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

Walter Lamothe, CEO, Bentley & Co

Walter Lamothe is President & CEO of Bentley & Co and Founder of Full Range Strategy. Walter has over 40 years of rich retail experience and a network that can get businesses to another level and get the deals done. An entrepreneurial change agent and visionary, Walter is performance driven and a leader that translates strategic missions into defined outcomes. During his career, he has grown, transformed and created new retail businesses and business models whether it be traditional retail, e-commerce, marketing or wholesale. Walter has crafted a successful retail methodology for ensuring success that started when he sold market products door to door with his mother when he was just a young man.

Talman Pizzey, CEO, Acuren

Talman Pizzey is the chief executive officer for Rockwood and affiliated companies including Acuren where he leads a staff of 5000 employees in the provision of materials engineering, inspection, and rope access industrial services through 90 offices across the United States, Canada, and the UK. Talman has been with Acuren (including predecessor companies Canspec and Hanson) since 1981.  He has broad experience in materials engineering, nondestructive testing, and visual inspection. His expertise spans industries including oil & gas, pulp & paper, chemical, and power generation. Operations management,  advanced ultrasonic applications, failure analysis, and operational efficiency are areas of specific experience.  - 2019-current: CEO Rockwood/Acuren. Transitioned head office from Greenwich CT to Webster TX. Supported the sale process from a family office to private equity (American Securities), established a board of directors, obtained financing (syndicated loan), and established an executive leadership team. Led the team through the pandemic and completed four acquisitions in the first year as CEO. - 2006-2018: COO Canada. Developed best-in-class regional operations management team working effectively with corporate functional leadership. Focused the business on reoccurring revenue (maintenance vs. construction),  customer engagement, and driving cost-saving initiatives with the result of significant market share gains (moving from tied for number one to larger than numbers two through four combined). - 1995-2002: managed NDT Operations in the Prairies Region. Established the Oil Sands business, double-digit annual growth with leading market share obtained ISO 9002 registration, and developed strong safety culture. - Pre 1995: consulting metallurgical engineer and manager of various departments (Visual, Edmonton NDT, and  Advanced NDT). Developed specifications for the certification of well control equipment, determined the remaining life of steam piping in power plants, lead investigator of an industrial facility explosion, routine failure investigations including corrosion and fracture of metallic components, analysis of two train derailment incidents including an appearance in court as an expert witness, CWB level III welding inspector, vendor surveillance of a complex pipe order in  Japan, and developed advanced ultrasonic inspection equipment for pipeline girth weld inspection. EDUCATION  B.Sc. Metallurgical Engineering, 1987 University of Alberta  M.B.A., 1999 University of Alberta  PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS  Board of Directors: Acuren 2020-current, CWB Group 2004-2009 and 2013-2018  Association of Professional Engineers and geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA)  Canadian Institute for Non-destructive Evaluation (CINDE)  American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT)

Howdy Holmes, CEO, Chelsea Milling Company

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, CEO, Alida

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, President, Edgerton Gear

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)

Lewis Gelmon, President & CEO, Johnny Rockets Canada

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.

Re-Release: April Foster, Founder & CEO, Inked Brands

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 Coughlin, Founder & CEO, XSELL Technologies

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.

Re-Release: Tom Dickson, Executive Chairman & Founder, Blendtec

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, Founder & CEO, Kognitive Marketing

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.