Whatever the company, any new hire is well-advised to hit the ground running. That first impression can be a lasting one, and if so, Thomas Lynch must have endeared himself from the get-go to the team at Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. Just three days into his job as general counsel of the growing biopharmaceutical company in […]
Features Region: West
John Spiegleman – DCT Industrial Trust (DCT)
There was a time when John Spiegleman expended his legal and real estate expertise on behalf of companies that managed lavish hotels, high-end apartments, urban retail buildings and the lushest golf courses. Nowadays, as executive vice president and general counsel of Denver-based DCT Industrial Trust (NYSE:DCT), he’s more likely to apply his know-how to developing, […]
What would a woman do? Bernadette Chala bucked hesitation
When American Sporting Goods Corporation (ASG) asked Bernadette Chala to leave the law office she’d been with for four years, Chala’s initial reaction was hesitation. She had never worked in-house and she didn’t have a consumer products background, she told ASG, and was upfront about her experience. But the company didn’t mind; it wanted her […]
Judi Otteson – NeoPhotonics
Judi Otteson’s big advice sounds simple: Don’t be a jerk. Be gracious and listen to people. But because traits like kindness and compassion are sometimes confused with weakness, Otteson has learned to lead with conviction, while staying true to her naturally easy-going personality. She’s an attorney who can be both friendly and effective. “[There are] […]
Offering defense solutions on both sides of the pond
Defense contractors navigate a sea of regulations—it comes with the territory of handling sensitive material for nations and militaries. And the more a contractor grows, the more it must reconcile its increasingly complex business structure with the regulations that govern it. In charge of that task for U.S.-based Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions (CAES) is Bruce […]
Corporations can be great vehicles for social activism
The financial crisis in 2008 didn’t do great things for the public’s perception of automakers. When gas prices rose, car companies struggled to sell the SUVs that had been their bread and butter. The lost profits, compounded by the burst of the housing bubble, had a worldwide ripple effect. In the wake of the crisis, […]
Cindy Williams – 1-800 Contacts
Some 41 million Americans use contact lenses, and a growing number do so by downloading 1-800 Contacts’ five-star app that submits their order in just three clicks. Yet those customers have no idea how hard the Utah-based company has had to fight to provide such easy shopping, the company says. The fight continues today, led […]
Sonny Cave – ON Semiconductor Corporation
Nothing moves faster than technology, but geopolitics is picking up speed. In today’s world, a tweet by President Trump can cause a company’s stock to jump or plummet. A trade agreement can change everything. An executive order can leave employees stranded. Global companies, then, would be wise to do as Sonny Cave has done. Cave […]
Bob Temple – NuScale Power LLC
For almost 10 years, NuScale Power LLC has been developing safer, smaller, scalable nuclear power technology. But the company, which has more than 450 employees and receives hundreds of millions of dollars in funding each year, has only a trickle of revenue. The technology NuScale is developing grew out of a Department of Energy (DOE) funded […]
Tiffany Walden – Olaplex
Marie Claire magazine calls it “the biggest new hair-treatment technology for years.” Kim Kardashian says it enabled her to go platinum and back without making a mess of her famous tresses. Molly Sims, she of Sports Illustrated swimsuit and NBC “Las Vegas” fame, also lauds the stuff. The miracle products limit damage to hair during […]
