Unfolding Leadership

Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin revisits and discusses some of the most interesting stories and learnings of season two! Featuring Acclaimed HR Leader Ian Ziskin, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim CEO Michael Ouwleeen, TV Executive and Equality Founder Bree Frank, America's Got Talent Executive Producer Sam Donnelly, TV Writer, Director, and Founder Amy Aniobi, Beauty Executive and Founder Melanie Bender, and Finance Executive and Equality Founder Todd Sears.   Sincere thanks to everyone who listened and shared this season - we would not be here without you!     Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Amy Aniobi is an award-winning writer, director, producer currently under an overall deal with HBO & HBO Max. She is the founder of production company, SuperSpecial, and industry talent incubator, TRIBE. Amy most recently directed multiple episodes for RAP SH!T on Max and SURVIVAL OF THE THICKEST on Netflix and also previously served as Executive Producer on INSECURE and Showrunner/Head Writer on 2 DOPE QUEENS for HBO. Prior to that, she was consulting on BROTHERS IN ATLANTA, a Story Editor on SILICON VALLEY and a Staff Writer on THE MICHAEL J FOX SHOW for NBC. She also recently co-hosted comedy and wellness podcast, THE ANTIDOTE, named one of The Guardian's "Best New Podcasts of 2022."  Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then. Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Previously a technology reporter for The New York Times business section, The Atlantic, and The Daily Beast, Taylor Lorenz is currently a technology columnist for The Washington Post's business section covering online culture and the content creator industry. Her and her work have appeared in New York magazine, Rolling Stone, Outside magazine, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, the BBC, Netflix, HBO, Hulu, and many more. She was a 2019 Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and is a former affiliate at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then. Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Sam first came to America in the fall of 2012 to join long standing America's Got Talent showrunner Jason Raff, initially only for 8 months. As she now embarks on her 12th season of the show, she has zero intention in moving back to the UK any time soon. Prior to this ‘short adventure' in the US, Sam was showrunner on Britain's Got Talent where she first met Simon Cowell. As Simon and his team were about to launch the US version of X factor, he asked her to jump ship from the BBC and join BGT, a decision that changed her life. Sam had originally ended up at the BBC in her late 20's when she answered an ad in the newspaper for researchers wanted on the prestigious UK Chat show ‘Parkinson'. As a former dancer with barely any TV experience, Sam somehow managed to land that role and stayed at the BBC for 12 years working on all manner of entertainment programming. Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then. Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

With over 20+ years of professional production experience, Bree has produced over 300 hours of unscripted television, including MTV's Room Raiders, TLC's A Makeover Story, and the award-winning television format Wife Swap. She has also contributed to a number of series during a 10-year run in Production Management for ZodiakMedia's New York office.  In 2018, Bree took a leap of faith and moved her family to Los Angeles, CA to begin a new chapter of life. She quickly landed at Matador Content and served as the Executive in Charge of Production, where she managed a robust development slate as well as projects for Disney+, Apple TV+, Crackle, and Showtime. Most currently, Bree was at Hello Sunshine (Reese Witherspoon's media company), as their Senior Vice President of Physical Production for Unscripted where she was tapped four years ago to build out physical production services. Bree's passion is to tell exceptional stories and move the television zeitgeist forward while championing diversity, equity, inclusion and access. Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then. Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Todd has spent more than 20 years working at the intersection of finance and equality, first as an investment banker before joining Merrill Lynch as Head of Diversity Strategy and Credit Suisse as Head of Diversity and Inclusion. Todd created the first team of financial advisors in Wall Street focused on the LGBTQ+ community and brought almost $2 billion of new assets to Merrill Lynch from LGBTQ+ couples and nonprofit organizations. Additionally, he is the founding chair of Jeffrey Fashion Cares, which raised more than $8mm for LGBTQ+/HIV causes under his decade of leadership, and is currently the CEO of Out Leadership, the world's premiere global platform for businesses to drive LGBTQ+ equality. Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then. Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Melanie Bender's experience spans two decades leading purpose-driven businesses, accruing industry accolades including Fast Company's Most Creative People, WWD's Beauty Vanguard, Glossy's 50, Beauty Independent's Brand Builder of the Year, among others. Starting at Who What Wear as VP of Marketing and Brand Development, she helped build a $150 million annual retail business. Next, she was the founding president of Versed, which under her leadership, became the #1 clean skincare brand in mass channels. Most recently, Melanie was the CEO of Rhode, a minimalism skincare brand that was awarded Allure's "Best of Beauty," Beauty Inc's Newcomer of the Year Award 2022, and already ranked in the top 10 most talked about skincare brands on social media - all in their first year of business! 

