BAL 23-View

The View from the Top

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 18:11:30 +0000

The View from the Top Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/30/2022 - 11:11

Joe Arney and Tosha Jupiter

Leadership is more than just a core set of skills. More than ever, it demands adaptability as ways of work change and challenges become more complex. Leeds alumni share the leadership lessons that have helped them motivate, inspire and problem-solve.

Leeds alumni share the leadership lessons that have helped them motivate, inspire and problem-solve.

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The View from the Top: Jay Parry (Fin’80)

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 18:13:38 +0000

The View from the Top: Jay Parry (Fin’80) Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/03/2022 - 12:13

Jay Parry (Fin’80)
President and CEO, 2024 Men’s Final Four Host Committee

In sports, there’s nothing harder than winning the championship. Except for repeating it.

Jay Parry knows all about it.

Before she accepted her current assignment to run the Final Four Host Committee, she twice led the host committees for the Super Bowl when the game was played in Arizona. And while the learning experiences of running a successful Super Bowl XLIX, in 2015, were helpful for this year’s event, it also meant she needed to find ways to motivate people to deliver an even bigger experience for fans, players, brands, the NFL and the media.

For Parry, success comes down to setting expectations upfront, being as collaborative as possible when setting a strategy, celebrating individual and team victories, and leading by example—even when that means arriving to a kids’ football clinic or a tree-planting event first thing on a rainy Saturday morning.

“When you’re surrounded by the best team, you want to be that point guard or quarterback who finds ways to help make the very talented people around you even better.”

For Jay Parry, success comes down to leading by example.

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The View from the Top: Jordan Papé (Bus’01)

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 18:20:39 +0000

The View from the Top: Jordan Papé (Bus’01) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/02/2022 - 12:20

Jordan Papé (Bus’01), CEO of Papé

When Jordan Papé was poised to take the helm of his family’s fourth-generation capital equipment solutions company as chief executive officer, his older brother and partner sat him down for a tough conversation. His brother used the analogy of a ream of paper to express how tiny actions, each one flimsy like a single sheet of paper, can have a significant collective impact—similar to the “thud” of a ream of paper dropped on a desk. He used grace to have a difficult conversation, and that stuck with the new CEO.

And that’s how Papé leads today—by surrounding himself with people smarter than himself, with wildly different perspectives and with the grace and humility to move toward progress through failures and challenges. Papé remembers Leeds professors who inspired him because they stood up for their convictions and weren’t afraid to offer different perspectives. He also credits his time in a CU fraternity for teaching him life balance and a respect for serving others.

“It’s about trying to work with and volunteer for people who solve problems differently than you,” he said. “Don’t be afraid to serve in places where you have a fundamental disagreement with folks.”

Today, while he spends his time helping make sure that the family is on the same page about business direction and the future, he trusts others to manage the day-to-day so he can also focus his business leadership on the state of Oregon. Along with his role as CEO, Papé currently chairs the Oregon chamber of commerce, is the chair of the Oregon chapter of the Young Presidents Organization, and is on the executive committee of the state roundtable for Oregon.

“You have to trust your team, and when somebody does something that’s different than what you would do or how you would do it, and it doesn’t go well, you have to have the grace to allow that person to learn without feeling threatened,” Papé said. “We all want to limit mistakes, but it’s far more valuable to encourage your team to make real-time decisions if you want them to reach their full potential.”

Surrounding himself with smart people who offer different perspectives is key for Jordan Papé.

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The View from the Top: Beth Ann Catalano (Mktg’79)

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 18:22:34 +0000

The View from the Top: Beth Ann Catalano (Mktg’79) Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/01/2022 - 12:22

Beth Ann Catalano (Mktg’79), AHAVA, North America, LLC, A Division of Dead Sea Labs, Inc.

When Beth Ann Catalano was a teen working at the Clinique makeup counter, she didn’t just give out beauty advice. She gave customers her mom’s special spaghetti recipe. You may have it, too, since it’s just regular pasta and Ragu sauce from the jar. Catalano used the pasta recipe printed on an index card to give out to customers as a conversation starter. It made her memorable—adding surprise and delight to what could be a very transactional experience. Today, Catalano is the president and CEO of a global skincare brand, and her business leadership philosophy, though more sophisticated with time and experience, remains the same: Find how to connect authentically with people, make time to understand their concerns, provide viable solutions to the issue, and focus on educating, therefore, a sense of self-resolution solves future issues.

