Jennifer Dulski is a Silicon Valley-based executive and board member. She is currently CEO and founder of Rising Team, a team performance platform that helps companies increase engagement and scale leadership development. She also currently serves as the Lead Independent Director of Arcadia, a climate tech company. Her previous board experience includes serving on three public company boards: Weight Watchers, TEGNA, and Move (until its acquisition by NewsCorp). We discuss her board journey, boardroom diversity initiatives, and alternative corporate structures such as non-profit and PBCs. We also address the rise of AI, board dynamics and evaluations, and navigating DEI and ESG in the boardroom. If you like this show, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing this podcast on social media. You can also contribute as a Patron on the link patreon.com/BoardroomGovernancePod or you can subscribe to the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at evanepstein.substack.com This podcast is sponsored by the American College of Governance Counsel.
(0:00) Intro.
(1:21) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.
(2:08) Start of interview.
(2:41) Jennifer's "origin story."
(3:41) Founding a non-profit at the start of her career: Breakthrough Pittsburgh.
(4:15) The start of her tech career with Yahoo!
(7:12) Her roles post Yahoo!: founding and selling The Dealmap to Google.
(9:20) Her transition and tenure as president & COO of Change.org (scaling from 18 million to 200 million users). About her Motivational Pie Chart.
(11:07) About Change.org (a social impact campaigning platform) and non-profit and PBC corporate structures.
(14:18) Her time at Facebook (now Meta), leading the Facebook Groups product.
(16:00) About Rising Team, the company she founded and where she currently serves as CEO.
(22:10) On her board journey, and distinctions among different types of companies: non-profits, startups (Little Passports), public companies (Move, TEGNA & WeightWatchers) and VC/PE backed companies. "The truth is to join a public board, somebody needs to take a bet on you if you've never been on a public board."
(32:19) On serving in a VC/PE backed company as a lead independent director and comp committee Chair (Arcadia). On board observer roles. Setting board norms.
(36:55) On the benefit of boardroom diversity.
(39:17) On dealing with the politicization of the boardroom, including DEI and ESG matters.
(42:06) On the benefits of teaching (at Stanford GSB) for her CEO and board roles .
(39:17) On dealing with the politicization of the boardroom, including DEI and ESG matters.
(44:15) Three things top of mind on boardroom matters: 1) Setting up boards for success (norms, board evaluations, etc), 2) Keeping up with new technologies, and 3) Crisis scenario planning.
(49:00) Books that have greatly influenced her life:
(51:14) Her mentors.*Reference to her LinkedIn Post: 5 Mentor Archetypes.
(51:57) Quotes that she thinks of often or lives her life by.
(53:15) About her book: Purposeful: Are you a Manager or a Movement Starter? (2018) The 3 Cs: 1) courage, 2) community, and 3) commitment.
(54:40) An unusual habit or absurd thing that she loves.
(56:00) The living person she most admires: Simone Biles.
Jennifer Dulski is a Silicon Valley based executive and board member. She is currently CEO and founder of Rising Team, a company that provides tools, data, and community to turn managers into amazing coaches that build happier and more successful teams.