutionary that was. We were also the first to champion the idea of democratising coaching. I tend to be laser-focused on continual improvement and serving clients and tend to be oblivious to publicity and awards. I do not know how you found me, but it means a lot to me that you did. What can we expect to see from The Ken Blanchard Companies and your other ventures as we near the end of the year? As a company, we work tirelessly to make our exquisitely useful content available to a wider audience using all available technologies. We will continue to offer the finest leadership coaching while searching for and finding new ways to leverage technology. I am keenly aware that coaches are competing with artificial intelligence. I love technology, so I see my job as taking the best of what AI has to offer and making the highest and best use of rare and special human-to-human contact. “Not a week goes by without a new paper being published that unequivocally demonstrates that managers who create a psychologically safe environment attract and retain the best people.”
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 19 - - INDEX - C EO T O D A Y USA A W A R D S 2 0 2 2 INTRODUCING THE WINNERS USA Olivier Delrieu Trescal Calibration Services Leader of the Year ALABAMA Jan Henriksen Aviagen Poultry Farming Company of the Year Phil Ramsey Command Alkon Cloud Based Construction Software Provider of the Year Tom Stanton ADTRAN, Inc. Communications Solutions Company of the Year ARIZONA Bob Maguire BioLab Sciences BioScience Company of the year ATLANTA Paul Share Riveron Finance Transformations Leader of the Year CALIFORNIA Abeer Raz Tekrevol Software Development Company of the Year Abhijit Phanse United Layer IT Services Leader of the Year 26 Dan Leigh Corman Leigh Real Estate Leader of the Year
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 20 - - INDEX - David Mowry CUTERA Medical Aesthetic Company of the Year Greg Johnson McAfee Cybersecurity Company of the Year Jennifer M. Johnson Franklin Templeton Investments Investment Solutions Company of the Year Jessica Hawthorne Hawthorne Advertising Advertising Specialist of the Year Jill Griffin Advantage Solutions Marketing Services Company of the Year Laura Alber Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Consumer Retail Leader of the Year Madeleine Homan Blanchard Ken Blanchard Coaching Services Founder of the Year 14 Mitchell Nguyen WebBadge Digital Services Leader of the Year Richard Lewis Dean Lewis Associates Hardware Solutions Company of the Year Robert Bradway Amgen Biotechnology Company of the Year Steven Fisk Slidell Moving and Storage Trucking Services Leader of the Year COLORADO Jahna Eichel Fort Collins Creative Agency Creative Marketing & Branding CEO of the Year CONNECTICUT Brian Doubles Synchrony Consumer Financial Services Company of the Year 28 David Cordani Cigna Healthcare Insurance Company of the Year Scott Dahnke L Catterton International Private Equity Firm of the Year 30 DELAWARE Janice Nevin ChristianaCare Healthcare Leader of the Year 32 FLORIDA Brent Burns JM Family Enterprises Automotive Leader of the Year 34 Chief Gene Saunders Project Lifesaver International Non Profit Leader of the Year 36 John Ketchum NextEra Energy Innovation in Sustainable Energy John Kucyk Merchant Lynx Services Payments Solutions Leader of the Year 12 GEORGIA Craig Menear Home Depot Retailer of the Year
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 21 - - INDEX - Ryan Marshall PULTEGROUP, INC Construction Leader of the Year 38 W. Brant Aden W&A Engineering Civil Engineering Firm of the Year ILLINOIS Brian Mavraganes Option One Energy, LLC Sustainable Energy Company of the Year Dan Hickey Jabian Consulting Business Strategy Advisory Firm of the Year Robert Ford Abbott Laboratories Medical Technology Company of the Year Tim Walbert Horizon Therapeutics Pharmaceuticals Leader of the Year 42 Tom Wilson The Allstate Corporation Insurance Company of the Year INDIANA David Ricks Eli Lilly and Company Medicines Manufacturing Company of the Year 44 IOWA Marty Vanderploeg Workiva Software Leader of the Year 46 KENTUCKY Scott Sewell Charah Solutions Fossil Services & Solutions Company of the Year LOUISIANA Enzo Calamo Lugen Family Office Legacy Planning & Wealth Management Leader of the Year Leo Denault Entergy Corporation Energy Leader of the Year 48 MAINE Melissa Smith WEX Inc Fintech Leader of the Year 50 MARYLAND Adam H. Stedham GP Strategies Business Services Leader of the Year 52 Charles Lambert Charles Lambert Divisions Program Management Services Leader of the Year James Balda Argentum Home Care Services of the Year James Taiclet Lockheed Martin Corporation Aerospace Company of the Year Ken Buch SHIFT Transformational Coaching & Consulting Service of the Year