“How do I bring out the best in each person, each day, on my team? This is my daily exercise.” said Catalano. “I’m focused on being transformational and supporting my team in their professional growth. Your team’s growth is essential to continue to achieve your targets. All individuals must continually add value and I make it my passion to understand what drives them. Understanding their communication style is essential to feeling understood. And if you don’t do that as a leader, work and relationships become very task oriented and transactional instead of transformational.”

Catalano understands differences in the workplace and is driven to create more space for women leaders to empower other women to find confidence, upward career mobility, and earning power.

This can be accomplished by focusing on an individual’s strengths and how the person enhances a team. She also believes in the importance of knowledge sharing and self-branding, noting that self-awareness can be key to navigating professional opportunities.

She shares that the journey to figuring out her own leadership style wasn’t second nature. She worked diligently on learning to lead in a way that aligned with her inner beliefs. For her, that means being humble and supportive of her team.

“Find the best in everyone and bring each out as an individual,” she said. “Make it a priority but know that it doesn’t need to be competitive. Then we can help each other succeed.”

Beth Ann Catalano is driven to empower other women to find confidence, upward career mobility, and earning power.

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The View from the Top: Axton Salim (Bus’02)

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 18:24:19 +0000

The View from the Top: Axton Salim (Bus’02) Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/31/2022 - 12:24

Axton Salim (Bus’02), Director of PT Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk and Executive Director of Salim Group

Axton Salim looks to an interconnected world to inspire his leadership style.

He acquired his fundamental business knowledge while a student at Leeds, and now he layers those basics with real experiences scaling food production and nutrition education efforts in Indonesia.

“Just be open to learning about everything under the sun,” Salim said. “That’s broad, I know. But currently everything connects with each other. So, even for the marketing side, you need to understand what is happening on the geopolitical side. You need to know what is happening in different countries. Everything—marketing, sales, the bottom line—is influenced by what is going on around us.”

Salim credits technology like artificial intelligence and social media for helping businesses scale more quickly today than ever before. He says the digital landscape allows us to gather more information and take deeper looks at what interests us as humans and business leaders.

Access and interconnectivity help Salim lead a major consumer packaged food company, but they also help him use his broad knowledge base to make a positive impact on society by scaling humanitarian efforts with a focus on children’s nutrition. For almost a decade, Salim has been co-chair of Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network Global Advisory Group, which is part of a UN-led movement to help with the reduction of malnutrition. He recognizes the importance of education and how technology can be used as an educational tool for behavior change programs. Salim explains how he has worked together with University of Indonesia public health faculty in creating modules, through the help of an e-learning company, to help teenagers understand about balanced nutrition, anemia and prevention of stunting. Using creative and engaging approaches to disseminate the videos, the program has reached more than 2.5 million teenagers since it first launched three years ago.

In tandem with technology, paying attention to social issues guides the way Salim approaches business and his partnerships.

“Learn about the different issues that interest you, and explore different solutions. See it like you’ll solve it because even if you don’t, you’ll have a new set of understanding. For me, it’s deep-diving into issues that matter and then being some part of it —even if it’s just small. Just start somewhere.”

Axton Salim looks to an interconnected world to inspire his leadership style.

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BAL 23-View

The View from the Top

The View from the Top: Jay Parry (Fin’80)

Jay Parry (Fin’80) President and CEO, 2024 Men’s Final Four Host Committee

The View from the Top: Jordan Papé (Bus’01)

The View from the Top: Beth Ann Catalano (Mktg’79)

Beth Ann Catalano (Mktg’79), AHAVA, North America, LLC, A Division of Dead Sea Labs, Inc.

The View from the Top: Axton Salim (Bus’02)

Axton Salim (Bus’02), Director of PT Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk and Executive Director of Salim Group

Jay Parry (Fin’80)
President and CEO, 2024 Men’s Final Four Host Committee