Mark C. Thompson

Aicha Evans, Harry Kraemer, Hubert Joly and Hortense Le Gentil sat down with me to talk about their experiences as CEOs, the journeys to their fields and more.

Herb Kelleher, Cofounder of Southwest Airlines, is known as one of the Most Admired CEOs in the United States. His passion for great customer service, a local, family-friendly experience, and affordable prices has led Southwest to be a leader in the airline industry. As the legend goes, it all started in 1967 when Rollin King and Herb met at a bar and sketched out an idea for a new type of airline experience on the back of a cocktail napkin. I flew to the Love Field airport in Dallas to chat with Herb about his leadership and the story of the famous napkin.

Quincy “Q” Jones is a legendary CEO and record executive who produced some of history’s biggest artists, records and TV and movie scores. He produced Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to The Moon, and later composed and produced music for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Steven Spielberg’s Twilight Zone. Mark sat down with Quincy to talk about collaborating within the music industry and his hard lessons working with the right people and for the right reasons.

Charles Schwab is easily one of the most recognizable names in business, having led his company to become a household name in investing, serving millions around the world. Mark sat down with Chuck to talk about his early challenges and failures as an entrepreneur - and his journey to creating one of the biggest firms on Wall Street.

My guest today is Pau Gasol, NBA Championship Player and two-time Olympic medalist. Pau has played in the National Basketball Association for almost 20 years, starting with the Memphis Grizzlies and later joining the Los Angeles Lakers that won back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and 2010. He is a six-time NBA All-Star, as well as the first foreign player to be an NBA Rookie of the Year. Pau is also passionate about his philanthropy organization, the Gasol Foundation, that he founded with his brother, Marc Gasol, that works to reduce childhood obesity rates in Spain and the US. I sat down with Pau’s to talk about how he stays focused and present, handles stressful situations and the importance of preparation for all he does.

Candice Carpenter is the Cofounder of one of the biggest mass media companies in the 1990s, iVillage. As a leader in the dot com industry, Candice developed a unique company culture for her organization that was key to her success in scalable growth. She used a method for her employees called "Radical Mentoring" to provide them the feedback they needed to grow at an incredible pace. Candice and I had the opportunity to sit down and talk about the details of her style of mentoring.

Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen is known as the pioneer of Relationship Centered Care and Integrative Medicine. She is an internationally recognized physician, scientist, and author, whose book, Healer’s Art, is required reading in more than half of American medical schools. She has led an incredibly impactful life with her work and research. I sat down with Dr. Remen to talk about how she defines leadership.