What Fuels You

Doug Glant is a true renaissance man, a Stanford educated historian, master storyteller, former intelligence officer, radio host, educator, and community builder. From serving with the CIA and DIA in Vietnam and the Middle East to leading his family's Pacific Iron and Metal, Doug has navigated both high stakes, global arenas and the relationship driven world of industry. He's also shared his expertise as a lecturer on business history and US popular culture at Stanford, the University of Washington, and the Bohemian Club. In the community, Doug has been a scout, on and off the field, photographer for the Washington Huskies, a mentor to youth in Seattle's Central District, and—even more unexpectedly—a vocalist performing with the Harry James Orchestra. His leadership roles include serving as international president of the Young President's Organization, national Chairman for Business in the Reagan-Bush White House in 1980, and decades of service to the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Terry Myerson is CEO and co-founder of Truveta, a leader in EHR data and analytics, led by a growing health system collective that together provide more than 18% of all daily clinical care in the US. Truveta is trusted by more than 50 leading healthcare and life science customers to study safety and effectiveness, improve patient care, and train medical AI. Across these leading organizations, Truveta connects data, people, and ideas to pursue the mission of Saving Lives with Data. Terry previously enjoyed a 21-year career at Microsoft, leading the development of Windows, Xbox, and the early days of Office 365. As Executive Vice President, serving on the Senior Leadership Team, Terry played a pivotal role in developing the strategy for Microsoft alongside CEO Satya Nadella. Terry excelled at managing large teams at scale, tackling complex software challenges, and driving growth in partnership with a global ecosystem. After leaving Microsoft in 2018, Terry joined the Madrona Venture Group and the Carlyle Group as an advisor to their investment teams and portfolio companies. He enjoys learning about new technology, particularly at the intersection of data, AI, healthcare, and life sciences. An entrepreneur at heart, prior to Microsoft Terry cofounded Intersé, one of the earliest internet companies, which Microsoft acquired in 1997. Terry is a graduate of Duke University and a current member of the Duke Engineering Board of Visitors. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

James Lazarovits is the CEO and Co-Founder of Archon Biosciences, a leader at the intersection of materials engineering and artificial intelligence. James brings over 15 years of experience building, mentoring, and investing in deep tech startups across AI, software, hardware, and robotics. Before founding Archon, James was at the forefront of AI-driven computational protein design as a post-doctoral fellow and later research faculty at the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, under the direction of 2024 Nobel Laureate, David Baker. There, he contributed to pioneering methods that integrate machine learning and molecular engineering to create next-gen therapeutic proteins. Jamie earned his PhD in nanotechnology engineering from the University of Toronto where he worked under Nanomedicine expert, Dr. Warren Chan. His doctoral work focused on overcoming biological delivery barriers, using nano materials and deep learning, laying the groundwork for his later contributions to rational protein design. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brad Handler is an entrepreneur redefining the luxury travel industry. Brad began his post college career at American Management Systems and then Apple. Brad then went to law school and was an attorney at a top Silicon Valley law firm, and then at eBay as their first in-house counsel from 1997 to 2001. But he is best known for his innovation in the world of destination travel clubs. In 2002 Brad founded Exclusive Resorts with his brother Brent and served as the company’s CEO and chairman. Brad and Brent then created Inspirato, a vacation service which, under their leadership, provided personalized, high-end travel experiences. Brad and his brother left Inspirato in 2024 and Brad recently started Passport Golf which partners with leading country clubs to offer luxury once-in-a-lifetime golf excursions to New Zealand, Scotland, and Ireland. Brad earned a bachelor’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yoko Miyashita is the CEO of Leafly, the go-to platform for cannabis education, discovery, and community. Yoko joined Leafly in 2019 as general counsel and stepped into the CEO role the following year, right in the middle of the pandemic and a major turning point for the industry. Born in Japan and raised in the US, Yoko spent much of her childhood translating for immigrant parents, an experience that gave her an early understanding of voice, access, and responsibility. That thread has carried through her career from practicing law to leading through change. Before Leafly, Yoko spent over a decade at Getty Images as SVP and general counsel, guiding the company through the global legal strategy during a time of massive digital transformation. She's a UC Berkeley and UW law school grad. At Leafly, Yoko is helping shape what the future of cannabis can look like, centered around trust, education, and community. