InspireLink (The NextGen Speaker Series Podcast)

Arrow Electronics took home the 2021 Silver Edison Award in the category of Social Tools for Disabilities & Illnesses for its Belle Dragon social robot. The project granted the wish of 14-year-old cancer patient Belle Cress through Make-A-Wish Colorado. This marks the third consecutive year that Arrow's Corporate Social Responsibility humanitarian technology program has been recognized with an Edison Award. Congratulations!The Edison Awards organization also named Arrow engineering services project manager Victoria Bohannon-Pea as a 2021 Lewis Latimer Fellow. Bohannon-Pea, who joined Arrow as an intern in 2014, managed the dragon's development and coordinated several technology partners and suppliers. The Latimer fellows will meet regularly to exchange ideas and build a new community of African American innovators. It is named for Lewis Howard Latimer, a Black inventor and patent draftsman who improved Thomas Edison's original light bulb by patenting the use of a long-lasting carbon filament. Latimer's invention paved the way for the commercialization of lighting.

Kevin Noertker has contributed engineering expertise to stealth aircraft and satellitedevelopment programs and contributed to our understanding of the universe as aresearch fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. An entrepreneur at heart, Kevin isdriven to apply the science and engineering disciplines of large aerospaceorganizations to pressing environmental problems. He views the U.S.'s robust startupculture as an opportunity to direct technological innovation toward people andcommunities, gaining quick feedback and making rapid progress. Prior to foundingAmpaire with Cory Combs, he served as a senior systems engineer at NorthropGrumman Electronic Systems working on satellite programs. Among otheraccomplishments, he led a team that developed a hardware fix for a key componenton the Joint Polar Satellite System, improving NOAA's hurricane projections from threedays to 5-7 days, as well as the supply of other crucial weather data. Earlier, he wasan engineer at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems developing low-observable(stealth) technology. He has two patents from this period. As an undergraduateresearch fellow at JPL, he investigated requirements for a unique robot capable ofcollecting rock samples in challenging terrain on Mars, Titan, and the Moon. He alsoanalyzed data from the Infrared Spitzer Space Telescope to chart star formation overthe last seven billion years. Kevin graduated with honors from Caltech with a major inMechanical Engineering and a minor in History He is a Director of the Caltech AlumniAssociation.

On her way to an interview for a secretarial position in Dayton, Ohio, in 1978, Jan Fields stopped at a McDonald's. A "Now Hiring" sign touting flexible hours led her to fill out an application. She was hired on the spot and spent the rest of her career with the fast food restaurant. We're sharing highlights from our interview, including what it's like to be one of only a handful of women to run a Fortune 500 company and the secrets behind scaling a business the size of McDonald's. Stick around to find out what happened that time McDonald's tried to get into the pizza game.

How do you get from where you are today…to where you want to be? It starts by creating a vision for yourself, for your work, and for your life. InspireLink is here to provide the inspiration to craft that vision with motivating stories from people who have been exactly where you are now and made it to the top. Most people can't just sit down with the CEO of Pfizer or the founder of Best Buy. These leaders, and many others, have generously shared their time and their wisdom with us. We believe everyone who wants to learn from them should have access, too. That's why InspireLink is committed to sharing with you, opening our network, and helping ambitious professionals reach their full potential through story-based learning.In this podcast we interview entrepreneurs, CEO's and other business experts to extract the best resources, information, and advice to improve your odds of success. InspireLink has assembled the experts that can help you determine your path ahead, take the first step, and address the challenges you face along your journey.InspireLink also hosts the NextGen Speaker Series, which includes virtual and in-person events based in Southwest Florida. NextGen speakers are accomplished business leaders, including Fortune 500 CEOs. You'll hear some NextGen speakers here on the InspireLink podcast. Other guests are business leaders and entrepreneurs we've met along the way. They've inspired us, sharing wisdom and practical advice, and we think you should get a chance to meet them, too. Sometimes the podcast will be a bite-size dose, just 5-10 minutes with a leader, focusing on one topic to help you learn and grow. Other times, we'll feature an extended interview with a leader who has so many good “nuggets” we just don't want the conversation to end! We'll always wrap up with "Lessons Learned," the actions you can implement in your own life and work, right away.