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

In his role as CEO and Founder of SailPoint (NYSE:SAIL), Mark brings almost 35 years of experience in technology, with over 20 years as a founder and leader of innovative identity management companies. Under Mark’s direction, the company has grown into a publicly recognized leader in its market. Mark directs and drives the overall vision and strategy for SailPoint, which is underpinned by his commitment and passion for building top-performing teams, creating a collaborative and innovative work environment, and focusing continuously on the needs of customers. Teaming is a concept that Mark promotes throughout the company: teaming with forward-thinking customers to understand their needs, with partners to ensure customer success, and ultimately within SailPoint to develop innovative, market-leading solutions. Mark is passionate about maintaining the spirit of teamwork, even as SailPoint grows its employee base and its global presence to offices around the world. Prior to SailPoint, he co-founded Waveset Technologies, which was ultimately acquired by Sun Microsystems. Mark’s career also includes diverse experience in international sales and marketing with Hewlett-Packard and IBM/Tivoli Systems.

John and Jennifer Garrett launched the first edition of Community Impact Newspaper in 2005 from the game room of their home with three full-time employees covering the Round Rock and Pflugerville edition near Austin, Texas. Today, Community Impact Newspaper has more than 240 employees and 33 hyperlocal editions of the newspaper across Texas, Arizona, Tennessee, and Georgia delivered monthly to more than 2.7 million homes and businesses. Additionally, the Garretts opened up a state-of-the-art printing facility in 2016. John has received many awards for his work, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the nonprofit RecognizeGood for ethics in business and community, an “Excellence in Leadership” honoree from Concordia University Texas, and was named the Best Small Business CEO from the Austin Business Journal. The company has received numerous awards for outstanding journalism, design, and digital innovation. Before starting Community Impact Newspaper, John held leadership positions at the Houston Chronicle and the Austin Business Journal. John grew up in north Austin and graduated from Pflugerville High School in 1993. He graduated cum laude from Sam Houston State University with a bachelor of fine arts in radio and television. While a Senior at Sam Houston, he was awarded the Creager Award, given to the male student who contributes the most to overall student life, and in 2010 was named a Distinguished Young Alumnus. John is married to Jennifer, and they have three daughters, Mollie, Ruby and Sophie, and live in Round Rock. They are active members of Cityview Bible Church. Over the years, John has served on many boards, including the Round Rock Area Serving Center, The Greater Austin Chamber, and as Chair of the Round Rock Chamber.

David Reid has over 30 years of experience in the employee benefits and group insurance industry and was one of the earliest adopters of technology as an integral strategy for employers in the late 1990s. Mr. Reid started his career as a group sales representative in 1986 with John Alden Life, and after a short period with Lincoln National Corporation, then became a consultant and agent for Unison Benefits Management, a leading provider in the Minneapolis/St. Paul marketplace. It was here that Mr. Reid became Vice President in 2000 and a partner of Unison, Inc. cultivating over $5 million of annual revenue. Unison was eventually acquired by Arthur J. Gallagher of Gallagher Benefit Services Inc. In 1999, Mr. Reid was among the first to venture into the world of online technology designed for employee benefits enrollment and communication, and in 2005 founded Apprize Technology Solutions (www.apprizetechnology.com) and served as President. Today, the company continues as a leader in providing online benefit enrollment solutions for brokers and employers by using industry leading enterprise software solutions. In 2012, Mr. Reid co-founded Ease (www.ease.com) to create a small group solution that provides the robust eligibility management features previously limited to enterprise solutions used by large employers. After just three years, in 2015 Ease was launched on the West Coast and is among the most widely adopted, fastest growing solution for brokers and employers in the area, with over 50,000 employers and over 1,200,000 employee users. Throughout his career, Mr. Reid’s focus has been creating broker-centric solutions that are easy to use.

Scott Hinz is Chief Operating Officer of HINZJJ LLC, a 45 unit Jimmy John’s franchisee based in Kansas City owned by his wife Sandra and son Matthew. He has also been an active partner with two brothers in Hinz Trucking Inc, a nationwide long haul flatbed trucking company with 110 power units, for over 30 years. Scott is primarily responsible for all store operations at HINZJJ and the sales and dispatch departments at Hinz Trucking. A native of Plymouth, Nebraska Scott and his wife have been happily married for over 35 years and look forward to many more. They attend Christ Church of the Valley in Peoria, AZ and Westside Family Church in Lenexa, KS. Through being an active C12 Group member, Scott continues to learn how HINZJJ and Hinz Trucking can serve a greater purpose by ministering to and growing the faith of their team members. C12 has had a very positive impact on his life. Through C12, Scott has become passionate about sharing the love of Christ with everyone God places in his path and his desire is to see all come to Christ so that they too may enjoy life to the fullest as God intended.

