Latest news with #MansuetoVentures
Fast Company
26-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Books on the ultrarich dominate the Modern CEO summer reading list
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I'm Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Summer officially starts in a few weeks, but I've already ordered and preordered the books that will keep me company on airplanes and trips to the beach. The first Modern CEO reading list was heavy on buzzworthy titles. Last year's edition was a bit more dutiful, highlighting three works that explored the complexities of capitalism. This year, I'm diving into the lives of the ultrarich, whose impact on culture, society, and policy continues to rise. The Haves and the Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich by Evan Osnos Thanks in part to social media, consumption—of luxury goods, five-star resorts, rare wines, and the like—is increasingly conspicuous. One place where the ultrarich can avoid prying eyes? Aboard their superyachts. As Evan Osnos, a staff writer and podcast host at The New Yorker, writes of such floating mansions: 'These shrines to excess capital exist in a conditional state of visibility: they are meant to be unmistakable to a slender stratum of society—and all but unseen by everyone else.' Osnos's collection of essays promises to shed light on the excesses but also on how the rich amass and keep their wealth and the power that it affords. Personal History: A Memoir by Katharine Graham and Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein One of the biggest business stories of the year—Warren Buffett's announcement that he will step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway—and the ongoing struggles of The Washington Post under Jeff Bezos (a superyacht owner), are prompting me to reread two great books on my bookshelf. Personal History is Graham's candid memoir of the personal and professional hurdles she had to overcome en route to becoming CEO of The Washington Post Company and one of the most admired executives in media. Lowenstein's masterful portrait of Buffett is part biography, part investing tutorial. Graham and Buffett were longtime friends, and Lowenstein seems to credit Graham with leavening some of Buffett's thrifty instincts. Stories of Buffett's frugality—his primary residence is a home he bought in Omaha in 1958 for $31,500—will surely be a good palate cleanser after the Osnos book. Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI by Karen Hao Hao, an Atlantic contributor, is one of the leading journalists covering artificial intelligence (AI), and her book promises to be an unflinching look at the potential and perils of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's ambitions for generative AI, which seem to mirror the 'move fast and break things' ethos of many tech companies. Luckily for readers, Hao seems willing to explore the unintended consequences of unfettered AI expansion, including the environmental impacts of water- and energy-hungry data centers. So Far Gone by Jess Walter Walter's latest book—my one fiction pick—has many of the things I love in novel: a road trip, multigenerational conflict, and a gruff former journalist as the protagonist. In So Far Gone, Rhys Kinnick sets off to rescue his daughter and grandchildren from a radical militia group. It's a world Walter knows well: As a journalist for the Spokane, Washington Spokesman-Review, Walter covered the 1992 standoff at Ruby Ridge in Northern Idaho, which is credited with fueling the anti-government militia movement. Challenging stuff, but an early review from Ann Patchett confirms why I love Walter's writing: 'Jess Walter managed to build such a warm, funny, loving novel out of so many horrible parts.' What are you reading this summer? What's on your summer reading list? Please send the name, author, and a sentence or two about why you'd recommend it to modern leaders to stephaniemehta@ I'll publish a bonus newsletter with reader suggestions before the official start of summer.
