This podcast is about Penn State alumni who are innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders, and the stories behind their success.
Innovating the Environmental Insurance Business with David Rosenberg
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Innovating the Environmental Insurance Business with David Rosenberg
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David Rosenberg is the former Executive Vice President and Principal at Environmental Compliance Services (ECS). David and his two partners grew ECS from a small 12 person, $5 million in annual written premium agency to a 500 person, $200 million in annual written premium agency and a leader in the environmental insurance business. ECS was sold to XL Capital Inc., a publicly held company in 1999.
David received his bachelor’s degree in individual and family studies from Penn State.
Scaling a Stress-free Home Remodeling Business with West Shore Home Founder B.J. Werzyn
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Scaling a Stress-free Home Remodeling Business with West Shore Home Founder B.J. Werzyn
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B.J. Werzyn is the founder and CEO of West Shore Home, one of the largest direct to consumer home remodelers in the nation. Through a combination of acquisitions and new office openings, West Shore Home has over 38 locations in 18 states with over $750 million in revenue.
In this episode, B.J. talks about how he is revolutionizing a traditionally fragmented and tech averse industry. He talks through how West Shore Home mapped out the 67 processes of home remodeling, removed inefficiencies, and implemented streamlined processes empowered by technology to ultimately make the easiest, quickest, most stress-free customer experience.
At the end of the episode, current Penn State student Jennifer Natale joins the conversation. Jennifer is a senior at Penn State majoring in finance with a minor in Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She is the president of the Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Society at Penn State. She talks to B.J. about overcoming initial entrepreneurial obstacles. B.J. graduated from Penn State in 1999.
Rejecting the Label of Disabled with Susan Robinson
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Rejecting the Label of Disabled with Susan Robinson
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Susan Robinson is a speaker, consultant and leader making an impact on the world in a truly unique way. Through her corporate and conference keynote, commencement addresses, workshops, client initiatives and writing, she masterfully blends over 25 years of multi-sector leadership with her experiences being legally blind to shift thinking, elevate potential and inspire action. She has worked with global firms and Fortune 500 companies, top not-for-profit organizations, leading universities and the United Nations.She presented a TED Talk in 2017 entitled “How I Fail at Being Disabled,” which has over 1.5M views.
She graduated from Penn State in 1994 with a degree in health policy and administration, and received her masters of public administration in health policy and management from New York University.
Windows of Opportunity: Navigating Growth with MITER Brands CEO Matt DeSoto
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Windows of Opportunity: Navigating Growth with MITER Brands CEO Matt DeSoto
Matt DeSoto is the President and CEO of Harrisburg-based MITER Brands, a family of leading window and door brands designed for residential projects in the new construction and remodeling markets. Under Matt’s leadership, MITER Brands has become one of North America’s largest fabricators of vinyl, aluminum, and fiberglass windows and patio doors.
In this episode, Matt talks about his experience working for Student Painters as a student at Penn State, enduring the Great Recession of 2008, how he and his team maintain top-quality products and service, as well as how he prioritizes giving back to the communities they work in through the MITER Foundation.
At the end of the episode, current Penn State student Ryn Rizer joins the conversation. Ryn is a junior studying mechanical engineering. He works as a technician at OriginLabs, Invent Penn State’s newest prototyping and fabrication space in downtown State College. Ryn talks to Matt about how MITER has implemented robotics and AI to make jobs safer and production and sales more efficient.
Empowering Patients with Ro Founder Rob Schutz
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Empowering Patients with Ro Founder Rob Schutz
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Rob Schutz is the Chief Growth Officer and Co-founder of Ro, a direct-to-patient healthcare company providing high-quality, affordable healthcare without the need for insurance. Rob guides Ro’s growth, marketing and communications functions to tell Ro’s story of putting patients in control of their health. He applies his extensive experience in consumer marketing to ensure Ro is resonating with patients by directly addressing their healthcare concerns. Under Rob’s leadership, these functions have helped propel Ro into one of the fastest growing companies in the country, achieving unicorn status in 2020. As of September ’22, Rob has stepped back from day-to-day at Ro while continuing to serve as an advisor and on Ro’s Board of Directors.