Seth Schorr is CEO of Fifth Street Gaming and Chairman of Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino. The urban casino resort is the embodiment of Schorr’s vision to create a downtown Las Vegas hospitality experience delivering a superior guest experience and genuine sense of community. Since beginning his career in gaming and hospitality in 1991, Schorr served as an integral member of the Wynn Resorts team, developing the international marketing department in Macau, the interactive gaming division and The Wynn Collection of Fine Art. Earlier in his career, Schorr also worked in numerous capacities at Mirage Resorts including positions at Bellagio Hotel & Casino, The Mirage Hotel & Casino, and Treasure Island Hotel & Casino. Schorr and his partner, Jeffrey Fine, co-founded Fifth Street Gaming which owns and operates five casinos. The principals of Fifth Street Gaming also control, through its affiliate, the LEV Restaurant Group, a food and beverage operation that owns and manages more than 50 restaurants in the Las Vegas area and Southern California including The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Jamba Juice, Lobster ME, JaBurritos, Daily Kitchen, Evel Pie and Golden Tiki. In early 2015, Schorr was introduced to the world of eSports and led the effort of developing the first fully integrated eSports program in a casino resort at The Downtown Grand. The Downtown Grand’s eSports program has included weekly eSports contests, team residencies and sponsorships, a weekly broadcast and professional tournaments. Schorr sits on the board of GameCo and advised on the development and launch of the world’s first video game slot machine. In 2017 Schorr launched Commercial Streaming Solutions which developed a patent-pending media platform that provides streaming content, including Esports and sports betting content, to retail venues. Schorr is a founder of the Nevada Esports Alliance and continues to be a leader in the convergence of Esports and sports gambling. Schorr is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, is a member of YPO and sits on numerous boards including those for The Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Nevada Restaurant Association, Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, the Advisory Board of The Smith Center for Performing Arts, One Night for One Drop and was appointed by Governor Sandoval to serve on Nevada State Board of Museums & History. He is also an executive board member and Chairman of the Communications Committee of the Downtown Las Vegas alliance. Schorr is an avid cyclist, amateur photographer and has two little angels Dax (9) and Mia (7). Most importantly, Schorr recently married Dr. Emily Schorr.

Matt Carter is a cloud and technology industry veteran, leading Aryaka’s long-term market strategy and day-to-day operations, while guiding the company’s vision for an increasingly connected world. Prior to this role, Matt served as President and CEO of Inteliquent Inc, a publicly traded provider of cloud-based networking services for global enterprises, which was successfully acquired by GCTR, a Chicago based PE firm. Matt previously held a series of executive positions with Sprint Corporation where he successfully led several of its major businesses. This includes serving as President of the Sprint Enterprise Solutions business that provided a diversified portfolio of communication platforms to companies in over 165 countries globally. He also served as President of Boost Mobile, a leading provider of no contract wireless services. Matt earned his master’s degree in general management from the Harvard Business School and his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University.

Lindsey Ueberroth is Chief Executive Officer of Preferred Hotels & Resorts and a member of its Board of Directors. Since joining the company in 2004, Lindsey has helped solidify the position of Preferred Hotels & Resorts as an iconic global hospitality brand, a preferred partner for independent hotels, and a trusted resource for travelers seeking an authentic, independent luxury hotel experience. In March 2015, Lindsey spearheaded the rebranding of Preferred Hotel Group to Preferred Hotels & Resorts, which represented the onset of a new consumer-facing strategy for the company. The new brand architecture redefined the way the hotel experience is rated, not by tiers or stars, but by experiences, to create stronger clarity for the company’s world-class portfolio of independent properties among travelers, hoteliers, and travel partners. Highlighting the success of that strategic move, in that same year, Lindsey led the company to achieve a major milestone in its history by generating more than $1 billion ($1.011B) in reservations revenue on behalf of its member hotels worldwide, a 15% increase over the previous year. During her tenure as president, from June 2010 to February 2014, Lindsey’s leadership of Preferred Hotel Group helped the company’s global portfolio of member hotels successfully emerge from the worldwide economic downturn by doubling total year-end reservations revenue and generating a 25% increase in Average Daily Rate. Under her direction, the company also launched the innovative points-based I Prefer hotel rewards program; executed the introduction of three distinct brands that represented hotels and resorts in the design, boutique, and serviced residences niche categories; marked first-time presence in more than 25 new countries; and formed strategic partnerships with small hotel brands that expanded the company’s reach into key global markets. Her strength and success as the leader of Preferred Hotels & Resorts earned her recognition in 2017 by Hotel Management as one of the 30 most influential women in hospitality. She also received back-to-back accolades in 2015, first by HOTELS magazine as one of the top 10 most noteworthy hoteliers in the world and then by Lodging Magazine as one of the 20 most influential females in the lodging industry. Before joining Preferred Hotels & Resorts, Lindsey was an account executive at Ambassadors International, Inc., a global meetings and incentives company. Prior to that, she was a management consultant at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Lindsey serves on the Board of Directors for Historic Hotels of America, the Global Hotel Network, and Wine 2 Water. She is also an active member of the U.S. Travel Association and the Young Presidents’ Organization. A graduate of Wake Forest University, Lindsey has traveled to more than 100 countries.

