E-commerce is a notoriously competitive landscape—but online pet retailer Chewy has managed to not just survive, but thrive. Since joining the company in 2018, CEO Sumit Singh has shepherded Chewy through its IPO in 2019 and its debut on the Fortune 500 list in 2021. He talks with Alan and Michal about Chewy’s obsession with customer loyalty; his background in e-commerce and supply chain, with top leadership positions at Amazon and Dell prior to joining Chewy; what he learned from Jeff...

Autodesk is a 1980s software company that continues to reinvent itself. CEO Andrew Anagnost attributes this to the company’s ability to be the first to “kill our own businesses.” Anagnost goes into detail about how he sees AI impacting architecture, specifically when it comes to sustainable construction. He and cohosts Alan and Michal also discuss AI regulation; his “problematic” teenage years; what he learned from former Autodesk CEOs Carol Bartz and Carl Bass; and industrial...

Alan sits down with Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins at a Fortune CEO Initiative dinner in NYC, to have a conversation focused on his new role as chair of the Business Roundtable. Robbins discusses the challenges facing business today, and what he hopes the BRT can accomplish during the next presidential administration, including improvement to trade and immigration, and better policy around tech. He also shares why he believes Cisco continues to be at the top of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work...

Alan sits down with Judy Marks at Deloitte University in Westlake, Texas, to have a wide-ranging conversation about Judy’s career in front of an audience of next-generation CEOs. She recalls Otis’s 2020 spinoff from United Technologies; what she learned as CEO of the newly independent company during COVID; Otis’s growth in the last four years, boosted by its innovation and service business; geopolitics and Otis’s business in China; sustainability; how tariffs impact consumers’ pocketbooks;...

Priscilla Almodovar, CEO of Fannie Mae, is the only Latina on the Fortune 500. She talks to Michal and Alan about how she uses her platform as CEO to make housing more equitable, and recalls her Puerto Rican parents buying their first home on Long Island, N.Y., and how important a piece of the American Dream that was for them. She also discusses her experience as a woman on Wall Street; how Latinos are becoming a bigger percentage of U.S. homeowners; what she learned from Jamie Dimon; her...

BILL CEO and founder René Lacerte is a fourth-generation entrepreneur. In 2009 he sold his first company PayCycle, to Intuit. He shares with Michal how being in a family of entrepreneurs has shaped him as a founder and a leader. He also talks about the unique responsibilities a CEO has versus a founder.  He gives advice to future founders about how to navigate potential challenges, especially when taking your company public. He also shares thoughts on how to keep a healthy work-life...

Seifi Ghasemi began his career in energy by attending a school in the middle of a refinery in Iran. Now, at nearly 80 years old, the Air Products CEO believes hydrogen is the only option for fighting the effects of climate change. “There is no other source of energy,” he says. He discusses with Alan and Michal why he believes Air Products has a responsibility to push markets toward clean energy solutions like hydrogen; whether or not hydrogen-based fuel will be ready for our 2050 net-zero...

As CEO of the energy giant, Woods is leading the third largest U.S. company through the energy transition. While Exxon Mobil is investing in low-carbon solutions like hydrogen and carbon capture, he is not yet convinced the world as a whole has what it takes to achieve its decarbonization goals. He discusses in depth with Alan and Michal the roadblocks to net zero; the company’s challenges with activist investors; inflation reduction act subsidies; and, of course, what he does to...

G-P, founded by CEO Nicole Sahin, is an AI-driven global employment platform that enables companies to hire anyone anywhere. Sahin, who came up with the idea for G-P while living in the mountains of Guatemala, shares how her passion for anthropology led her to start the company. She chats with Alan and Michal about emerging talent markets; how AI empowers G-P to onboard workers in 187+ countries; how best to include remote employees as part of company culture; and how globalization is...

Narrative attacks can be generated from an actual event that is then exploited by bad actors or can be completely fabricated using advanced technology like generative AI. Blackbird’s goal is to fight disinformation and misinformation and sharpen the line between truth and lies. Blackbird.AI cofounder and CEO Wasim Khaled discusses a number of topics with host Alan Murray, including the recent attacks on Taylor Swift; weaknesses that bad actors might exploit in the upcoming presidential...

After leaving PayPal, Roelof Botha went on to help Sequoia nurture some of the world’s most influential tech companies, including YouTube, Instagram, and Square. Sequoia has been an investor in the AI space for a long time. The firm was an early investor in OpenAI, the company that has accelerated the current AI wave with its groundbreaking generative AI technology, which Botha sees as a foundational shake-up for business. He tells Alan and Michal that he doesn’t think this wave of AI is...

Amazon is not just the “everything store,” it is the “everything company.” No. 2 on the Fortune 500, the e-commerce giant impacts our lives in many ways. It delivers our groceries, entertains us with Prime Video, provides us health care with One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy, and plans to provide the planet with broadband internet.  Alan sits down with Amazon president and CEO Andy Jassy at Fortune’s annual Davos dinner to discuss all the above topics and more, including how generative AI will...