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 22 - - INDEX - MASSACHUSETTS Stuart Long InfoBionic Virtual Telemetry Company of the Year Tom Leighton Akamai Technologies Information Technology Leader of the Year 54 MICHIGAN Sara E. Armbruster Steelcase Furniture Manufacturing Company of the Year 56 MINNESOTA Beth Ford Land O’Lakes Agriculture Leader of the Year Bradley DeWolf Bolton & Menk Engineering Leader of the Year 58 MISSOURI Kenneth Bateman SoutheastHEALTH USAs Leading Healthcare System NEVADA Larry Pepe Larry Pepe Training, Nutrition & Supplementation Leader of the Year NEW HAMPSHIRE Eric Soederberg Sunrise Labs Inc Engineering Consulting Company of the Year 62 NEW JERSEY Alex Gorsky Johnson and Johnson Chairman of the Year Jonathan Wilk CompoSecure, L.L.C. Financial Services Leader of the Year 64 Owusu Kizito Investigroup Companies Non Profit Leader of the Year Robert M. Davis Merck Innovation in Health Solutions William Cullen AEGIS Insurance Services, Inc. Insurance Services Leader of the Year NEW YORK Anu Dattani Universal Relocations Shipping Solutions Company of the Year James Owens Cisive Employment Screening Solutions Leader of the Year
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 23 - - INDEX - Keren Levy Payoneer Cross Boarder Payment Platform of the Year Larry Fink BlackRock Investment & Technology Solutions Company of the Year Michelle Keefe Syneos Health Biopharmaceutical Solutions Company of the Year Ramon Laguarta PepsiCo Global Leader in Convenient Foods & Beverages Steve Squeri American Express Credit Card Service Company of the Year NORTH CAROLINA Carl S. Armato Novant Health Healthcare Provider of the Year 66 OHIO Dennis Postema Postema Insurance and Investments Insurance & Investments Leader of the Year OKLAHOMA Tammy Frazier American Data Plates, Inc. Female CEO of the Year OREGON Jon Thomsen Atmosers Security Solutions Technology of the Year PENNSYLVANIA Brad Domitrovitsch americanenergy-inc.com Environmental Service Company of the Year Douglas C. Yearley, Jr. Toll Brothers, Inc. Building & Construction Company of the Year 68 PUERTO RICO Oscar Flores Malpica SIGNS & MEDIA Printing Services Company of the Year SOUTH CAROLINA Christopher Kemper Palmetto Clean Technology, Inc. Solar Energy Solutions Company of the Year 70 Jason Dandridge CDG Billing Solutions Company of the Year TENNESSEE Eric Fuller U.S. Xpress Logistics Leader of the Year
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - 24 - - INDEX - John McDearman III Wilson Bank & Trust Banking Leader of the Year 72 Randy Hensley Coalition for Kids Non Profit Company of the Year TEXAS Adam Romo Eatzi’s Market & Bakery Food & Beverage Services Leader of the Year 74 Alexander Colosivschi Currux Vision AI Technology Leader of the Year 77 Bob Jordan Southwest Airlines Executive of the Year Chris Morris Dave & Buster’s Hospitality Leader of the Year Clemens Pfeiffer Tier44 Technologies, Inc. Leading Developer of Data Center Management Software CY Zheng Sanhua North America Manufacturing Leader of the Year James J. Talerico, Jr. Greater Prairie Business Consulting, Inc. Business Consulting Leader of the Year 78 L. Pierre de Rochemont Frontier Nanosystems Professional Services Company of the Year Lisa Su Advanced Micro Devices Semiconductor Company of the Year Walter Bettinger II Charles Schwab Corporation Brokerage Company of the Year UTAH Terrence Moorehead Nature’s Sunshine Natural Health & Wellness Company of the Year 6 VIRGINIA Andres Gluski The AES Corporation Utility & Power Generation Company of the Year Anthony M. Irudhayanathan Zillion Technologies Cybersecurity Leader of the Year WASHINGTON Olu Burrell Olu Burrell Consulting Executive Coach of the Year Preston Feight PACCAR Automotive Manufacturing Company of the Year Suzanne Sitherwood Sprire Inc. Utilities Leader of the Year WISCONSIN Blake Moret Rockwell Automation Industrial Automation Company of the Year 80 Nathan Quinnell Prevail Bank Personal Banking Services of the Year