Obadiah is responsible for all aspects of the Vine Hospitality operations overseeing the core values of the company: Drive Quality, Have Fun and Make it Happen! With over 20 years as a top hospitality executive, Obadiah Ostergard began his journey in the culinary industry as the Executive Chef at Gaylord’s in the historic Kilohana Plantation in Kauai, Hawaii. While working closely with the Owner and General Manager, Ostergard not only created and executed full-service lunch and dinner menus but also serviced banquet functions and weekly catering events. Shortly after, Ostergard decided to venture to Wilmington, Delaware where he was invited to open a café for MBNA America. He continued to grow within the company, moving on to roles of Executive Chef and Executive Catering Director, where he was responsible for overseeing event management for extravagant banquet functions. Ostergard continued to flourish in the hospitality industry—during his time in Delaware, he co-owned The Vault and Restaurant 821, both of which he lead as General Manager. He was able to conceptualize a creative business plan for Restaurant 821, creating a fine dining restaurant that featured locally grown ingredients. Restaurant 821 received multiple accolades from Philadelphia Magazine and Zagat as well as “3 Bells” by award-winning food critic, Craig Leban, for its sophisticated dining experience and notable, fresh dishes. Several years later, Ostergard moved to San Francisco to join the Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group, where he began as the General Manager of Kuleto’s Trattoria in Burlingame and later transitioned to the San Francisco location on Powell Street. After Kuleto’s, he managed the Fifth Floor Restaurant at the Hotel Palomar and was eventually promoted to Director of Operations for Kimpton Restaurants where he led the reconception efforts of restaurants such as Ponzu and Jasper’s Corner Tap and Kitchen. Prior to taking over as CEO for the founder of Left Bank Ed Levine, Ostergard was the President of Au Bon Repas as San Francisco-based restaurant group which includes Cafe Claude, Gaspar and Gitane restaurants where he oversaw all aspects of operations.

Michael comes to Elevation Labs with over 18 years of experience in the beauty and skin care industry. Michael began his career in Ireland with Procter & Gamble, producing skin care & cosmetics for brands such as Olay, Max Factor, and Cover Girl. In 2003 he transferred to the US with P&G, where he has worked in Cincinnati, Boston and most recently Iowa City, Iowa. There, he successfully directed operations as the plant manager of P&G’s largest beauty care plant, producing 600 million bottles every year of shampoo, conditioner, body wash and mouthwash for brands such as Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Crest, Old Spice & Olay, and grossing over 2 billion in sales annually. As part of that role, he also ran one of the largest distribution centers globally and had the opportunity to share his insights on topics such as Millennial Management with leaders around the globe. Michael received his Bachelor’s Degree in mechanical engineering from University College Dublin in Ireland and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Iowa. Bringing his vast knowledge to Elevation Labs, Michael’s top priority will be to ensure that the highest quality products are being produced on time and in-full for every customer. His goal is to build on Elevation’s world-class operations, both in Idaho, LA and Colorado, creating a culture that is highly adaptable, team-oriented, and streamlined to ensure excellent work flow and best-in-class responsiveness for every customer.

Bill Walshe is a 20+ year seasoned expert and leader in the luxury hospitality industry. Walshe provides Viceroy Hotel Group with a truly global perspective as he brings extensive senior management experience with leading international luxury hospitality brands, including Dubai’s Jumeirah Group, and luxury European hotel groups Kempinski Hotels & Resorts and The Doyle Collection. His passion is in creating hospitality brands that deliver a contemporary interpretation of luxury, built on the solid fundamentals of good old fashioned hotel-keeping. Since taking the helm at Viceroy, he has added seven new properties across Chicago, Dubai, Los Cabos, San Francisco and Washington D.C. and is preparing for the opening of new Viceroy branded hotels in Cartagena, Portugal, Panama and Serbia for a total of 22 hotels under management by the group worldwide.