A lot of tough decisions come your way when you’re a CEO – particularly in today’s world where there are no shortage of challenges. In Leadership Next's final episode of the season, hosts Alan Murray and Michal Lev-Ram look back at 2023, highlighting how some of their favorite guests from the year are navigating these challenges. Hear from LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman on AI; Vicki Hollub of Occidental Petroleum on climate; CVS Health's Karen Lynch on women in...

As business continues to search for ways to harness the incredible power of AI, it's becoming more clear than ever before that the technology requires some level of regulation. But how much is too much? How do you design laws for something that's evolving so quickly? And what happens if you get it wrong? In an effort to get these questions right, the United Arab Emirates created the world's first government position solely dedicated to AI. The goals for this role extend far beyond regulation...

While KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell have their roots in the U.S., the restaurants have a big fan base in China. Yum China, which spun off from Yum! Brands in 2016, runs 14,000 restaurants in over 1,900 cities and - under CEO Joey Wat - is growing fast. Wat told Leadership Next host Alan Murray the company is opening several new locations each day. Unlike their American counterparts, the majority of these restaurants are not owned by franchisees. But the differences don't stop there as Wat...

Ancestry - the company best known today for analyzing user DNA to help build out family trees - actually started almost 40 years ago as a publishing entity focused on genealogy. CEO Deb Liu, who took the reins in 2021, is now charged with finding new ways to expand Ancestry's offerings. She's well-prepared for that task, Liu told hosts Alan Murray and Michal Lev-Ram, after 11 years as an exec at Facebook. "I think part of what makes Facebook really special is that it really believe(s) in...

It's become increasingly clear that lithium-ion batteries are key to a sustainable future. Is it too late for the U.S. to become a power player in this industry? That's the question Leadership Next host Alan Murray has for today's guest, a woman he calls "The Battery Queen" because she is one of the pre-eminent experts on batteries in the world. Currently founder and CEO of battery technology company Cadenza Innovation, Christina Lampe-Onnerud previously founded and led Boston-Power. That...

Ken Frazier is currently Chairman, Health Assurance Initiatives, at General Catalyst, which is just the most recent leadership position on an impressive resume. Frazier served as CEO of pharmaceutical giant Merck for 10 years, stepping down in 2021. He is also co-founder and former CEO of the OneTen initiative - aimed at connecting underrepresented talent with corporate jobs - and, until last year, was the Lead Independent Director of the ExxonMobil Board of Directors. Frazier has also become...

L'Oréal is a longstanding giant in the consumer beauty industry. And despite being 114 years-old, the company shows no signs of slowing down. The L'Oréal group has a portfolio of 37 international brands, more than 87,000 employees and 20 research centers across 11 countries around the world. In 2022, the L'Oréal group generated $42 billion in revenue, a 10% year-over-year increase. Nicolas Hieronimus, who first joined the company in 1987, took over as CEO of L'Oréal in 2021. He is only the...

Fortune's 2023 Most Powerful Women Summit took place on October 10th-12th in Laguna Niguel, CA. Over the three days, women across a wide variety of industries (healthcare, politics, entertainment, retail, and tech - just to name a few!) took the stage to share their perspectives on the state of their respective businesses, what it means to be a woman in leadership and how to address global tumult while also running a business. In today's episode of Leadership Next, you will hear excerpts from...

The Fortune CEO Initiative was formed in 2016 as a membership organization bringing together CEOs of purpose driven companies that are committed to addressing business excellence, diversity, and major societal issues as a core part of their business strategies. Each year since then, members have gathered for a one of two day conference to exchange ideas and discuss best practices. The 2023 conference took place last week in Washington D.C., with sessions that focused on topics like: staying...

Laxman Narasimhan is six months into being CEO of the world’s most ubiquitous coffee shop. Narasimhan took over Starbucks from Howard Schultz in March of 2023. Before stepping into the CEO's office, he completed a six month immersion in Starbucks cafes around the country, where he learned the ins and outs of making each customer’s favorite drinks while also constructing a vision for the future of the company. In April of this year, Narasimhan sent out a letter with a revised company mission...

Julia Hartz started the event management and ticketing platform Eventbrite in 2006 alongside her then fiancée. The goal: bring the world together through live events. Hartz took over as CEO in 2016 and led Eventbrite through its $230 million IPO in 2018. The years following this promising IPO were rocky for Eventbrite. When the Covid-19 pandemic decimated the live events industry, Eventbrite lost 90% of its revenue and laid off 45% of its workforce. Yet as the world reopened and the live...

Paula Kerger has been the CEO of PBS for 18 years, making her the longest-serving CEO in the broadcaster's history. Kerger oversees 330 member stations across the country and led the transformation of PBS from a broadcaster to a multiplatform digital media organization that boasts a slate of podcasts, a YouTube channel, and programming on streaming services like Amazon Prime and Hulu. According to the company, PBS reaches 42 million adults through linear television each month and another 15...