Prior to Ro, Rob was VP of Growth at Bark, the makers of BarkBox, where he joined as employee #7 and helped scale revenue from zero to $100 million. He also founded a Washington DC-based daily deals site that was acquired by kgbdeals in 2011. An expert in user acquisition, Rob has also served as a curriculum developer and instructor for General Assembly. He has been recognized by Business Insider as a 30 Under 40 leader in Healthcare. Rob earned his B.S. in Management Information Systems from Penn State University.
LIVE from State College: honeygrow Founder Justin Rosenberg
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LIVE from State College: honeygrow Founder Justin Rosenberg
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Justin Rosenberg is Founder and CEO of honeygrow, a fast-casual stir-fry and salad concept founded in Philadelphia in 2012. With a mission to create a unique, spirited brand focused on simple, wholesome foods, Rosenberg has led the company’s creation and growth, which currently has 41 locations.
In this special LIVE episode recording, which took place during Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC on Wednesday, March 20, Justin shares his story of perseverance and success with honeygrow.
Justin first pitched honeygrow 93 times to investors before finally landing a deal and opening the first location in the Rittenhouse neighborhood of Philadelphia. Since then, the company has raised over $80 million in equity financing and has grown into the Boston, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington DC and the New York City metro areas.
Towards the middle of the episode, in-person audience members got the opportunity to ask Justin a few questions of their own.
We are taking a break this December, but we’ll be back in late January with an episode featuring Zander Isaacson, the co-founder of Xeal, a company that is disrupting the electric vehicle charging industry. Listen to this episode for a quick preview of the interview. Happy holidays!
Exploring Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) with Former NFL Player Omar X. Easy
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Exploring Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) with Former NFL Player Omar X. Easy
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Omar X. Easy, Ph.D., is the recently appointed director of the all-new Penn State Brand Academy. The Brand Academy, a project recently launched by Invent Penn State in partnership with Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics and funded through the Wally Triplett Brand Academy Endowment, is designed to support student-athletes to manage and leverage their personal brand, name, image and likeness (NIL), and support their entrepreneurial interests more successfully.
In this episode, Omar shares his experience growing up in Jamaica and moving to the United States as a teenager. He shares lessons learned from his time as a student-athlete at Penn State as well as his time in the NFL, where he played as a running back for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders. He then discusses his vision for The Brand Academy and how it will serve student-athletes in building and leveraging their personal brand.
At the end of the episode, current Penn State student Miranda Heffelfinger joins the conversation. She is the captain and president of the Penn State women’s rugby team. She talks to Omar about how The Brand Academy will eventually serve all student-athletes, as well as how The Brand Academy will set student-athletes up for success to continue to benefit from NIL post-graduation.
Making Sustainability Convenient with Zander Isaacson
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Making Sustainability Convenient with Zander Isaacson
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Zander Isaacson is the CEO and Co-Founder of Xeal, a technology-first electric vehicle (EV) charging company operating at the intersection of real estate, mobility, clean energy, and IoT. The company secured $40M in Series B funding in November 2022 after closing an $11M series A in 2021 by leading proptech and climate tech VC funds, and has already partnered with 70+ of the largest real estate companies including Lincoln Property Company, Camden, Greystar, Related, UBS, and Brookfield.
Prior to starting Xeal in 2019, Zander worked as a S&T summer analyst at Citi Global Markets and then full-time in IB at Torreya Partners within the Mergers & Acquisitions division. Prior to investment banking, Zander was the founder & president of Happy Valley VC, the first student-run venture capital fund at Penn State, and was a portfolio manager for the Nittany Lion Fund, a $15M student-run hedge fund.He graduated from Penn State’s Smeal College of Business.