Latter-day Saint MBA Podcast

Derrin builds empowered individuals and teams, systems for growth, motivated communities, and strong companies. Having founded/co-founded 10 companies to date. The most recent company is RevRoad, a venture services firm, with a portfolio of 44 high growth technology companies. He has worked across the United States and over a dozen countries around the world. Derrin’s greatest priority is his role in building a great marriage and a wonderful family with his wife Nicole and their five children. He is a graduate of Duke University Fuqua School of Business and Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.While growing many companies organically, Derrin has also created growth with several M&A events. These deals ranged from several million dollars to well over $100M. Derrin has also led many government relations campaigns working with Governors and state legislatures to establish legislation and funding for state level business deals in over a dozen states. Derrin has served as a Director on many Boards including the Smithsonian Science Education Center, the DECA National Advisory Board, BYU Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, and the Virginia Tech Innovate National Advisory Board. corporate boards such as Imagine Learning, Glynlyon, Journeyfront, Elios, PhoneSoap, Hallo, RaceReady, and others.At Imagine Learning Derrin led all revenue activities from the start and today Imagine Learning serves over 2 million students each day. As majority owner and chairman of the board at PhoneSoap, he helped the team grow from an early prototype and almost no revenue to being the industry leader in UV disinfection to prevent infectious disease. These patterns of growth continue at RevRoad and RevRoad portfolio companies. In addition to entrepreneurial ventures and building companies as a board member, Derrin helped create the digital division at the world’s largest educational publisher, Pearson Education with record-breaking success.Volunteer service is important to Derrin with service to the Boy Scouts of America, DECA, Junior Achievement, Rising Star Outreach India for those affected by leprosy, Mother’s Without Borders, Dahlia’s Hope, The Responsibility Foundation, Ryan White Program, The Family Support & Treatment shelter for battered women and children, a variety of youth groups, public school community councils, church and civic organizations.Derrin grew up on a farm in Missouri where he learned the importance of growth, to work smart and hard, the power of teams, and to be amazed by people and nature.  He graduated High School in the top of the class while working two part time jobs to save money to serve as a volunteer for two years in Australia at 19 years old.Derrin’s Specialties: Leadership, strategy, mergers & acquisitions, government relations, building sales organizations and systems, competitive analysis, contract negotiation, effective compensation structures, branding, attracting and retaining the strongest industry talent, forecasting, building sustainable and profitable business models.

Stephen W. Gibson has created or funded more than a dozen entrepreneurial businesses, including being the first investor in 1-800-Contacts, Omniture, and Ancestry.com. He also co-founded the Utah Angels, the first Angel investment group in Utah. In 1999, he and Bette moved to the Philippines on their own for 19 months and created a non-profit educational system, The Academy for Creating Enterprise, for Filipino returned missionaries. The Academy now has more than 671 alumni chapters in the Philippines, Mexico, Peru and expanded to Brazil in 2019. The chapters are led by more than 1,900 volunteers who are learning leadership skills that they apply in business, church, family and their communities. Gibson also taught as Entrepreneur in Residence and later as full-time faculty for the Marriott school for a total of 15 years having retired in 2011. He continues to enjoy writing, investing and mentoring and traveling with his wife, Bette. They have been married for 56 years.

Whitney Johnson shares her journey from Wall Street to entrepreneurship, discussing how family dynamics shape professional paths. She delves into the significance of self-awareness, addressing challenges like imposter syndrome and the importance of recognizing personal growth. The conversation highlights the balance of faith and professional life, showcasing how spiritual principles can thrive in secular environments. Whitney also introduces concepts from her upcoming book on smart growth and self-disruption, emphasizing moral courage and resilience in life's trials.

Mike Maughan (Northwestern's Kellogg MBA student) interviews Ryan Smith about scaling your whole life .

Spencer Millerberg is an average mountain biker, a bad golfer, and a good samaritan. Professionally, Spencer worked in marketing and merchandising for Amazon.com and Walmart before founding One Click Retail, the first Amazon analytics and sales measurement tool. He and his partners sold One Click Retail to a London based firm and finished working there in 2019. Spencer is currently working on his next business, holds various board positions, and is active in building mountain bike trails in Utah and in the non-profit space at large.  Spencer holds a BS in International Finance and an MBA from Brigham Young University. Spencer and his wife Amanda live in South Jordan Utah with their 5 children. 