Fast Company
12-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Maura Healey and Christina Romer reflect on how business can be more like government—yes, government
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I'm Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Long before the Trump administration tapped Elon Musk to cut federal costs and headcount via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), business leaders and politicians have been trying to find ways to make government leaner, less bureaucratic, and more like a well-run corporation. In 1982, Ronald Reagan asked J. Peter Grace, CEO of W.R. Grace & Co., to lead a private sector committee to root our government waste. While campaigning for the presidency in 1992, Bill Clinton promised to 'radically change the way government operates—to shift from top-down bureaucracy to entrepreneurial government.' The notion that federal agencies and programs can be run more like businesses has animated the Oval Office aspirations of executives such as Michael Bloomberg, Howard Schultz, and Doug Burgum. Public-sector playbooks for CEOs But are there lessons that executives in the private sector can learn from their public counterparts? Businesses certainly have benefitted from government; tech companies owe a debt to DARPA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, for funding the predecessor to the internet, for example. Local governments can be particularly good at empowering employees at all levels to innovate, something that can confound large corporations. Rick Wartzman and Lawrence Greenspun, when they were with the Drucker Institute, shared the story of how a single front-line employee and two-middle managers in South Bend, Indiana, streamlined the city's application for tax-abatement to four pages from 22 and moved the process online. The mayor who challenged them to innovate? Pete Buttigieg, who went on to become U.S. Secretary of Transportation during the Biden administration. Government has produced and shaped other notable leaders, including Christina Romer, the former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration; and Maura Healey, the current governor of Massachusetts, whom I happened to interview last week at Think 2025, IBM's annual event for senior business and technology leaders (Fast Company was a strategic media partner at Think). At a time when many forces are pushing government entities to be more like businesses, I asked both of them to reflect on what business can learn from government. Here's what they had to say: Maura Healey, governor, Massachusetts: 'Nobody has ever asked me that question. In many ways, government can do better by operating like a business, but in other cases that just doesn't hold. Government is the place where things have to get done that the market isn't going to do. As governor, I have to be attentive to the needs of seven million residents, some of whom voted for me and some of whom didn't, many of whom have competing interests. In government you have to find a way to account for all of that. It gets messy; it gets noisy; but at the end, it helps in terms of productive policy formulation when you have that kind of stakeholder incorporation. 'For purposes of creating a better world—I think in big terms—a world where there is an abundance of energy, of housing, of healthcare, of transportation, of economic opportunity and prosperity for every child, it has to come from a broader lens than sometimes might be incentivized by the bottom line.' Christina Romer, professor emerita, Graduate Division, University of California at Berkeley, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers: 'Government policymaking is often chided for being slow, and it can indeed be frustratingly bureaucratic and incremental. But 'moving fast and breaking things' is not what Social Security recipients want when they are waiting for their checks or what the public expects when the FAA is reconfiguring flight patterns and deciding control-tower staffing. At their best, government actions are carefully researched, broadly vetted, and deliberately implemented. This approach wouldn't work in every business setting, but it could certainly help prevent many bad decisions and unintended consequences. 'Something else that impressed me during my time in government was the high quality of government workers. Far from being the lazy, overpaid bureaucrats they are often caricatured to be, I found government workers to be knowledgeable, hard-working, and committed to serving the public. Businesses would certainly benefit if they could generate that kind of loyalty and passion in their workers.' Good enough for government work Are you a business leader who has worked in government? What did you learn from your experiences in the public sector? Send your stories to me at stephaniemehta@ I may include insights in a future newsletter.
Forbes
02-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Gold House And Nasdaq Convene Power Players To Celebrate The 2025 A100
