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Past Episodes

July 3, 2025
Building a business around the beautiful game with Justin Papadakis

Justin Papadakis has spent his career in real estate development and soccer, with his most recent position being a bit of both: deputy CEO and chief real estate officer of …

June 26, 2025
Fail Fast, Fail Cheap, & Other Advice from Kevin Harrington, Original Shark on 'Shark Tank'

Longtime Pinellas County resident Kevin Harrington has a stellar resume. Among the highlights: inventor of the infomercial, shark on the first year of the TV show “Shark Tank,” Fortune 100 …

June 19, 2025
A cool strategy to selling hot chicken with King of the Coop's Joe Dodd

Joe Dodd’s restaurant and hospitality career has taken a lot of twists and turns, overcoming some missteps, in locations and partnerships, among others. But now his award-winning King of the …

June 12, 2025
From Sydney, Australia to strengthening nonprofits across Florida with Ashley Dietz

Ashley has been in the nonprofit sector in Florida for a decade or so, working for the United Way Suncoast and the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida, among other …

June 5, 2025
Growing your leadership skillset with Growing Your Team founder Jamie Van Cuyk

Jamie founded Growing Your Team in 2018 after working for a decade or so in the marketing field. Growing Your Team helps other companies, mostly small businesses, not only hire …

May 29, 2025
From banking in the Bayou to being a Southwest Florida community leader with Brandon Box

Brandon has been in banking in Southwest Florida for 15 years, joining Orlando-based Cogent in 2020. He started his career in his native Louisiana, working for IberiaBank in Baton Rouge …

May 22, 2025
Running an 800-employee restaurant enterprise with Mike Quillen

Mike Quillen is the president of three independent restaurant groups that include 15 locations in Florida and North Carolina, with some 800 employees. The list includes Gecko’s Grill & Pub, …

May 15, 2025
The future of health care leadership with Tampa General’s John Couris

John Couris is one of the most recognized health care leaders in the Sunshine State, having run the Florida Health Sciences Center, parent entity of Tampa General Hospital, since 2017. …

May 8, 2025
Juice, eggs and cooking up the next generation of leaders with First Watch’s Lilah Taha-Rippett

Lilah (pronounced like Layla) has overseen the supply chain for east Manatee County-based First Watch since 2017. She’s been in food service supply and logistics for some 30 years, working …

May 1, 2025
From farming in Colorado to growing leaders in the community w/ University Area CDC’s Sarah Combs

A nonprofit executive, Sarah has been with the University Area CDC since 2010 and executive director and CEO since 2015. The University Area CDC is a nonprofit public/private partnership supporting …

« 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 »

Team

Host

Mark Gordon

Mark Gordon is the managing editor of the Business Observer. Mark has been a business journalist and editor for more than 20 years, and one of his passions is writing about leadership. That led to Mark to start writing a leadership column in 2021 in the Business Observer, called Leadership Matters. It also led to the creation of the From the Corner Office podcast in June 2023.

Producer

Read Corley

Read attended elementary, middle and high school in Manatee County. After graduating from Florida State University and navigating the pandemic, Read joined up with his father to create the podcast I 501(c) You - The Podcast for Nonprofit Board Members. As the podcast has grown, Read has created a path producing podcasts for others, including the Business Observer.

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