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Sam Heidari is the CEO of Lumotive, a groundbreaking semiconductor manufacturer based in Redmond, WA. Sam holds a PhD in electrical engineering from USC and previously served as CEO of Quantenna, where he led the company through a public offering and $1 billion acquisition by ON Semiconductor. At Lumotive, Sam is leading a team that's building award-winning programmable optical semiconductors that improve perception, increase computing power, and enable reliable high-speed communication in various industries. The Light Control Metasurface™ (LCM) is a patented, software-defined photonic beamforming solid-state technology. As the first of its kind, it meets essential needs in various sectors, including 3D sensing and AI computing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emily Long is the co-founder and CEO of Edera, the pioneer of strong workload isolation technology for cloud and AI infrastructure. She places the highest value on people and bringing diverse teams together to build something that is greater than the sum of its parts. Emily is a tactical and strategic leader who’s proven in scaling operations, fostering strong company cultures, and driving strategic execution. She’s also an unapologetic people person who believes in the capacity of humor and human connection to motivate and empower team members to achieve more. Prior to Edera, she was the COO at Chainguard, where she built, scaled, and led core business functions that helped lead the company to its Series C and Unicorn status. Emily also served as Chief Operating & People Officer at Anchore, where she oversaw business operations and sales and spearheaded its DEI initiatives. She’s also held strategic operations roles at LogicMonitor and KPMG. Emily is based in Santa Barbara, California and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Howard Behar's career in business spans over 50 years, all in consumer-oriented businesses covering several industries. He retired from Starbucks Coffee after 21 years where he led both the domestic business, as President of North America, and was the founding President of Starbucks International. During his tenure, he participated in the growth of the company from 28 stores to over 15,000 spanning five continents. He served on the Starbucks Board of Directors for 12 years before retiring. Howard is currently a Trustee for the Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation and is on the advisory board of Anthos Capital. He is committed to the development and education of our future leaders and has been a longtime advocate of the Servant Leadership Model. He has also authored two books on leadership titled It's Not About the Coffee and The Magic Cup. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Elizabeth Wako is president and CEO of Swedish Health Services, where she oversees an organization with more than 1,500 licensed patient beds, 48,000 annual inpatient admissions and $3.4 billion in revenue. Dr. Wako has over 30 years of experience in the healthcare field. Before stepping into her current role, she worked as a registered nurse in behavioral health and held several key executive positions at Swedish. She received her medical degree from the University of Utah and returned to the University of Washington to complete a medical residency in anesthesia, a fellowship in perioperative medicine, and finally, her MBA. Dr. Wako lives in Seattle with her husband and four children. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kristen Hamilton is a three-time technology entrepreneur and CEO with multiple exits, a board director of late-stage startups, and a professional CEO Advisor. She is a General Partner at Enjoy The Work, where she teaches founders to become great CEOs. She co-founded the predictive hiring software leader Koru, and was CEO until it was acquired by UK-based Capfinity in 2019. Kristen grew up near Montreal, and currently splits her time between Seattle and Whistler. She is a mom to two university-aged daughters and a golden retriever, and has deep passion for skiing, biking, rowing, and spending time outdoors in the mountains. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jim Weber is a Director, Advisor, serial CEO, Author, and Speaker. Jim joined Brooks Running Company’s Board of Directors in 1999 and was named CEO in 2001. He stepped down in 2024 after 23 years in the position, during which time he is credited for the Seattle-based running company’s aggressive turnaround story. In 2022, Jim wrote a challenger brand, leadership memoir called “Running with Purpose: How Brooks Outpaced Goliath Competitors to Lead the Pack.”, with inspirational stories and tangible takeaways for current and aspiring leaders, entrepreneurs, and runners. He currently serves as a member of the board of advisors at his alma mater, the University of Minnesota - Carlson School of Management. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sujal Patel is Founder and CEO of Nautilus Biotechnology, a life sciences company creating a large-scale, single-molecule platform for quantifying and unlocking the complexity of the human proteome, with the goal of enabling fundamental advancements across human health and medicine. With nearly 20 years of executive leadership experience driving innovation for high-growth companies, Sujal is a successful entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist who founded and served as CEO of Isilon Systems, an enterprise data storage company. After completing one of the most successful initial public offerings of 2006, Isilon was acquired by EMC in 2010 for $2.6 billion. