The Chief Strategy Officer Podcast
The Chief Strategy Officer Podcast features conversations with global executives who lead strategy, sharing their experiences in tackling complex challenges, navigating disruptive technologies, and driving impactful growth. The role of Chief Strategy Officer can be lonely and misunderstood, and the podcast aims to provide insights and peer connections. Outthinker's network of leading chief strategy officers offers time-saving solutions, trend insights, and invaluable peer connections.
Episodes
#27—Is Your Strategy Office a Tax on the Business?: Jeff Walker
Joining us this episode is Jeff Walker, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and M&A at BraunAbility — a company that builds wheelchair-accessible vehicles, founded fifty-five years ago in an Indiana garage by Ralph Braun and now owned by the Swedish patient-capital investor Investor AB through its Patricia Industries arm. Educated at Yale and Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, w
#26 — Carrie Hanna: Building One Strategy When It's Not the Industry Norm
Joining us this episode is Carrie Hanna, Chief Strategy Officer at Gunster — a century-old firm that is one of Florida's largest, with around 340 attorneys across offices statewide. A legal-marketing professional by background with more than thirty years in the field, Carrie has spent the majority of her career at Gunster, first as a consultant and then stepping into the CSO role when the fir
#25—The Icarus Principle: Why Stability Is the Strategy Trap: Claudio Finol
Joining us this episode is Claudio Finol, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer at Fyffes — one of the world's leading fresh produce companies, owned by Japan's Sumitomo Corporation. An engineer by training with an MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School, where he also teaches, Claudio has led innovation and strategy across Chiquita, Danone, FrieslandCampina, and McBride. He brings
#24—Why AI Adoption Is a People Problem, Not a Technology Problem: Joanne Sheppard
Joanne Sheppard is a strategic advisor to the Holzbrinck Group — the German family holding company behind Macmillan Publishers, Springer Nature, and Die Zeit — and a board member across several of its owned and invested companies. Her career spans publishing, M&A, and corporate strategy, and she brings an unusually wide lens to her work: graduate study in English literature, executive educatio
#23—AI, Infrastructure, and the New Battlegrounds of Value : Insights from Shantnu Sharma
Today’s guest is Shantnu Sharma, a senior public-company executive who has led enterprise strategy, transformation, and corporate development across the semiconductor and digital infrastructure ecosystem. Shantnu’s career spans leadership roles at Western Digital, Arrow Electronics, AMD, and McKinsey, giving him a rare perspective on how technology strategy, capital allocation, and competitive adv
#22—Google’s Chief Strategist Neil Hoyne: How Great CSOs Build Decision Systems That Scale
Neil Hoyne joins Kaihan Krippendorff to unpack why most strategy failures aren’t caused by a lack of data — they’re caused by organizations asking the wrong questions, setting the wrong standards, and rewarding the wrong behaviors.Neil is Google’s Chief Strategist and the bestselling author of Converted. In this conversation, he shares how he thinks about strategy as an incremental discipline: kee
#21—The Four Problems Strategy Leaders Are Really Hired to Solve
Today’s guest is Adam Zalisk, Chief Strategy Officer at Amplify — a pioneer in K–12 education since 2000. Today, Amplify serves more than 10 million students across all 50 U.S. states, delivering next-generation curriculum and formative assessment in ELA, math, and science. In this conversation, Adam reflects on what changes when strategy becomes a formal role inside a growing organization. Rather
#20—From Founder-Led to Function-Led: Scaling Strategy with Michael Drexler
Today’s guest is Michael Drexler, Chief Strategy Officer at Brightstar Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in closely held, middle-market businesses and helps them scale into professional, process-driven organizations.Michael’s career spans leadership roles across investment banking, global strategy, and private equity—from Barclays to the World Economic Forum, and Brightstar Capi
#19—Inside Cisco’s Strategy Office: Building the Infrastructure for the AI Era
In this episode, Cisco’s Chief Strategy Officer Ammar Maraqa joins host Kaihan Krippendorff to discuss how one of the world’s largest technology companies is evolving its strategy to lead the next wave of AI and digital infrastructure.From building AI-ready data centers to fostering intrapreneurship through Outshift, Cisco is reimagining how strategy, innovation, and execution come together. Ammar
#18—Adobe (Part 2): Adobe's Strategy, AI Approach, and Incubator
In this special in-person conversation recorded at Adobe’s global headquarters, Kaihan continues his discussion with Malte Bernholz, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Incubator at Adobe. In Part One, on our sister show Outthinkers, Malte explored the macro trends transforming creativity, technology, and business in the age of AI. Click the link below to watch part 1 if you havent already.