Fred Mwangaguhunga started off as an attorney on Wall Street but soon became an entrepreneur, founding and running a door-to-door laundry service with elite clients like Mariah Carey and The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. After his successful exit from that startup business, Fred founded mediatakeout.com and has grown it into the number one urban celebrity online news outlet with an audience of over 40 million monthly visitors. Called a "rising star" of New Media by The New York Times and one of the industry's "Top Media" people by The New York Observer, Fred has appeared on many top tier national media outlets like Access Hollywood, Bravo with Andy Cohen, GQ, Wendy Williams, CBS, BET, Bloomberg, Sirius XM, and the list goes on and on. Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then. Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic  

Ian Ziskin has 40 years of experience as a business leader, board advisor and member, coach, consultant, entrepreneur, teacher, speaker, and author. His global leadership experience includes Chief Human Resources Officer and other senior leadership roles with three Fortune 100 companies -- Northrop Grumman, Qwest Communications, and TRW – and has written dozens of articles, blogs, and book chapters on the future of work, HR, leadership, coaching, and HR's role with the board of directors. In 2007, he was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources, considered to be the highest honor in the HR profession. Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then. Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic  

Bridget Phetasy is a writer and stand-up comedian. She is the host of the podcast “Walk-Ins Welcome,” a top 1% listened to podcast, the YouTube program “Dumpster Fire,” and co-host of the podcast “Factory Settings,” along with her husband Jeren Montgomery. Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then. Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic  

Michael Ouweleen is current President of Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Boomerang, and has been a principal force behind their strategy and creative for more than 25 years. Previously, Michael was President of Adult Swim where he grew RICK AND MORTY into the #1 Comedy in the US and #1 Adult Adminted SVOD globally. Before that, he was Chief Marketing Officer of Cartoon Network, Senior VP of Programming and Development of Cartoon Network, and a key member of the small team that championed and launched Adult Swim in the first place -- even co-creating and co-writing one of the first Adult Swim shows, Harvey Birdman, Attorney-at-Law, starring Gary Cole and Stephen Colbert. Before Cartoon Network, Michael was in advertising in New York, starting with a job he won through a writing contest.   Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then.   Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic  

Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin wraps up the first season of UNFOLDING LEADERSHIP, discussing with her producers some of their favorite stories, most impactful learnings, and the general state of leadership today. Featuring clips from: Nate Stevenson, Ali Landry, Jeff Hasler, Pierre Le Veaux, and John Vause.   Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

John's a multi-award winning journalist for CNN International, currently co-anchoring 'CNN Newsroom' on CNNI. For the past 25 years, he has traveled the world, reporting from more than 30 countries, on some of the biggest stories including earthquakes, typhoons, assassinations, the Arab Spring, the death of Kim Jung il, the U.S. Government shutdown, the 2006 and 2014 Israel-Hezbollah Wars, The Beijing Olympics, The US invasion of Iraq, 9/11, The Fall of the Taliban, among many others.  Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then. Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Shannon's an award-winning producer with twenty years of experience in feature documentaries and nonfiction series. She recently won an Oscar for her work on FREE SOLO, and has worked on many other critically acclaimed documentaries, including HE NAMED ME MALALA, Grammy Winning FOO FIGHTERS: BACK AND FORTH, Emmy Winning INHERETIANCE, Academy Award Nominated TIME, Emmy Winning Boys State, among many, many others. She is an active member of the Producer's Council of the Producers Guild of America, The British Academy of Film and TV Arts, and Women in Film.   Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then.   Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

James Baker's a leading figure in the international media industry with extensive creative, production, channel management, and media investment experience. In 2019, as Co-CEO of Red Arrow Studios, one of the world's leading creators and distributors of entertainment content, James was named in Variety's Top 500 Global Entertainment Business Leaders. He's currently the founder of Silberhorn Media Partners, an advisory group providing strategic and growth guidance to media, entertainment, and sports sectors.    Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then.   Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Raised in Madrid, the daughter of an immigrant from Equatorial Guinea, Armilla Staley-Ngomo is a criminal defense attorney with Federal Defenders of San Diego, representing both pretrial and post-conviction clients charged with committing federal criminal and “crimmigration” offenses in federal court. She proudly represents Latinx clients who are often undocumented immigrants and monolingual Spanish speakers. Upon graduating from The University of California Berkeley School of Law, Armilla clerked for the Honorable Consuelo B. Marshall, the first Black woman appointed to the federal bench in the Central District of California, and the first woman chief judge for the same – whom she credits as a major inspiration. Armilla is a board member of the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association and Co-Chair of the Lawyers Club of San Diego Diverse Women's Committee, among many other organizations.   Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then.   Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Pete Tartaglia's one of the most trusted, well-respected reality TV showrunners, working with every channel you can imagine, on shows like Big Brother, Hell's Kitchen, Temptation Island, The Family, Real Housewives of Orange County, Audrina, Shahs of Sunset, and Plain Jane, among others. These days he's in the esports and gaming business with market leader ESL and has published the book "Creating Reality: An Insider's Guide to Working in Reality TV.    Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then.   Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