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - CALIFORNIA - Chief Executive Officer Abhijit Phanse leads a group of companies; UnitedLayer, United Private Cloud, and UnityOneCloud. UnitedLayer is one of the leading Hybrid Cloud solution provider, whereas United Private Cloud delivers industry-leading high-performance software defined Private Clouds, and UnityOneCloud offers DCIM and Multicloud management SaaS platform. Abhijit has a strong vision and passion for entrepreneurship. A technology veteran, Abhijit has over two decades of senior management, operating, and investing experience in technology businesses. He has led high-growth companies across diverse technology sectors. Abhijit also serves as the Managing Partner of Accelon Capital, a private equity firm that invests in growth-stage companies. Before leading UnitedLayer, Abhijit was the co-founder and CEO of Scintera (acquired by NYSE: INPHI and NASDAQ: MXIM), a leading provider of high-speed wireline chipsets for data centers and high-performance wireless chipsets for base stations. Abhijit has a proven track record of successfully launching companies in technology-intensive industries and driving strong profitable growth. He also held global leadership roles at National Semiconductor before founding Scintera, where he led the development and commercialization of Ethernet networking products. Abhijit has a B.Tech. Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, an MS in Management from Stanford Business School, and an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida. Combining these diverse experiences has given him an appreciation for the challenges and thrill of both entrepreneurship and large-scale projects. Also, Abhijit has authored numerous publications and has over 50 US patents. - 26 -
CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - CALIFORNIA - - 27 - UnitedLayer was established in 2001 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. It is a global hybrid cloud solution provider offering colocation, private cloud hosting, managed cloud services, and multicloud management solutions. In 2010 UnitedLayer was acquired by a private equity fund, Accelon Capital. Its key industries include TMT, BFSI, Public Sector, Healthcare, Retail, Logistics, and Oil & Gas, with 300+ clients globally with its footprints spread across 100+ DC locations globally UnitedLayer’s portfolio ecosystem includes: • UnitedLayer colocation provides data center and colocation services with fully redundant infrastructure, superior outage protection, and a seamless software-defined 40G to 100G network. • United Private Cloud provides a softwaredefined private cloud with On-Demand( VM, vRAM, vCPU ) powered by VMware, Hyper-V, OpenStack, and bare metal. Cloud offerings can be installed in any Data Center to provide highperformance, optimized, highly secured, and highly available private cloud infrastructure. • UnityOneCloud: SaaS platform for multicloud management of data centers, private cloud, and public clouds. It has plug-ins into AWS, Azure, OCI, GCP (including being used with Google to extend Anthos), and private cloud (VMware, OpenStack, KVM, and Hyper-V). Abhijit Phanse CEO of UnitedLayer www.unitedlayer.com IT SERVICES LEADER OF THE YEAR
www.synchrony.com Brian Doubles is President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Synchrony, one of the nation’s premier consumer financial services companies. Brian was named CEO in 2021, after serving as President for two years and as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for 10 years. As President, Brian led the development of Synchrony’s longterm strategy, driving profitability and growth, while creating value for its partners and shareholders. In this role he focused on Synchrony’s continued leadership in digital payments, accelerating growth, driving the company’s strategic initiatives and transforming how Synchrony works. In addition, he led Synchrony’s strategic prioritization process, including efforts centered around accelerating Synchrony’s digital transformation and commercial strategies. Brian also led Synchrony’s work to elevate diversity and inclusion, focusing on driving enterprise-wide action and change in workforce development and inclusion; financial growth and wellness; and racial equality and social reform. As CFO, he played a pivotal role in Synchrony’s initial public offering in 2014 and separation from GE in 2015. Brian has a proven track record operating in various economic cycles and has earned a strong reputation for his deep domain expertise, strategic thinking, and financial and risk discipline. CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - CONNECTICUT - - 28 -
