Leaders In Tech Announces 2022 Fellows
Twenty-four tech startup founders and executives kick off year-long journey of learning to become more interpersonally influential and skilled leaders
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (November 7, 2022) — Leaders in Tech (LIT) has launched its sixth cohort of Fellows. Twenty-four leaders have kicked off a year-long experiential leadership development program based on the most popular elective class at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business (Interpersonal Dynamics, often referred to as “Touchy Feely”) and optimized specifically for startup tech founders and executives.
According to Chase Adam, LIT’s Interim Executive Director, “Effectively developing relationships and connecting across differences is critical both for professional success and personal fulfillment. People do business with people, yet discovering what makes you more or less effective in creating strong relationships can be risky. Leadership is about mobilizing people, yet getting honest feedback from a diversity of people about what you say and do is rare.”
Through its year-long Fellows program and intensive 4-day standalone retreat programs, LIT offers a safe learning lab where participants can test ideas, challenge each other, and experiment with taking the interpersonal risks necessary for rapid learning and growth.
Carole Robin, Leaders in Tech Co-founder and Head of Curriculum & Faculty was the Dorothy J. King Lecturer in Leadership and Director of the Arbuckle Leadership Fellows Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business where she taught and directed Touchy Feely for 19 years.
Robin explains, “Thousands of students at the GSB have said for decades that Touchy Feely alone was worth the entire price of Stanford tuition. Our LIT Fellows program is delivering that life-changing, transformative experience to CEOs and founders. Stanford alums who took Touchy Feely and have now gone through the LIT program are repeatedly blown away about the new level of insights and learnings they’re bringing back to their companies and into their personal lives.”
The Fellows program and other LIT retreats consistently earn a Net Promoter Score over 85. The more than 100 Fellows alumni were selected from a large and highly competitive pool of applicants nominated by a network of industry investors, advisors, and influencers. LIT Fellows alumni have built and run companies valued at more than $50 billion. LIT Fellows are 40% women and 40% BIPOC.
A GSB graduate who took Touchy Feely and a LIT Fellow, Sofia Elizondo, Co-founder and COO at Brightseed shares, “LIT is the most courageous exploration of leadership I have ever experienced and the single most important thing I have done for personal and professional development.”
The 2022 Cohort joins a long list of LIT Fellows alumni and includes:
Alexey Dubov - Chief Innovation Officer & Co-founder, Mighty Buildings
Amy Shen - CTO & Co-founder, Fanhouse
Benjamin Gleitzman - CTO & Co-founder, Replicant
Bharat Vasan - President & COO, The Production Board
Brittany Ennix - CEO & Founder, Portex
David Booth, Co-founder & CEO at On Deck
Donnel Baird - Founder & CEO, BlocPower
Gautam Tambay - CEO & Co-founder, Springboard
Greg Hollander - VP of GTM and Strategy, Novi
Jen Henderson - CEO & Founder, TiLT
Jon Lerner - CEO & Co-founder, CoinTracker
Julia Enthoven - CEO & Co-founder, Kapwing
Laura Del Beccaro - CEO & Co-founder, Sora
Mackenzie Burnett - CEO & Co-founder, Ambrook
Emmanuel (Manu) Smadja - CEO & Co-founder, MPOWER Financing
María Echeverri Gomez - CEO & Founder, Muni Tienda
Michael Babineau — Co-Founder & CEO, Turnstile
Michael McCullough - CEO & Founder, BrainMind
Patricia Bubner - CEO & Co-founder, Orbillion
Regina Wallace-Jones - COO, LendStreet Financial
Rosie Nguyen - Cofounder & Creator, Fanhouse
Sargun Kaur - CEO & Co-founder, Byteboard
Seema Kumar - COO, Secureframe
Tan Le - CEO & Founder, EMOTIV
In 2023, LIT will be expanding its 4-day intensive retreat offerings to accommodate demand from earlier stage startup founders and executive team members seeking to become more interpersonally influential and skilled.
Leaders in Tech is a 501(c)(3) that provides programs for leaders of high growth tech companies who are committed to building high-performing and culturally healthy organizations. LIT’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Fast Company, Forbes, Business Insider, LinkedIn, Thrive Global, TEDx, Ten Percent Happier, and more. For more information, visit www.leadersintech.org.
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