My guest this week is Kirk Arnold, a veteran tech industry CEO, public board member, and lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Kirk was most recently the CEO of Data Intensity, a 650-person global managed services provider of cloud-based data, application and analytics acquired by EQT Partners in 2017. Before that she held roles as the COO of Avid, CEO and President of the then publicly traded billion-dollar service provider, Keane, Inc., and Founder and CEO of NerveWire.

Kirk’s also become a kind of tech “CEO Whisperer” over the years, and serves on a range of boards from Ingersoll Rand to Cramer Marketing. She’s a huge supporter of the local innovation ecosystem here in Boston, rounding out her time at MIT with service on the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees of MassTLC, as a Board Member at The Commonwealth Institute, and on the Advisory Committee for the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

Kirk is the embodiment of the servant leader mentality, having started (and succeeded) as the kind sales person genuinely focused on earning her customer’s respect and not just their signature. Our conversation covers that, and a remarkable confluence of philosophies on matters significant and trivial, from what makes for an effective President to why showing up on time and prepared is a habit worth establishing and maintaining throughout your career.

HHCIB 033 Data Intensity CEO Kirk Arnold

My conversation with Sue Graham Johnston, the President of G20 portfolio star 128 Technology. Sue actually came to Boston in 2017 to help run 128, a next generation networking company that closes the gap between what your business needs and what your network does. Much of 128's management team also led Acme Packet, a Boston-based unicorn acquired by Oracle in 2013 for a little over $2 billion. Sue was actually the executive at Oracle responsible for the integrating Acme Packet, and for running the resulting business. She was so well regarded by the team that when they were ready for a President in the new business, they called her first.

Between Oracle and here Sue served as the Managing Director of British Oxygen Company, running the UK, Ireland and sub-Saharan Africa region of the Linde Group. While at Oracle she served as Vice President in the Communications Global Business Unit, having joined Oracle through the acquisition of Sun Microsystems, where she held numerous leadership roles in operations, supply chain, and engineering. Sue started her career in management consulting with Bain & Company, and holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering, an MS in Manufacturing Systems Engineering, and an MBA all from Stanford University, the Cornell of the west.

Sue's about as polished and professional as they come, and she's risen to the top of every male engineer-dominated situation she's been dropped into her whole life. I learned over the course of our conversation where that poise and bearing comes from, and all I'll say going is that involves the management and shearing of lesser mammals.
Curious? Well you should be. Check out my conversation with the President of 128 Technologies, Sue Graham Johnston.

HHCIB 034 128 Technology President Sue Graham Johnston

How does a kid from Brooklyn became one of Boston's top startup CEOs? We invested on Hometap because it's a market opportunity on the scale of a whole new capital class, and because my friend Jeffrey Glass is one of the most backable CEO's in Boston.
For this week's episode Jeff and I sat down to talk about why, and how he got to that place from the unlikely starting point of a humble household in pre-hipster, working class Brooklyn.

Jeff is a remarkable guy with a remarkable story, hear him tell it and you'll learn along the way how he thinks about hiring, scaling a business, the important difference between execution and strategy problems, and why Hometap may just end up being the single most important thing he's done so far. Enjoy.

HHCIB 035 Hometap CEO Jeff Glass

Matt Walsh has a pretty unique perspective on the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. If you know Matt it's likely as "the Fidelity guy" on some crypto panel in Boston or New York, or from today's news that the crypto-focused venture firm he left Fidelity to found - Castle Island Ventures - is now writing checks and open for business.

Before founding Castle Island Ventures Matt was a Vice President at Fidelity focused on the crypto-asset and blockchain space. He worked as a management consultant at Arthur D. Little before that, and later in the strategic initiatives group at Clear Channel Radio (now iHeartRadio). Matt is a proud graduate of Boston's own BC High - where he was of course called "Walshie" by "Fitzy" and "Sully" - going on to attend Babson and the Fuqua School of Management at Duke.

Our conversation began as usual with his personal story, and went on to cover the adventure of being the crypto evangelist at one of the world's most highly regarded financial institutions. You'll get his thoughts on where the best opportunities are in the crypto space right now, and on why Bitcoin still may be a bargain.

HHCIB 036 Castle Island Ventures Matt Walsh

Up close and personal with the real people behind the hits and misses in Boston's venture capital big time.

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