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Oren Etzioni is the founder of TrueMedia.org, a free-use product that allows critical election audiences from around the world to quickly and effectively detect deepfakes. He was the Founding Chief Executive Officer at the Allen Institute for AI (AI2), having served as CEO from its inception in 2013 until late 2022. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington where he helped to pioneer meta-search, online comparison shopping, machine reading, and open information extraction. He has also authored several award-winning technical papers, and founded and sold many companies. In addition to his role at TrueMedia.org, he is currently a technical director of the AI2 Incubator and a Venture Partner at Madrona. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marc Rousso is the CEO of JayMarc Homes, a national award-winning home builder specializing in new custom homes in the Greater Seattle area. Marc founded JayMarc Homes along with childhood friend Jay Mezistrano in 2010, and together they’ve created a company culture that’s entrepreneurial, inclusive, and respectful. Marc has degrees from the University of Washington and the Sloan School of Management’s Executive Entrepreneurship Program at MIT. When not conversing with contractors, sharing ideas with real estate professionals, and talking to JayMarc homeowners past, present, and future, Marc balances his work life with a wonderful family: his wife, Leslie, and their two beautiful children, Lee and Siena. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a condensed version of Shauna Swerland's 2020 interview with Kate Wallich, the Founder and CEO of Dance Church. Kate’s desire to study and practice dance led her to people and places she never thought possible while growing up in Michigan. When this pursuit took her to Seattle, she learned how sharing the power of dance can forge meaningful connections and inspire others. In this recap episode, Kate emphasizes the power of expressing yourself and how movement can promote healing and create positive communities. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a condensed version of Shauna Swerland’s 2019 interview with Sue Suh, then Chief People Officer at Time. Before working at Time, Sue’s career took her around the world on campaigns for international cooperation and change at the U.S. Departments of Defense, State, and the Rockefeller Foundation. In this recap episode, Sue shares great advice for younger people with stories from her college and early career days. She also emphasizes the power of gratitude and human connections in her professional and personal lives and how daily choices add up to big opportunities. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a condensed version of Shauna Swerland’s 2019 conversation with Jeremy Lott, President of SanMar. SanMar gave Jeremy his first job, modeling on the cover of the company’s first catalog at the age of two. Since then, he’s learned the family business inside and out, from pulling orders to purchasing. Now as president, he focuses on creating a culture of opportunity and sustainability at SanMar and in their factories and offices around the world. To learn more about SanMar, visit www.sanmar.com. In this recap episode, Jeremy discusses SanMar’s philosophy that products should make positive impacts and how family values lead to success. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a condensed version of Shauna Swerland’s 2019 interview with Dan Levitan, the co-founder of the venture capital firm Maveron. Dan started the firm with Howard Schultz in 1998 after helping the Starbucks team accomplish its IPO. Under Dan’s guidance, Maveron focused on “creating a cauldron of consumer passion” by forming partnerships with non-normal entrepreneurs. These partnerships have included brands like Allbirds, Ebay, Lovevery, and Zulily. To learn more about Maveron and the team behind their consumer-focused culture, visit maveron.com. In this recap episode, Dan explains the importance of investing in consumers and relationships, the significance of seeing the opportunity, and how to elevate your aspirations. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this condensed version of Shauna Swerland's conversation with Chad Robins from 2019, you'll hear the origin story of Adaptive Biotechnologies, the corporate culture Chad is building there, and what Chad sees as the most important tasks of a CEO. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emily Pesce is CEO of Joon, whose mission is to make mental healthcare and well-being broadly accessible and effective for 13-24 year olds. Emily has over twenty years of experience across healthcare, e-commerce, grocery, supply chain, technology, mobile, and cloud computing. She has led product, marketing, design, technology, forecasting and replenishment teams, among others. Her primary operating experiences were at Amazon (AmazonFresh, Kindle, Gaming, AWS) and Nerdy (Product). Emily has also been an investor, providing early stage capital, sometimes the first money in, to over 30 companies (Working Lab Capital, Pesce Family Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.