Tanner's Influence Podcast

This week’s Influence podcast features Linda Leckman, the CEO of Intermountain Medical Group in Salt Lake City and a brilliant trailblazer for women in medicine. In a very real way Linda’s impressive career as a surgeon and CEO in healthcare all started when she was a teenager working as a candy striper when her desire to be a doctor first began. She went on to earn an undergraduate degree in history at Texas Christian University and a medical degree from the University of New Mexico before coming to the University of Utah to do a residency in general surgery. Linda was the first woman in the residency program at the University of Utah at a time when it was commonly thought that women didn’t have the temperament to be good surgeons, but she persisted and succeeded! During her second year, she was so happy that the university let three more women into its residency program. After graduating in 1982, Linda established her own successful private practice as a general surgeon in Salt Lake City. After 14 years run

As the President and CEO of the Utah Technology Council for the past 16 years, Richard Nelson has played an important role in the growth of Utah’s technology ecosystem. Under his leadership, the UTC has been a force for good in creating the $300M Utah Fund of Funds and securing funding for the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative. Rich is a passionate advocate in helping Utah’s Title 1 schools and was a major force in raising the rigor in Utah’s high school requirements. As the leader of Utah’s professional association for over 5,000 high tech, clean tech and life science companies, Rich is a connector of people who is always quick to mention others who helped lay the foundation for our current success. Named one of the “100 Most Influential People” and one of the “25 People Who Most Influenced Business in Utah”, Rich shares his valuable perspective on the rapid growth of technology companies in Utah. Rich was named “CEO of the Year” from Utah’s technology industry and received the “Distinguished S

This week’s Influence podcast provides a rare glimpse into the life and success of Aaron and Monica Skonnard. Aaron Skonnard is the co-founder, president, and CEO of Pluralsight, the leading on-demand technology learning platform for developer training, and Monica is Aaron’s wife and invaluable sounding board and adviser. In spite of their personal success and the amazing growth of Pluralsight, they have managed to stay centered and are grateful to be in “a powerful position to make the world a better place.” Aaron’s strong technical background began when he was a young boy learning his craft on an Apple Macintosh that his father brought home. After graduating from BYU with a degree in computer science, Aaron co-founded Pluralsight in 2004, a company with a core team of top programmers that initially developed course materials and taught classes and seminars to developers all over the world. It was at this time that Aaron, relied on Monica’s faith and strong support to make the bold pivot of immediately focus

In this Influence podcast we interview the passionate, technical, and articulate Owen Fuller who grew up in Alaska where he learned how to work hard, before coming to BYU to study history and earn a bachelor’s degree in communication and advertising. Owen is a true entrepreneur and innovator with a successful history of building and growing some impressive technology and marketing companies here in his adopted state of Utah. We hope you enjoy his unique insights in this podcast! Owen is the Chief Evangelist at Boombox. Boombox with its sister products, Qzzr and Pollcaster, make it easy to create, embed and share interactive content with the world. He was asked to join the executive team at Boombox when Josh Little and Bucky Flowers heard of the success of Fit Marketing and asked Owen and his team to develop their own product called Qzzr. They have never looked back! Even though Owen and the team at Boombox have had a long string of successes with leading clients like Yahoo, NBC, Red Bull, LinkedIn, ESPN, and

In this Influence Podcast interview, we know you will sense the extraordinary determination and talent of Cydni Tetro and Sara Jones, two successful entrepreneurs who, in their “spare time” co-founded the Women Tech Council nine years ago, a scrappy not-for-profit that now has more than 10,000 members! With a degree in computer science and an MBA, both from BYU, Cydni is a successful technologist and marketing guru who has built a career with some of the world’s largest brands like Disney, Microsoft, Marvel, Star Wars, Facebook, MLB, MLS, Warner Brothers, Dreamworks, Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us. She is the founder and CEO of 3DplusMe, a 3D printing software platform, that was recently acquired by WhiteClouds and is an Operating Partner at Mercato Partners, a leading growth equity firm. Recognized as a respected patent attorney and shareholder at Workman Nydegger for almost ten years, Sara went on to become the Vice President of Strategic Development at Patent Law Works, before becoming the CEO of Applicant

We live in a careless world, and it’s not very often that you find a company that is innovative but has a heart, financially successful but is focused on giving. In this Influence podcast we highlight just such a company, Cotopaxi! Please enjoy this interview with Cotopaxi’s founders, Davis Smith and Stephan Jacob who co-founded this company that is attracting so much attention from outdoor industry leaders like Patagonia and numerous investors because of the success of their business and their focus on doing good! Davis Smith and Stephan Jacob both earned degrees from impressive schools, BYU and Stanford (Davis), Universitat Mannheim and University of South Australia (Stephan) before they met each other at University of Pennsylvania –The Wharton School. They are true entrepreneurs who, following stints at Alta Ventures, PoolTables.com, and Baby.com (Davis) and McKinsey, Bain, and Kembral (Stephan), decided to “create innovative outdoor products that fund sustainable poverty alleviation and move people to do

There is a healthy dose of perseverance and inspiration in this podcast that features Tom Stockham, the CEO of eXperticity, a high-growth SaaS and analytics company that “collects category influencers and connects them with the world’s top brands.” Tom received a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Stanford University, before further developing his foundational business and problem solving skills as a consultant within Boston Consulting Group’s retail practice. Following BCG, Tom was the General Manager of Citysearch where he was successful in his efforts to significantly increase revenues for one of the Internet’s earliest businesses focused on “local information.” Later as President of Ticketmaster, Tom led the company’s transition to electronic ticketing and greater growth. Tom helped create one of the Internet’s leading subscription businesses as the CEO of MyFamily.com (Ancestry.com). Please enjoy this podcast that provides a glimpse into Tom’s innate talent and passion. More than a successful CE

This podcast features Carine Clark, the president and CEO of MaritzCX, a market-leading company that gives businesses the power to see and act on the experiences of every individual customer in real time. Carine is one of the most powerful and inspirational executives in our market, and we are grateful for the time and insights that she shared with us. This podcast will inspire you! Carine Clark has a history of building successful software companies and powerful teams for MaritzCX, Symantec, Altiris, and Novell. She had the vision to acquire Allegiance and merge it with Maritz Research to create a more powerful company called MaritzCX. Prior to MaritzCX, Carine took Symantec’s marketing, branding, and communications to a new level as their SVP and Chief Marketing officer. Carine’s unique talent in driving sales growth was an important factor in establishing Altiris as one of the fastest growing technology companies in the world, growing revenues from $62 million to $230 million in just four years. Carine’s n

For the initial launch of Tanner’s Podcast Series, we know we wanted to “go big”, so we asked Dr. Greg Warnock, a visionary leader in the growth of Utah’s VC, private equity, and technology community, if he would be our first interview. He graciously accepted!  Garrett Koerner, a tax partner at Tanner, and Dan Griffiths, Tanner’s director of strategy, appreciated Greg’s perspective as a true visionary in Utah’s growing technology community. Greg Warnock is the co-founder and managing director of Mercato Partners and successful innovator and builder of high-growth companies. He is a brilliant thinker (PhD), technologist, innovator, and turnaround artist. Greg is also an amazing person who has helped so many companies and the entrepreneurs who lead them (Skullcandy, Domo, Cymphonix, and Stance) become better. Prior to Mercato, Greg was the co-founder of vSpring, a scrappy early stage venture capital fund. He has been the principal in more than 20 M&A transactions and has spent his entire career helping othe