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

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.  

Abby Smith is the President and CEO of Team Pennsylvania, where she leads statewide efforts to build strategic public-private partnerships that address long-term challenges no single sector can solve alone. With more than 20 years of experience in policy, strategy, and cross-sector collaboration, Abby has held leadership roles advancing economic development, education, and workforce initiatives in Pennsylvania and beyond. She previously served as Team Pennsylvania’s Vice President of Policy & Programs and Senior Advisor to the Foundation, and earlier in her career worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Teach For America, and as a 7th grade social studies teacher. Abby holds degrees from Yale University, The Johns Hopkins University, and Carnegie Mellon University. A recipient of the Above & Beyond Award honoring Pennsylvania women of public and civic leadership, she also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg and the Jewish Community Center, where she led the acquisition of the Alexander Grass Campus for Jewish Life. She lives in Hershey, Pennsylvania with her husband, twin sons, and dog, Comet.

With over 20 years of experience at the intersection of sales, construction, and technology, David Hernandez has built a career around leading high-performing teams, scaling businesses, and driving meaningful transformation through innovation. As Managing Director of Elecosoft North America, he leads operations, sales, marketing, and customer success while shaping go-to-market strategy and product direction to meet the evolving needs of the U.S. and Canadian construction markets. David’s focus is helping executives and organizations bridge the gaps between people, processes, and technology—delivering software solutions that connect the office, site, and workforce. By addressing these disconnects, he enables companies to improve efficiency, reduce risk, and increase profitability in a rapidly changing industry. Throughout his career, David has consistently delivered results—growing revenue, expanding customer bases, launching new products, and turning underperforming teams into top performers. He combines hands-on sales expertise with strategic leadership to align teams around growth, accountability, and operational excellence. David leads with four core values: focus on what can be controlled, help others succeed, build a meaningful legacy, and remain intentionally curious. These principles guide how he builds teams, partnerships, and solutions that create long-term impact for both customers and the industry.

Jon Bassford is an operations professional and entrepreneur driven by his Curiosity! Curiosity is his superpower, and it has driven his personal and professional advancement. After law school, Jon put this curiosity to work by launching, managing, and improving operations for venture-backed startups and global nonprofits with a positive impact. For Jon, there is nothing that curiosity can’t help. Today, Jon is recognized for his curiosity-driven leadership, which helps organizations and individuals innovate, change, and grow by adopting Curiosity as their superpower.   Throughout his career, Jon has led organizations with innovation, growth, and change. His career, spanning over 15 years, has involved working at the director, VP, and C-Suite levels before creating Lateral Solutions and serving in similar roles as a Consultant and Fractional COO. Jon has a proven track record of delivering tactical and strategic solutions to growing startups, small businesses, and nonprofits.

Matt Guse is President of M.R.S. Machining Co., Inc. Matt Guse and his wife Vicki own M.R.S. Machining Co., Inc. was started by his father in 1986 in his garage. Matt has been in the manufacturing industry for over 30 years. Matt has also been very active in his community by serving on his local school board, he is a licensed official for both football and basketball, and serves on the Chippewa Valley Technical College Machine Tool Advisory board. Matt Guse also was part of the startup of Cardinal Manufacturing at the Eleva-Strum school by donating equipment. He continues to donate his time and expertise to this great educational opportunity on a regular basis. He is keenly interested in developing new talent and ideas for the manufacturing industry and created two patents for cutting tools that he himself developed. Matt is also an author, and you can find his book MRS Machining: A Manufacturing Story on Amazon.

As a seasoned digital marketing industry veteran, I work to daily put into practice the lessons of generosity and “helping, not selling” that have been shown to be my so many colleagues over my career. My purpose in business is to help marketers and companies to get the most out of their digital marketing strategies, tactics, and investments. Despite all of the distractions, constant change in our industry, and competitive forces in the digital marketplace, I can count hundreds of specific examples of success and ROI and the realization of return on investment in subject matter that sometimes doesn’t feel possible. I’m an industry speaker, best-selling author, contributor to top publications, conference founder, board member, and guest weekly on podcasts about digital strategy, digital marketing, the START Planning process, and how to build a Digital Marketing Success Plan™ All of those things are connected back to my purpose and drive to help people and teams reach their goals and full potential in digital marketing. Through speaking, coaching, and the work of my digital agency, I have the privilege of working with some great people in finding their paths to success. Skills: - Digital Strategy - Digital Marketing - Speaking - Book Writing - Podcasts - Lead Generation - ROI Strategy Planning - Website Strategy - Website Creation - SEO - Search Marketing - Article Writing Digital Marketing Success Plan™ website: https://thedmsp.com Connect with me at corey@thedmsp.com

