Episode 78

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Published on:

11th Mar 2022

Ep. 78 Walt Freese, Former Ben & Jerry’s CEO on Leadership and Company Culture

How do you bring new leadership into your organization? How do you develop and maintain the culture within your organization?

Walt Freese, the former CEO of world-renowned ice cream and dominant incumbent, Ben & Jerry’s, gave his perspective on bringing new talent into an organization. He described the belief carried by many organizations which focus too much on specific qualifications and past experiences of candidates, instead of focusing on where those candidates might be in the next decade. Experience is important, but effective leadership skillsets require experience in leadership positions. Treat it like hiring athletes, looking for potential, long-term growth, and the combined natural talent and training.

Speaking of leadership, in addition to executive-level leadership across numerous global businesses, Walt is a mentor for veterans separating from the military. As a top-tier leader, Walt works directly with elite military special operations personnel as part of The Honor Foundation (THF). Through his mentorship, special operations veterans are able to step out of uniform, and into influential positions in the business world that stand to benefit from their experience and unique mindsets.

Walt Freese takes teamwork and culture very seriously. The magic of teamwork is built on open dialogue. High-performing teams demonstrate a willingness to communicate and discuss the difficult, or more challenging aspects of a situation. The culture of a company needs to be based in real metrics, and with virtues that align with the mission. When you have created this virtuous circle, you have created a lasting culture within your organization.

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About the Podcast

Investors & Operators
A Podcast by 51 Labs
The M&A market can be boring, but everyone has a story. The Investors & Operators podcast is about discovering the stories people were holding back, didn’t know how to tell, or forgot about. The goal is simple: fresh, authentic storytelling to bring people together in the M&A community.

With over 1M organic views and counting on LinkedIn, 51 Labs is disrupting the M&A market through the use of videography and content creation. In a market that longs for authenticity, 51 Labs helps strengthen your brand and tell your story. From concept to distribution, we strategize and produce thoughtful content to be used across a multitude of channels, to help you stand out in an otherwise traditionally boring market.

New episodes every other Thursday at 6:00am Eastern.

About your host

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Jordan Selleck

Founder. Recovering Investment Banker. 3x Entrepreneur. Philz Coffee Enthusiast.

Jordan Selleck is a recovering investment banker turned 3x entrepreneur. While teaching English in China, Jordan met an investment banker in a bar and before he knew it he’d spent six years in cross-border investment banking advising global corporates and private equity firms on M&A deals up to $250 million.

As much as Jordan loved investment banking, he always knew he was meant to do something more. In 2016, Jordan founded Debtmaven, a deal management platform for debt financing in the lower middle market. It was while he was marketing Debtmaven on LinkedIn that Jordan found his true passion: building meaningful relationships in the lower middle market.

Seeing over 50% of Debtmaven’s $450million+ in deals come from LinkedIn, he realized he’d found an untapped market and began his journey with LinkedIn consulting. Dozens of clients and a handful of extraordinarily talented employees later, 51 Labs is a thriving marketing agency for the lower middle market that produces captivating content and generates organic traffic across LinkedIn.

Jordan was born in San Diego, grew up in North Carolina and attended UNC-Chapel Hill. He has traveled to 32 countries, lived in China for 18 months, trains Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, is a fourth-generation private pilot, SCUBA dives, speaks Mandarin Chinese, and is a husband and father of 2.