Gold Power Summit 2025 at Nasdaq. Now in its second year, the Gold Power Summit—held in partnership with Nasdaq on April 30 — brought together a diverse group of leaders who rarely share the same stage: unicorn founders, top venture capitalists, global chief marketing officers, award-winning creatives, and emerging investors. The summit, which kicked off Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, is both a celebration and a strategic move. It spotlighted some of the most transformative Asian Pacific leaders across culture and commerce with its annual A100 List, reaffirming the rising influence of pan-Asian power in global markets. As the tech and venture capital landscape undergoes a reset, Gold House has been quietly — and powerfully — building a new pipeline. It is focused on connection, creating what it calls an 'ecosystem bell': a symbolic moment in the capital markets where private and public sectors collide to catalyze long-term value. The nonprofit collective is expanding what it means to build, scale, and fund the future by curating intentional ecosystems where capital meets culture. The summit began with a welcome from co-hosts Sehr Thadhani, Chief Growth Officer of Nasdaq, and Bing Chen, Founder and CEO of Gold House. Stephanie Mehta, CEO and Chief Content Officer of Mansueto Ventures, led a fireside chat with Anish Melwani, Chairman and CEO of LVMH North America. Other notable speakers included Christina Wootton (Chief Partnerships Officer, Roblox), Melody Lee (CMO, Mercedes-Benz USA), Nikil Viswanathan (Founder & CEO, Alchemy), Mike Van (CEO, Billboard), Mike Xu (GrubMarket), and Soyoung Kang (eos Products). Topics spanned innovation and AI to global brand storytelling and next-gen creator economies — conversations that signal not just what's trending, but who's driving it. The key themes were: leading with imagination, innovating with intention, and anchoring culture with conviction. Gold House's 20205 Gold Power Summit This year's A100 honorees reflect that ambition and included AI pioneers like Demis Hassabis (CEO, Google DeepMind) and Sridhar Ramaswamy (CEO, Snowflake) to cultural leaders like Jon M. Chu, Laufey, and Drew Afualo. While the list spans industries, it shares one common thread: transformation. Honorees will be celebrated across a series of marquee events from May 9–10, including the A100 Celebratory Reception at the Academy Museum, an exclusive Honorees Dinner presented by OpenTable, and the Gold Gala, North America's most prestigious Asian Pacific American celebration. This year's gala also includes the Billboard x Gold House Founders Party. Meanwhile, landmarks across North America — from the Empire State Building to the CN Tower—will light up in gold as part of Gold Lights, a coordinated tribute echoing Gold House's motto: 'We don't just change culture—we make it.' 'Gold House doesn't just award achievement—it engineers access,' said co-founders Bing Chen and Jeremy Tran, who serve as CEO and COO, respectively. 'By building bridges between culture and capital, we can power tomorrow for all.' Behind the scenes, the room was equally influential. It included VCs from GV (Google Ventures), B Capital, Vesey Ventures, J2 Ventures, Siam Capital, and Wesley Chan, co-founder of Google Analytics and general partner at FPV Ventures, who announced a new $525 million early-stage fund backing founders with conviction. His announcement underscored a growing wave of Asian-founded venture capital firms reshaping early-stage innovation. These investors weren't just present to celebrate — they were there to source and support the next generation of transformative companies. Notable founders in attendance included Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI (named A1 in Business & Technology), and Ankur Jain, founder of Bilt and a 2025 New Gold honoree. 'If the A100 List showcases the what—the visionaries redefining industries — then the summit embodies the how: uniting capital, creativity, and conviction to drive cultural and market transformation.' The data backs up the need. Despite being the fastest-growing domestic demographic and a global majority, the Asian Pacific community remains underrepresented in venture funding. Gold House is working to close that gap through initiatives like Gold House Ventures, which has helped raise over $2.5 billion for 115 companies, half of which are led by female founders. Gold House Ventures Accelerator and the newly launched Gold Bridge strategy aim to foster pan-Pacific growth by connecting early-stage founders with investors, policymakers, and industry-specific operators across the U.S. and Asia. This year's event also underscored Nasdaq's evolving role as more than a stock exchange: a convener of innovation ecosystems. As the home to many of the world's most pioneering companies driving technological innovation, Nasdaq has proven a fitting and strategic partner for Gold House. The partnership signifies a shift: corporations aren't just platforms for capital — they're platforms for cultural relevance and inclusion. In a world marked by increasing fragmentation, Nasdaq is focused on connection. 'Nasdaq brings together ecosystems systematically, with an eye toward convening across lines and around themes, topics, and trends at the intersection of business and culture,' said Sehr Thadhani, Chief Growth Officer at Nasdaq. 'Nasdaq is widely known as an exchange, but we're so much more; we're the trusted fabric of the global financial system, intentionally rethinking the traditional way exchanges have operated to make the capital markets more open, accessible, and dynamic.' Gold House has quietly built one of the most influential ecosystems for Asian Pacific executives, creators, and entrepreneurs. It continues to expand its initiatives across multiple pillars: 'Whether it's shaping narratives in Hollywood or placing diverse board members at major companies, the organization is leveraging every tool at its disposal to create a lasting impact.' Collectively, these efforts seek to reshape perception and power for Asian Pacific communities by mobilizing both capital and culture. While A100 honorees celebrate visibility, the Gold Power Summit delivers infrastructure, linking capital, creativity, and community. At a time when cultural identity and business influence intersect more than ever, this summit served as both a celebration and a call to action: to invest in collective power. Gold House's mission is unmistakable: 'We don't just want seats at the table. We build new tables—together.'
