The CEO Series

Hosted by William Salvi

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May 2026

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About the show

Executive House is a business media platform for executives and aspiring business leaders. We go beyond boardrooms and balance sheets to showcase the human stories that define leadership, resilience, and innovation. Some of our featured shows include: The CEO Series, The CEO Roundtable, The Tech Series, EverydayCEOs, Techbytes & Executive Report. Hosted by Will Salvi, The CEO Series is an Emmy award-winning original content series. Each episode profiles a business leader and their respective business. The series provides a humanizing look into the CEOs personal story, mindset and insights of their business and industry. Find the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ExecutiveHouse

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60 recent

May 28, 202624 min

ScottsMiracle-Gro CEO Jim Hagedorn On Overcoming Losing $2 Billion

In this episode of The CEO Series, William Salvi sits down with Jim Hagedorn, CEO of ScottsMiracle-Gro. Hagedorn opens up about the most turbulent chapter of his career: a $2 billion gamble on the cannabis industry that nearly ran the company into the ground. He discusses the intense pressure of "burning money," the isolation of leadership during a crisis, and the difficult reality of cutting hundreds of millions in operating expenses to keep the business afloat. Hagedorn also shares insights into his unconventional path to CEO, from running away from home at 15 to join a commune to flying F-16s in the Air Force. He reflects on the "ruthless" but influential relationship with his father, Horace Hagedorn, and how he eventually spearheaded the massive deal between Scotts and Miracle-Gro.

May 15, 202623 min

Vectra AI CEO Hitesh Sheth on AI-Driven Cybersecurity and Unicorn Valuations

In this episode of The CEO Series, host William Salvi sits down with Hitesh Sheth, CEO of Vectra AI, to discuss the evolving landscape of AI-driven cybersecurity. Sheth explains how Vectra AI protects enterprises across five of the six major attack surfaces and why the network remains the most critical source of truth for security teams. He breaks down why attackers currently have the advantage, how agentic AI is creating new attack vectors that most security tools can't yet see, and what business leaders should be doing at the board level to keep up.

May 14, 202623 min

Pega CEO Alan Trefler: What Chess Taught Me About Running a Company

In this episode of The CEO Series, host William Salvi sits down with Alan Trefler, founder and CEO of Pegasystems, to discuss what it takes to build and lead a company for over four decades. Trefler explains how a frustrating experience consulting for New York banks sparked the vision behind Pega, and why bootstrapping the company from scratch gave him a perspective on business that still shapes how he leads today. He breaks down how chess thinking, specifically the concept of candidate moves, applies directly to business strategy, why he thinks the current conversation around AI is mostly gibberish, and what it really means to build software that lasts. He also opens up about public market pressures, the billionaire label, and why significance matters more than success.

May 7, 202621 min

Doppel CEO Kevin Tian on Fighting AI-Driven Social Engineering

As digital integrity faces an existential threat from AI-driven social engineering, traditional cybersecurity has reached a critical turning point. Attackers are no longer just sending simple phishing emails; they are deploying autonomous AI agents to conduct "vibe phishing". They do this by using deepfakes and fake personas to build rapport and manipulate victims in real-time across multiple channels. To survive this "dystopia" where seeing is no longer believing, organizations must move beyond manual workflows toward a modernized, machine-led defense that can match the volume, velocity, and variety of today's threats. In this episode of the CEO Series, William Salvi sits down with Kevin Tian, the CEO and co-founder of Doppel. A former software engineer at Uber and Lyft who worked on flying cars and dispatch systems, Kevin has pivoted his expertise in large-scale machine learning to protect the world's most recognized brands. Doppel recently secured major funding from top-tier investors like Andreessen Horowitz to scale their social engineering defense platform, which now protects against sophisticated impersonation attacks for organizations managing billions of people. This interview is presented by Orchestra. Orchestra is a strategic, integrated communications and marketing company helping brands connect, engage and grow in today's fragmented media landscape. Learn more about them here: https://www.orchestraco.com

May 7, 202618 min

Why Kai CEO Galina Antova is Rebuilding Cybersecurity from First Principles

As cyberattacks evolve into autonomous, AI-driven threats, the industry has reached its "human limit". Traditional defense strategies—fragmented tools and manual workflows—can no longer keep pace with attackers who can now launch "all attack vectors, all at once". The only way to survive the next generation of threats is to move toward a "machine versus machine" defense. In this episode of the CEO Series, William Salvi sits down with Galina Antova, the Co-Founder and CEO of Kai. After building Claroty into a $3 billion company, Galina has returned to "founder mode" to rebuild cybersecurity from first principles. Kai recently emerged from stealth with $125 million in funding to deploy autonomous AI agents that reduce risk in minutes rather than months. This interview is presented by Orchestra. Orchestra is a strategic, integrated communications and marketing company helping brands connect, engage and grow in today's fragmented media landscape. Learn more about them here: https://www.orchestraco.com