Synchrony is a premier consumer financial services company delivering one of the industry’s most complete digitally-enabled product suites. Our experience, expertise and scale encompass a broad spectrum of industries including digital, health and wellness, retail, telecommunications, home, auto, powersports, pet and more. We have an established and diverse group of national and regional retailers, local merchants, manufacturers, buying groups, industry associations and healthcare service providers, which we refer to as our “partners.” We connect our partners and consumers through our dynamic financial ecosystem and provide them with a diverse set of financing solutions and innovative digital capabilities to address their specific needs and deliver seamless, omnichannel experiences. We offer the right financing products to the right customers in their channel of choice. Retail. Healthcare. Auto. Travel. Home. They’re some of life’s most important spending categories, and Synchrony offers a range of financing products across all of them, and more. Founded on the concept of building lasting, loyal relationships through credit, we’ve become the largest private label credit card brand in the United States. Plus, as a regulated bank, we provide the structure and support you expect. Because at Synchrony, it’s not just about financing purchases. It’s about providing innovative financing and tools that give businesses and customers the power to thrive. We’re shaping the future of retail financing and customer engagement every day. How? We combine technology and analytics to stay ahead of emerging trends, then pilot new programs and partnerships to deliver innovative solutions fast. WE’RE MORE THAN A FINANCING PARTNER, WE’RE A BUSINESS PARTNER. From payment solutions to loyalty-building marketing, we’re here with insights that can help you make the most of every opportunity. With 90 years of proven expertise across key industries and a range of business customers in all sizes, we provide value beyond just financing. Our deep insights into consumer behavior, trends and technology help merchants stay ahead of the curve — and stay competitive. From payment solutions to loyalty-building marketing, we’re here with insights that can help you make the most of every opportunity. Brian Doubles CEO of Synchrony CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - CONNECTICUT - - 29 - CONSUMER FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPANY OF THE YEAR
www.LCatterton.com “With more than $33 billion of equity capital across its fund strategies and 17 offices around the world, L Catterton is the largest global consumerfocused private equity firm.” CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - CONNECTICUT - - 30 -
Scott Dahnke is the Global co-Chief Executive Officer of L Catterton. With more than $33 billion of equity capital across its fund strategies and 17 offices around the world, L Catterton is the largest global consumer-focused private equity firm. Leveraging deep category insight, operational excellence, and a broad strategic network of relationships, L Catterton’s team of nearly 200 investment, and operating professionals support management teams around the world in building strong, categoryleading brands. Since 1989, the firm has made approximately 250 investments in consumer businesses. Scott has spent the last 25 years in private equity and has led or co-led over 35 investments. His broader business experience includes private equity, consulting, management, and finance. Before entering the investment arena, Scott was the CEO of Nasdaq-listed infoUSA (since taken private as “Data Axle”), a leading provider of business and consumer marketing products and services. He led the company to an unprecedented string of consecutive record quarters, growing the company’s market capitalization to roughly $1billionandhelping the company earn recognition as one of Forbes’ “Top 200 Small Companies in America.” Previously, Scott served consumer-focused clients on a wide array of strategic and operational matters as a Partner at McKinsey & Company. His early career also includes experience in the Merger Department of Goldman Sachs and internationally with General Motors. Scott received a B.S., magna cum laude, in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He also earned academic honors while receiving an MBA from the Harvard Business School and completed the Executive Education Program at Stanford Law School’s Directors’ College. Scott has served as a National Judge for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award multiple times, has been quoted in numerous publications (including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Barron’s, and