Kevin is the father of the Virtual Assistant and a Silicon Valley innovator, serial entrepreneur, CEO, and futurist. He was INC Magazines’ Entrepreneur of the Year, a CNBC top Innovator of the Decade, World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, Chair of Silicon Valley Forum, Planet Forward Innovator of the Year nominee, featured for 5 years on TechTV’s Silicon Spin, and inducted into RIT’s Innovation Hall of Fame. He has 94 worldwide patents and led pioneering work on the first cellular data smartphone (AirCommunicator), the first human-like AI virtual assistant (Portico), soundproof drywall, high R-value windows, AI-driven building management, Generative AI for QA automation, supply-chain auctions, and the window/energy retrofits of the Empire State Building and NY Stock Exchange. His upcoming book, titled The Joy Success Cycle, changes the way people act and think every day, leading to more fulfilment and life success.

As CEO of AFIRE, Gunnar Branson brings nearly three decades of experience across commercial real estate, professional services, education, and association leadership. Prior to joining AFIRE in 2018, he served as CEO of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers (NAREIM), and before that, he led strategy and marketing for Fortune 500 and other innovative mid-market companies. As a recognized thought leader, Gunnar is a regular speaker, panelist, and spokesperson for the global real estate and investing community, focused on institutional investing, urbanism, sustainability, and future trends.

Brandon Acker is CEO of Titan Abrasive Systems.  Bio: I acquired Titan Abrasive from my uncle in 2013, after working with him for years learning the industry. I had two main goals in the early days. One was to keep costs low for customers by selling direct to them versus through a huge distributor network. I had seen the challenges – including the long lead times and meeting quotas versus providing the best system. Second, I wanted to solve some of the legacy industry challenges, such as blast cabinet legs that crumbled at the mere bump of a fork-lift and energy inefficient equipment. I wanted Titan blast equipment to meet the rigorous demands of companies blasting on a daily or even 24/7 basis – while providing unmatched performance benefits. The Titan team has achieved all this and more. Today, the Titan name is synonymous with rugged, high performance blast equipment that’s custom engineered to solve tough application challenges.  What’s in our future? Like you, we’re navigating supply chain challenges and rising costs.  We’re redesigning our media reclaim system, and want to take another look at our dust collector. We’ve begun our move into more complex application challenges in the nuclear, aerospace, and energy industries. And, we want to expand our team. But one thing will never change: You deal with us. No reps, no middlemen, no waiting weeks for an RFQ. You get intelligent engineering, product advice, and friendly customer service that can’t be beat. That’s the Titan difference.  

Jeff DeBoer is the founding President and CEO of The Real Estate Roundtable. He has been at the forefront of national policy affecting the real estate industry for the past 40 years. The Real Estate Roundtable represents the leadership of the nation’s top 150 privately owned and publicly-held real estate ownership, development, lending and management firms, as well as the elected leaders of the 18 major national real estate industry trade associations. Roundtable member portfolios contain over 12 billion square feet of office, retail and industrial properties valued at nearly $4 trillion; over 5 million apartment units; and in excess of 6 million hotel rooms. The 18 national trade associations participating with the Roundtable represent more than 3 million people directly employed in the real estate industry. Mr. DeBoer also chairs the National Real Estate Organizations, a 17 member real estate trade association coalition focused on industry communication, advocacy and diversity efforts as well as the Real Estate Industry Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RE-ISAC), an organization dedicated to enhancing communication between the industry and federal policymakers on terrorism threats, building security, and major incident reporting. He is a founding member of the steering committee of the Coalition to Insure Against Terrorism (CIAT) and for several years he co-chaired the Advisory Board of the RAND Corporation’s Center for Terrorism Risk Management Policy. Mr. DeBoer previously served on the Advisory Board of Washington DC’s Smithsonian National Zoological Park and Conservation Biology Institute. Mr. DeBoer has discussed real estate and economic policy issues numerous times in Congressional testimony as well as on FOX News, Bloomberg Television, MSNBC and CNBC; and his editorials have been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. In 2010, Globest.com named Mr. DeBoer a “top 10 Industry Newsmaker of the Decade”; in 2013 Commercial Property Executive named him one of the “30 most influential people in real estate”; in 2016 Real Estate Forum honored him as the “Voice of the Industry” and one of the nation’s top CRE bosses; in 2017 Washington Life Magazine included Mr. DeBoer in its “Power 100” list of Washington DC’s most influential unelected, non-governmental people; and since 2017, The Hill has placed Mr. DeBoer on its annual list of the top lobbyists in Washington DC, a list it called: “the players at the top of their game, known for their ability to successfully navigate the byzantine and competitive world of federal policymaking.” In 2024, in recognition of his positive influence on national public policy, Commercial Property Executive presented Mr. DeBoer with its Lifetime Achievement award. Mr. DeBoer earned degrees from Washington and Lee University School of Law (JD) and Yankton College (BA).