May 7, 202620 min

Bhagwat Swaroop on the AI Trust Paradox and the Future of Software

In this episode of The CEO Series, host William Salvi sits down with Bhagwat Swaroop, President and CEO of Sonatype, to explore how the company is helping organizations build software securely in an era where 90% of code is assembled from open-source libraries rather than written from scratch. Swaroop explains why that shift makes rigorous vulnerability checks essential and how Sonatype's tools give developers the guardrails they need to move fast without introducing risk. The conversation covers the AI trust paradox gripping the industry, where roughly 90% of DevOps engineers have adopted AI but only about 24% actually trust it, and why nation-states weaponizing AI makes proactive security measures more critical than ever. From leading a 500-person company serving 2,500 enterprise customers across 75 countries to his roots in Delhi, India, Swaroop brings curiosity, clarity, and conviction to everything he does. This interview is presented by Orchestra. Orchestra is a strategic, integrated communications and marketing company helping brands connect, engage and grow in today's fragmented media landscape. Learn more about them here: https://www.orchestraco.com

May 7, 202619 min

Gigamon President & CEO Shane Buckley on Machine-Speed Attacks and the Future of Cyber Defense

In this episode of The CEO Series, host William Salvi sits down with Shane Buckley, CEO of Gigamon, to discuss one of the most impactful yet under-the-radar companies in cybersecurity. Buckley explains how Gigamon's technology sits inside the core of massive networks to detect suspicious patterns and decrypt encrypted traffic, where over 95% of modern threats now hide. He breaks down why lateral movement, not perimeter breaches, is the real battlefield, and why full visibility across physical, virtual, and cloud environments is essential. The conversation covers how AI has shifted cyberattacks from human speed to machine speed, why Buckley predicts wholesale data and IP breaches as hackers begin targeting LLMs directly, and the reality of nation-state "sleeperware" like Salt Typhoon sitting silently inside networks until triggered. From leading a company of 1,100 people to his roots growing up in Cork, Ireland, Buckley brings a grounded and direct perspective on the evolving threat landscape. This interview is presented by Orchestra. Orchestra is a strategic, integrated communications and marketing company helping brands connect, engage and grow in today's fragmented media landscape. Learn more about them here: https://www.orchestraco.com

May 7, 202615 min

Ping Identity CEO Andre Durand on Protecting Your Company from Autonomous AI Agents

In this episode of the CEO Series, William Salvi sits down with Andre Durand, the CEO of Ping Identity, to discuss the rapidly evolving landscape of digital identity. With over 20 years of experience, Ping Identity protects eight billion accounts for more than half of the Fortune 100, focusing on the core principle that organizations cannot secure what they cannot identify. Durand explains how identity has shifted from simple passwords to managing a complex web of humans, machines, and autonomous agents. The conversation dives into modern cybersecurity threats, including the rise of AI-generated scams and "agentic AI". Durand explores the necessity of "zero trust" environments, where businesses assume bad actors are already present and use "just-in-time" access to minimize potential damage. Beyond technology, he shares his leadership philosophy on balancing the needs of investors, customers, and employees while navigating the transitions between private and public markets.

April 14, 202622 min

Kyle Matthews on transitioning from football to building a $78B Brokerage.

Kyle Matthews grew up in the most decorated football family in NFL history. Four first-round picks. A Hall of Famer. Decades of combined pro careers. He went a different direction. With a team of 25 and a gap in the market he couldn't ignore, Kyle walked away from a top-producing career and built Matthews from the ground up — now the largest privately held commercial real estate brokerage in the country. 31,000 transactions. $78 billion in deals. Zero outside investors. In this episode, we sit down with Matthews™ Founder and CEO, and host of the Matthews Mentality podcast, Kyle Matthews to talk about what it really takes to scale a company, why he believes AI may be the biggest threat commercial real estate isn't paying attention to yet, and what Pete Carroll taught him about building a culture people actually want to be part of.

March 19, 202620 min

Morningstar CEO Kunal Kapoor on Market Crashes, AI, and Investing

Everyone wants to know when the market will crash. ‪Morningstar CEO Kunal Kapoor has spent decades analyzing markets, and his answer might surprise you. In this episode of The CEO Series, William Salvi sits down with Kunal to discuss why timing the market rarely works, how Morningstar has evolved into a global financial data powerhouse, and what leaders often underestimate when scaling a company. From an almost 30-year journey at one firm to leading through change, Kunal shares how discipline, culture, and long-term thinking shape both investing and leadership. Chapters 0:00 | Intro 1:00 | From Data Analyst to CEO 3:10 | What Morningstar Actually Does 4:20 | The Rise of Private Markets 5:20 | Why Timing the Market Fails 5:40 | Are We Headed for a Recession? 6:06 | Does Kunal Invest Personally? 6:45 | What Keeps a CEO Up at Night 8:00 | Taking Over from a Founder 9:05 | Leading by Example 9:45 | Growth vs. Discipline 11:00 | The Hardest Leadership Lesson 12:30 | Answering the Internet's Top Questions 14:05 | When Will the Market Crash? 14:30 | How Morningstar Handles Private Market Data 15:45 | How AI Is Changing Morningstar 17:20 | Rapid Fire 19:05 | 30 Years of Lessons in Leadership