Crystal Green grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and is the second of five daughters in a family of six kids. As a kid, she'd organize her siblings to create small stands and compete to see who could earn the most fake money with their idea. This was the beginning of her interest in business. After graduating cum laude from Harvard, she came to Utah to work for a non-profit called Humanitarian Experience, Inc or HEFY. At HEFY she travelled the world, planning humanitarian trips for LDS teens. When she became Executive Director of HEFY, she transformed their finances to be independent of external donors and doubled the size of the organization. While at HEFY, Crystal applied for law school but the Founders were adamant that Business School would be a better option. It took multiple grad school standardized tests, personal essays, and lost deposits for her to come to the same conclusion, that an MBA was more up her alley. Crystal attended Oxford Said, living with her husband beside the business school. It was an incredible opportunity to learn about business surrounded by people from all over the world. After graduating, she went to work for Qualtrics as a Global Operations Manager and then as the Manager of the Workflow Automations and Analytics team. She was at Qualtrics through the SAP acquisition and led the procurement of Genesys to improve the technology around their support. After almost 2 years, she left Qualtrics to spend more time with her family. She now has two young children (2 years and 6 months), serves on several Boards, consults on data and operations part-time, and is training for a triathlon. She feels busy and fulfilled and looks forward to returning to more full-time work when her children are a little less dependent on her.

Gavin Christensen is the founding visionary at Kickstart Fund. In 2008, he recognized the need for both leadership and seed-stage capital in the region, so he launched Kickstart to fill this gap. Starting a seed-stage firm away from the coasts amidst the Great Recession was not easy, to say the least. But this experience means Gavin understands what it’s like to see a vision for the future that few others do, and he knows what it takes to make that vision a reality. His guidance to founders is born of first-hand experience and a desire to build not just a fund but an entire ecosystem. Kickstart is now the most active investor in Utah and has expanded to Colorado, New Mexico, and the rest of the Mountain West. Gavin loves being part of the startup journey for entrepreneurs. Before helping to pave the way for seed funding in Utah, Colorado, and the Mountain West, Gavin was an analyst, associate, and principal at vSpring Capital (now Signal Peak). Outside of Kickstart, Gavin can be found spending time with his family, multitasking while riding his Onewheel, fine-tuning his VR gaming skills, and playing tennis.

Christopher Gong (Wharton MBA student) interviews Senator Mitt Romney about faith, balance, and success.

Jane Clayson Johnson is an award-winning broadcast journalist widely known for her work over the last decade as a radio host on NPR.  Before that, Jane worked in television for many years… first at CBS News, hosting the network morning program, interviewing presidents and Hollywood stars. Many remember her high-profile interview with Martha Stewart… just before Martha went to prison. Jane was also on the air on 9/11.  Before CBS, Jane was a correspondent at ABC News, where she traveled the world from Kosovo to Indonesia, covering the biggest news stories of the day.  She started her career at KSL Television in Salt Lake City.  Jane is an accomplished musician… she went to BYU on a violin performance scholarship. A popular speaker — Jane is also the best-selling author of two books. Her latest book, Silent Souls Weeping, is a candid look inside the core-shaking world of clinical depression. Jane and her husband, Mark Johnson live outside Boston.Mark W. Johnson co-founded the strategy and innovation management consultancy Innosight with Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen, in 2000 (which was acquired by the Huron Consulting Group in 2017). Mark advises CEOs and other leaders on how to envision the future, create new growth, and manage transformation. He is the co-author of the book Lead from the Future: How to Turn Visionary Thinking into Breakthrough Growth (April 2020), a manifesto for “Future Back” thinking and a hands-on guide to long-term planning, strategy development, and execution within established organizations. He is also the author of Reinvent Your Business Model: How to Seize the White Space for Transformative Growth (2018) and a co-author of Dual Transformation: How to Reposition Today’s Business While Creating the Future (2017), Mark has written and co-written numerous articles for a wide range of publications, including the McKinsey Award-winning “Reinventing Your Business Model” for Harvard Business Review, one of HBR’s 50 Best-Selling articles of all time. Prior to Innosight, Mark was a nuclear power-trained surface-warfare officer in the U.S. Navy. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School, a master’s degree in civil engineering and engineering mechanics from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree with distinction in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy. Mark and his wife Jane Clayson Johnson are the parents of five children and the grandparents of three.Links: Silent Souls WeepingLead from the Future

Davis is the founder and CEO of Cotopaxi, an outdoor gear brand with a humanitarian mission. He is a member of the United Nations Foundation's "Global Leadership Council" and a Presidential Leadership Scholar. Davis was Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s “CEO of the Year” and previously started Brazil’s "Startup of the Year." Davis holds an MBA from the Wharton School, an MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from Brigham Young University. Davis is an adventurer who has floated down the Amazon on a self-made raft, kayaked from Cuba to Florida, and explored North Korea. He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Asialene, and their four children.