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

Howdy started working at Chelsea Milling Company in 1963 as a sophomore in high school. He worked in many departments, learning the company from the ground up during his high school and college summer breaks. He left the company in 1968 saying he would return later, but first, he was going to pursue a boyhood dream. He wanted to be a race car driver. He spent 20 years in motorsports winning regional races, the Formula Atlantic Championship, and Rookie of the Year at the Indianapolis 500 in 1979. He competed in the Indy 500 six times,  qualifying on the front row in 1984, and held the best average finishing record of anyone who started more than four events from 1911 – 1988 when he retired from driving race cars. As a businessman, Howdy operated a motorsports marketing company and an advertising company, which served the motorsports community. He authored an award-winning book called, “Formula Car Technology” and was a contributing writer for magazines and newspapers about racing. He was also one of the first color commentators of racing for ESPN. Howdy rejoined the family business in 1987. “The relationships between racing teams  and manufacturing are kind of twin sisters in the sense that you’re always trying to  improve something with the mechanical equipment.” Howdy led a transformation of the then 100-year-old family business. With the help of others, a professionally managed strategic vision was successfully introduced. Today, known for its Quality and Value, “JIFFY” Mix is uniquely positioned for the  21st Century. “JIFFY” is the market share leader in retail prepared baking mixes. In  2007, Chelsea Milling Company entered the foodservice market space, selling to  commercial and non-commercial customers.

Ross Wainwright is a seasoned software executive with a proven 30-year record of fast-tracking ideas that will disrupt existing markets. As Alida’s leader, Wainwright firmly believes in a world where the best business decisions are those made ​with​ customers, not ​for​ them. He has aligned his global team to help companies uncover and action their customers’ truths to improve experiences and create meaningful relationships. Wainwright has set Alida on course to realize an aggressive growth agenda that accelerates innovation and provides the utmost value to its customers. Before joining Alida in December 2019, Wainwright was CEO of the Americas region for global networking and services provider Dimension Data/NTT. Prior to that, he spent over 15 years with SAP, where his most recent roles were Chief Customer Officer for the S/4Hana Cloud business unit and Global Head of Financial Services. Wainwright has been featured in the Globe and Mail, Forbes, BNN Bloomberg and named #21 on the list of ‘Top 50 SaaS CEOs of 2020’ by the Software Report.

DAVE HATAJ is the second-generation president and owner of Edgerton Gear, Inc., a Wisconsin-based custom gear manufacturer, where has worked for over 30 years. As a journeyman machinist by age twenty-one, he then earned a Bachelor's Degree from the University of California-Irvine. He completed his master’s thesis of Systems Theory and Family Business from Regent College in Vancouver, BC. In 2014 he earned a Doctorate of Transformational Leadership from Bakke Graduate University, developing a curriculum called Craftsman with Character. The course introduces high school students to the trades and manufacturing as an excellent career path, while developing character and soft skills. (https://www.craftsmanwithcharacter.org/) He is the author of Good Work: How Blue Collar Business Can Change Lives, Communities, and the World. (Moody Publishers April 2020)

JR Canada Restaurant Group Ltd. (JRC) was founded in 2015 by Canadian business entrepreneur Lewis Gelmon, better known as the original master developer for Domino’s Pizza in Canada. In 2015, JRC purchased the Canadian Master Development rights (“Master License Agreement”) for Johnny Rockets, an iconic world renowned “Americana” restaurant brand. Gelmon raised and contributed to the initial equity seed capital of $8.8 million with plans to expand JRC across Canada via acquisition and franchising. By the end of 2019, JRC had proven out the Johnny Rockets brand having reported consolidated store profitability on its corporate locations, including same store annual sales growth of 12.5%. JRC entered the COVID-19 pandemic in an enviable position of a strong balance sheet with zero debt, solid management, capital reserves and a robust online delivery component. JRC’s decision in 2018 to decelerate growth and embrace third party delivery, rather than open additional locations, gave JRC a significant advantage from March 2020 and beyond. Unlike many of its competitors who were forced to implement delivery haphazardly, Johnny Rockets Canadian store sales were only marginally impacted (down 20%) and did not suffer the significant fiscal losses and store closures that became common in the industry.

April Foster is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Inked Brands, where she's obsessed with starting & scaling microbrands, many of which are founded by influencers or media companies. Prior to founding Inked, April co-founded Studio Calico, a leader in the direct-to-consumer paper-crafting category, where she pioneered subscription services and organically scaled from a $4k initial investment to multiple 7-figures in a few years. April has been named an Entrepreneur of the Year in Kentucky as well as been recognized on the Inc5000 list of fastest-growing companies in three consecutive years. She’s obsessed with combining relevant products, paid content, and smart marketing with influencer brands such as Studio DIY, The Bucket List Family, Meghan Rienks, and Ali Edwards. She's most proud of her family, however. April lives on a farm in Bowling Green, Kentucky with her husband, Greg, and their five children: Claire (10), Cal (8), Sam (8), Kit (6), and baby Nell.