With over 10 years of experience in finance, private equity, and venture capital, including at Goldman Sachs and Bac of California, Pierre Le Veaux is currently the Head of the Venture Capital and Private Equity Partnerships Division at Power Digital Marketing. Through Power Digital Marketing's Nova, a machine learning tech platform, Pierre facilitates more informed, data driven, and efficient capital allocation decisions. Pierre is also a General Partner of Seed at the Table, an Equity Crowdfunding Portal dedicated to helping diverse entrepreneurs raise capital.    Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then.   Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Mathew Littman has a wealth of experience in both government affairs and communications, quarterbacking public affairs efforts for a wide range of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, Academy Award winning actors, Super Bowl champion NFL coaches and members of Congress. He was Joe Biden's chief speechwriter during his Senate years and on his campaign for President of the United States. Mathew also appears frequently on national television and provides expertise on political campaigns and the issues of the day.    Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then.   Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

As General Manager of AppDynamics, Linda Tong leads all aspects of the company which provides solutions for real-time business performance monitoring, empowering organizations to make better critical decisions in a multi-cloud world. Prior to AppDynamics, Linda was Vice President of Product and Innovation at the NFL, and before that, was a founding member of both Nextbit and Tapyjoy, the latter of which Linda grew to 250+ employees and hundreds of millions in revenue. Earlier on, at Google, Linda was one of the original Android team members, and helped launch and shape the Android OS.   Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then.   Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Ali Landry's an actress, producer, TV host, talk show host, entrepreneur, advocate, former Miss USA, and all around wonder-woman - lately working as co-host of Hollywood Today Live, Co-Founder of the annual car seat safety event, Red CARpet, and RE/SHAPE TV, where she hosts meaningful conversations aimed to help women over 40 crack the code to various life hurdles. Based on Ali's extensive knowledge and research on women's wellness, RE/SHAPE is currently moving into consumer products and Ali's signed a book deal with Harper Collins.    Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then.   Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

ND Stevenson is an award winning writer, animated showrunner, and cartoonist, most recently of the TV series She-Ra and the Princess of Power, the comics Lumberjanes, Nimona, Thor and Runaways, among others.    Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then.   Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Nicole Neeman Brady's the CEO and Director of Sustainable Development Acquisition i Corp, a public benefit corporation and pending B Corp whose mission is to identify and partner with growth-oriented companies that are advancing the UN's sustainable development goals. She also serves on numerous boards, including California Resource Corporation, Library Foundation of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and various companies connected to Renewable Resources Group. Before this, Nicole was the Director of Energy Procurement at Southern California Edison – a $5 billion business - and worked at Twentieth Century Fox, Goldman Sachs, with a Masters Degree from Harvard Business School. Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then. Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Jeff Hasler's an Academy, Emmy, and Peabody Award winning producer, director, writer, and network executive who's been involved with non-fiction projects of all genres, including Queer Eye for The Straight Guy Biography, Man v. Wild, Cash Cab, Brain Games, the documentary feature films Man on Wire, Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of The World and Brett Morgan's Jane, among others. As the President of Original Productions, he oversees all development, production, business and strategic aspects of the company.    Listen in as top executive coach Lacey Leone McLaughlin and her clients tell the stories and learnings they wish they had known then.   Music courtesy of @blkmktmusic

Whether you're the CEO of a Fortune 100 Company, a creative with four too many plates spinning, or the owner of a start-up on the knife's edge of survival, all successful leaders have stories of the bumps, bruises, and subsequent hard-won learnings that have brought them to where they are today. While these stories are often not glamorous, or sleek, or even pleasant to talk about, they are situations shared by all yet rarely discussed openly. But, as any self-reflective person knows, real learning only comes from frank discussion that pull no punches.   What did you need to know that you weren't told?   Lacey Leone McLaughlin has been guiding top leaders through answering this question for over 20 years, working, in, among others, aerospace, automotive, entertainment, retail, and technology. With her no-nonsense, compassionate approach, she has solidified herself as one of the world's foremost executive coaches, and in this conversational podcast, she and her clients will be sharing distilled, battle-tested wisdom on communication, integration, management, personal growth, accountability, and the things leaders don't talk about (but should).   Listen in as Lacey Leone McLaughlin talks Unfolding Leadership.