Opportunity Accelerators

Greg Sarafin, retired Global Vice Chair of Partner Ecosystems at EY, shares insights on his career journey, the importance of sales and leadership, and balancing work and family life. He emphasizes the value of creating customer-centric solutions and the need for CEOs to adapt to the changing landscape of technology, particularly in the era of AI and generative AI. Make sure to tune in till the lightning round where Greg shares more fun on his interest and opinions! 

In this special episode of Opportunity Accelerators, our hosts welcome back Mike Quinn and introduce Nick Gismondi, both with Tenova. The conversation is all about the big announcement – the Joint Venture formed by Tenova and SkillStorm. This JV was formed to bridge the skills gap in the federal sector with custom designed teams of engineers certified in cloud computing, cyber, AI and more. The JV will address the challenges faced in the federal modernization efforts. Tune in to hear what Vince, Justin, Joe, Mike and Nick say about how this could benefit the system integrators and government agencies moving forward!  

Aniza Brown, Founder and CEO of Rosie Project, sits down with Vince and Justin to share how her upbringing, a love for technology and wanting to fix problems led her to becoming an entrepreneur for a greater cause. Through Rosie Project, barriers are breaking down for military spouses to enter the tech industry by providing education and support to spouses looking to advance their careers alongside their active-duty partners. Aniza shares success stories of military spouses finding employment and the recognition the Rosie Project has received. She emphasizes the importance of removing barriers and providing opportunities for military spouses in the tech industry. 

For the final episode of season 1, we sit down with Cordell Carter who joins us for an enlightening conversation about his journey that's been centered around helping people. He started with singing opera to studying law, and now leading as Executive Director for the Aspen Institute Socrates Program and leading the Festival of the Diaspora as Founder. Cordell's passion and impact on closing the trust gap and providing opportunities speaks volumes as he is also on the advisory board for a few organizations including ours at SkillStorm, where he spearheads the UpSkill Together Initiative, further underscoring his unwavering dedication to societal betterment. 

With more than 20 years of experience in the federal sector, this week's guest, Emily Murphy, shares insights into the life of government contracting and what she learned from her leadership roles in the federal government. Her career has been an incredible journey, and now she's serving as a SkillStorm Advisory Board Member among other roles. One key message Emily shares, hiring the right person can make a big difference! 

Doug Leeby, CEO of Beeline, joins this week on the podcast. Doug graduated from Vanderbilt University and after a few roles in sales, he took a role at Beeline and has worked his way up over the years to become the CEO. His dedication and passion shine throughout his nearly 22-year career at Beeline; and he shares how life lessons growing up and the belief of a life full of grace and magnanimity can make a difference. 

This week, a graduate of West Point and Harvard Business School with a 22-year career in the US Army, Mark Tribus shares how he discovered his purpose in leadership by inspiring others. Mark's messages highlight the importance of finding your passion, living by those passions fully, and how trust plays a pivotal role in leadership. 

Today's guest is a special one — Co-Founder and Board Member of SkillStorm, Hany Girgis. In this episode, Hany delves into his family upbringing and how that helped shape his entrepreneurial spirit. He also shares insights into the inception and early days of SkillStorm, the pivotal role passion and persistence had in his success story and how he learned to master the art of selling to building a successful business. 

With a passion for education coupled with workforce development, this week's guest, Brandon Busteed, shares his thoughts on how improving the learning and teaching engine can impact generations to come. Brandon's expertise is backed by his dedicated career path in education which started with Outside The Classroom as the founder and CEO, to Senior Partner at Gallup, Chief Partnership Officer at Kaplan, and just recently appointed CEO of BrandEd Holding.

This week we sit down with Richard Brimblecombe, Co-Founder, Managing Director and CEO of AgriCap Group and Owner of Legacy Livestock and Capacity Capital. Richard shares how he's managed to cultivate his careers around his passion, from being on a farm to crunching numbers. He shares the importance of building character and relationships for your business — and of course, some laughs about life Down Under. 

Retired Sergeant Major Michael Quinn is this week's guest! Michael shares his story of retirement from the Army to transitioning to civilian life and lessons learned along the way. Being a 2x LinkedIn Top Voice and how that's helped him build relationships and a network to serve the military community. For military personnel looking to learn more about SkillStorm, reach out to military@skillstorm.com or visit https://info.skillstorm.com/hire-military-cool. 

This week Suzette Kent, former Federal CIO, joins the Opportunity Accelerator podcast. Suzette shares her story of how being a problem solver led her throughout her career from being a partner at Accenture and EY to becoming a Federal CIO while being a mom to twins. Suzette leads her own advisory business through which she continues strategic transformational work with clients around the world, across industries, and in the public and private sectors.

Ryan Craig, Managing Director at Achieve Partners, joins us to discuss the importance of education, apprenticeships and policies. Ryan, fueled by his passion for apprenticeships and writing, has a bi-weekly newsletter called the Gap Letter and several books, his latest just released in November 2023, Apprentice Nation.

Tom Hoshko, an IT Services pioneer and successful entrepreneur, joins us for the first episode of the OA podcast. As Vince's mentor, Tom shares the valuable lessons he's learned along the way, including how to successfully grow your business, the hard work involved, and how to never burn a bridge.