Forbes), and has lectured at Notre Dame and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Amongst other accolades, Scott was selected by the National Retail Federation as a “Power Player” in 2017. Scott serves on numerous private company boards. In the public domain, he serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of WilliamsSonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM) and on the NYSE Board of Advisors. Scott also chairs the Provost’s Leadership Group and serves on the Advisory Council for the Student Athlete at the University of Notre Dame, is Chairman of the Investment Committee and a Trustee of Brunswick School, and a Trustee of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. He is also a founding member of the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion. He previously served in the not-for-profit arena as a board member of the American Red Cross of New York and the American Federation of Arts. Scott A. Dahnke Global co-CEO of L Catterton CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - CONNECTICUT - - 31 - INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM OF THE YEAR
www.christianacare.org A visionary and collaborative health care leader, Janice E. Nevin, M.D., MPH, has served as president and CEO of ChristianaCare since 2014, leading a transformation from a health care system to a system that truly impacts health. She is nationally recognized as a pioneer and thought leader in value-based care and population health, and for her assertion that truly great health care is built on the values of love and excellence. These values are exemplified in her commitment to health equity and anti-racism, and to improving health, making high-quality care more accessible and lowering health care costs for everyone in the communities that ChristianaCare has the privilege to serve. Her leadership has also vaulted ChristianaCare to national recognition for its advancement of caregiver wellbeing through the work of the Center for WorkLife Wellbeing. Under Dr. Nevin’s leadership, ChristianaCare developed the unique data-driven care coordination platform CareVio™ to proactively address patients’ social and behavioral health needs in addition to their medical needs. This program supports patients across the continuum of care and is demonstrating better health outcomes while reducing the cost of care. It earned the 2017 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award, the nation’s preeminent recognition for quality and safety in health care, and a 2017 Stand Up for Patient Safety Management Award from the National Patient Safety Foundation. CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - DELAWARE - - 32 -
Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, ChristianaCare is one of the country’s most dynamic health care organizations, centered on improving health outcomes, making high-quality care more accessible and lowering health care costs. ChristianaCare includes an extensive network of outpatient services, home health care, urgent care centers, three hospitals (1,430 beds), a free-standing emergency department, a Level I trauma center and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, a comprehensive stroke center and regional centers of excellence in heart and vascular care, cancer care and women’s health. It also includes the pioneering Gene Editing Institute and was rated by IDG Computerworld as one of the nation’s Best Places toWork in IT. ChristianaCare is a nonprofit teaching health system with more than 260 residents and fellows. It is continually ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a Best Hospital. With the unique CareVio data-powered care coordination service and a focus on population health and valuebased care, ChristianaCare is shaping the future of health care. Our mission as an organization is to serve our neighbors as expert, caring partners in their health. We do this by creating innovative, effective, affordable systems of care that our neighbors value. This is our promise to you. We call it The ChristianaCare Way. ChristianaCare has the most advanced health care technology available to help meet your needs. But more important than the technology is our commitment to partner with you to meet your individual needs. We want to care for you and help you live the healthy life you want to live. Janice E. Nevin President & CEO of ChristianaCare CEO Today USA Award s 2022 - DELAWARE - - 33 - HEALTHCARE LEADER OF THE YEAR
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