Matt is a leader with a contagious passion for great customer engagement, and the economic and business impacts created when customers are engaged in exactly the right way. Prior to founding XSELL, Matt had the opportunity to work with many quintessential brands including Disney, Apple, Carnival, AT&T, GE, Walgreens helping them to bring their customer experience to life. His experience in these environments led to his observation of a power law in sales, regardless of the brand, wherein top performing agents were not marginally better than their peers - they were multiples better and they delivered disproportionately successful results. This observation drove Matt’s curiosity around the ability to scale the actions, tactics, and strategies of top performers to an entire enterprise. Matt founded XSELL Technologies on the premise that this was not only possible but when done exceedingly well it would radically transform the digital customer experience. Matt has since grown XSELL to deliver on this premise, leading XSELL’s clients to experience transformative business results. Matt has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Illinois State University. He is married to his college sweetheart Kerri; they have three kids - Emma (21), Charlie (18) and Henry (16), all of whom are top performers.

Tom Dickson is from San Francisco. He graduated from BYU in 1971 and moved back home with the intentions of signing up for the National Guard. His degree was in manufacturing engineering and he landed a job with Alza, one of the inventors of the birth control pill.  Tom had always had an interest in bread making and that hobby led him to start a business called Harvest House Food & Grains. He specialized in creating safer packaging for wheat. One day he spilled some grain and found that when he sucked it up with his vacuum, it acted as a wheat grinder. That was the beginning of the Magic Mill which would later lead him to make blenders and starting Blendtec.  The company has continued to grow since then, leading Tom and his team of engineers to come up with many variations of the home blender and turning him into an internet celebrity through the “Will It Blend?” YouTube series.

Josh Singer is founder & CEO of Kognitive Marketing. Since its inception in 2006, the company has grown to over 800 full and part-time staff located in almost every major market across Canada. Currently, Kognitive is the #1 rated sales & marketing agency in Canada on Glassdoor. The company has also been awarded the #1 Canada’s fastest growing marketing company in Canada and the 6th fastest overall growing company in Canada on Canadian Business Magazine’s Profit 500 list. Due to the company’s successes, Singer was named Marketing Magazine’s 30 under 30. Singer is also the founder & CEO of Optimy.ai; a tech company providing a video-based plug-in to eCommerce websites to enable staff to support customers online just like they do in store. Outside of work, Singer enjoys running, riding his bike and playing hockey. He is an avid traveler and a huge football fan; cheering for both the Ohio State Buckeyes and New Orleans Saints.

Gilbert was born in San Antonio, Texas to an alcoholic mother and a drug-addicted father, but God had a plan. Through a journey of hope and miracles God made a way. He graduated from South San West Campus. He then attended International Bible College where he graduated in 1996 and completed his Master’s in Theology. Gilbert has been in ministry since the age of fourteen and became a Youth Pastor at the age of eighteen. Gilbert always had a passion to impact young people with the life changing gospel of Jesus. His passion for Christ has opened doors for him to speak at conferences all over the United States, Central America and Europe. Gilbert is married to Hilda Hernandez his wife of 14 years and serves as the CEO of SAYFC. Through his leadership SAYFC has grown steady over the last 10 years to become a model for YFC ministry in large cities. Gilbert also serves on the National Youth for Christ board.

Travis Penfield is the Founder and CEO of 49 Financial.  Travis graduated Magna Cum Laude from Texas A&M University in 2011 with a degree in Finance from Mays Business School. Upon graduating from A&M, he worked at Deloitte Consulting until November of 2012 when he started his career as a financial advisor at AXA Advisors.  While at AXA, early on in his career, Travis started building a team of advisors. Under Travis’ leadership, his group broke all the records in hiring, retention, and development in a very established and long-standing company. Travis and his emerging leaders hired primarily new college graduates, giving them a  vision of how their values can and should inform their work, and how great an impact they can have on people’s lives through finance.  In October of 2019, Travis transitioned and started an independent financial planning firm. As a privately owned and fully independent company, 49 Financial will grow to over 200 advisors in its first official year of operation.   Travis and his founding partners developed the name and brand of 49 Financial. The entire business model is based on the firm’s motto, “Two are better than one”, which centers its focus on the principle that doing things together with others on a similar mission will always result in a greater impact than doing it on your own. This motto comes from Ecclesiastes 4:9 which says, “Two are better than one for they get a better return for their labor”.  49 Financial is headquartered in Austin, Texas with offices in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Atlanta. The firm plans to expand to 10 new cities over the coming 3 years to keep up with its unprecedented growth in the industry.   Travis lives in Austin with his wife Jaclyn, their daughters Charlotte and Olivia, and their golden doodle Duncan. In his spare time, you can find Travis playing with his girls, playing golf, catching a Peloton ride,  or enjoying wine and good food. 49 Financial may utilize third-party websites, including social media websites, blogs, and other interactive content. We consider all interactions with clients, prospective clients, and the general public on these sites to be advertisements under the securities regulations. As such, we generally retain copies of information that we or third-parties may contribute to such sites. This information is subject to review and inspection by the CCO of the Thrivent Advisor Network or the securities regulators. Advisory Persons of Thrivent provide advisory services under a practice name or “doing business as” name or may have their own legal business entities. However, advisory services are engaged exclusively through Thrivent Advisor Network, LLC, a registered investment adviser. 49 Financial and Thrivent Advisor Network, LLC are not affiliated companies.