#17—Winning the AI Infrastructure Game
In today’s episode, we speak with Oreste Donzella, former Chief Strategy Officer of KLA, a global leader in semiconductor process control and inspection. Oreste brings over three decades of experience in the semiconductor industry — a sector that quietly powers every technological advance we see today. You know, every strategist planning for AI's future is charting a course on assumptions abo
#16—From Fruit to Data: Rethinking Strategy with Claudio Finol
What does a banana have to do with data strategy? In this episode of the Chief Strategy Officer Podcast, we sit down with Claudio Finol, Chief Strategy Officer at Fyffes, one of the world’s oldest and most recognized produce companies. Fyffes bananas, pineapples, and melons may be a familiar sight in your grocery store, but behind the scenes the company is navigating some of the most complex strat
#15—From Grievance to Growth: Using Restorative Practice to Drive Transformation & Innovation
In this episode, we sit down with Rachel Credidio, Chief Innovation Officer at Aster Group, to explore how restorative practices can be a powerful lever for culture change, innovation, and organizational performance. Having held the previous role of Chief Transformation and People Officer, Rachel has been at the forefront of embedding inclusivity, trust, and accountability into the DNA of Aster Gr
#14—Why Corporate Venture Capital Fails—and How to Fix It
In this episode, we sit down with Todd Cassler, Chief Growth Officer of Cerity Partners, to explore the growing role of corporate venture capital (CVC) as a strategic tool for driving innovation and growth. With decades of experience in asset and wealth management as a chief strategy and growth officer, Todd is a trusted partner with a front-row seat to how Fortune 500 companies are using CVC not
#13—Creating the First Penguin Culture: Driving Change in High-Stakes Industries
In this episode, we’re joined by Sarah Beckman, Chief Strategy Officer of Ulteig. Ulteig specialized in infrastructure solutions across power, renewables, transportation, and water. Sarah is an experienced structural engineer, shedesigning energy systems spanning the continental U.S., and also spent time in sales before moving into her current role leading corporate strategy. Her deep technical ro
#12—Agile Budgeting: Capital Allocation at the Pace of Change
Today, we are tackling a topic that holding back most organizations from adapting to our rapidly changing business environments, a topic rooted in a habit that is so engrained in most companies that we don’t even think about changing it: budgeting. In this episode, we sit down with Eric Woodard, Head of Strategy at Primerica and former Bain consultant, to unpack the future of agile budgeting. Eric
#11—Working with Investment Bankers: Strategy First, Deal Second
If you’re a strategy leader stepping into M&A or refining your inorganic growth strategy, there’s one relationship that can either propel you forward or hold you back: your relationship with investment bankers. In this episode, we dive deep into the often opaque world of investment banking with two strategy executives who’ve worked across both sides of the deal table. Together, our guests b
#10—Making Purpose a Strategic Advantage
Welcome to another episode of The Chief Strategy Officer Podcast! Today, we’re tackling a topic that sits at the heart of every successful organization: purpose. For years, the question of what purpose an organization should hold has typically sat outside the auspices of the strategy office. It was the remit of the CEO or board, maybe corporate communications or the HR. But it is increasingly beco
#9—Mastering M&A: Strategy, Integration, and Effectiveness
Welcome to another episode of The Chief Strategy Officer Podcast! Today, we’re diving into a pivotal topic for strategy leaders: how to approach mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to accelerate your company’s strategic goals. Joining us are two Outthinker CSOs with extensive Strategy and M&A experience. Kevin Ilcisin, has a fascinating career in high tech, most recently as SVP of Strategy and
#8—Expanding Your Impact: A CSO's Roadmap to Board Service
In this episode, we’re diving into an increasingly hot topic for chief strategy officers: joining external advisory boards. We feature three accomplished chief strategy officers who serve on numerous public and private boards : Desiree Castillejos, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of M&A for Scutum Group North America; Prasad Padman, Chief Strategy Officer of Moog; and Sukanya Soderland, former
#7—Making Strategic AI Investments
Welcome to another episode of The Chief Strategy Officer Podcast. Today’s discussion centers on one of the most transformative and rapidly evolving topics in business— artificial intelligence. We’re joined by three distinguished strategy leaders --- Joanne Sheppard of Holtzbrinck, Ed Knapp from American Tower, and Prashant Kelker of ISG, who bring unique perspectives about how organizations can t
#6—Designing and Operating an Effective Strategy Office (Part 2)
In this episode, we're joined by Eric Goldstein, Chief Strategy Officer at TIAA, to explore the challenges and opportunities of setting up and operating a strategy office. With over six years at TIAA and an impressive background in investment banking at JP Morgan and management consulting at McKinsey, Eric brings a wealth of experience to the table. We dive into Eric’s journey of centralizing
#5—Designing and Operating an Effective Strategy Office (Part 1)
In today’s episode, we're diving deep into the intricate process of designing and operating a successful strategy office. This is a critical discussion for any newly appointed CSO or those looking to fine tune their existing strategy office. Our guests today are two seasoned Chief Strategy Officers who have navigated the complexities of building strategy offices in different industries. We’re
#4—How to Integrate Sustainability into Corporate Strategy
In this episode, we are joined by three chief strategy officers who are also responsible for sustainability in their organizations. Alpa Sutaria of WestRock, Paula Kovarsky of Raizen, and Maisie Ganzler of Bon Apetit Management Company.In this episode, we explore why companies might choose to make sustainability a core responsibility of their strategy officers. We'll discuss the benefits of i
#3—The Unexpected Role of the Strategy Office
How Southern Glazer's Office of Strategic Management Built an Enduring Strategic AdvantageSouthern Glazer's Wine & Spirits is the largest wine and spirits distributor in the United States, serving over 240,000 customers across 44 states and the District of Columbia. It is also one of the largest family-owned business in the US. Their strategy office is doing remarkable things that pu
#2—Scaling Smart: Strategy in Growth-Stage Organizations
Corporate strategy in growth-stage companies can be very different from strategy in mature organizations. In this episode, we hear from three chief strategy executives who are effectively navigating the strategic journeys for their scaling organizations – Elisabeth Moore from West Monroe Partners, Adam Zalisk from Amplify Education, and Edward Crook from DeepL. Today’s discussion is moderated by O
#1—How to recruit and build a diverse strategy team
As much as companies promise and commit to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, the reality is corporate strategy, especially at the senior level, remains a male-dominated field. Some chief strategy officers have made it their mission to change that reality. In this episode, we hear from two of them. Alok Agrawal, Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Ventures at Celestica, and Nicolas Cha
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