JP Conte and the Hidden Dropout Risk Facing First-Generation College Students After Poor Grades
A growing body of research is drawing attention to one of higher education’s most persistent blind spots: the disproportionate dropout risk that first-generation college students face after receiving negative academic feedback. At the center of this conversation is JP Conte, whose work and commentary have helped illuminate why a single bad grade can have vastly…
Read MoreJudd Zebersky Built Jazwares Cares Alongside the Business From Day One
Corporate philanthropy is often grafted onto companies after they achieve success. At Jazwares, it came first. Judd Zebersky established Jazwares Cares at the company’s founding, years before Squishmallows made the brand a household name or Berkshire Hathaway became an investor. That decision reflected a philosophy rather than a marketing calculation. Donations, Hospitals, and Nonprofits Jazwares…
Read MoreJustin Fulcher Carried Telehealth Into Government and Defense Work
Justin Fulcher’s career does not follow a straight line from startup to exit. After co-founding and leading RingMD for nearly a decade, the tech entrepreneur moved into public service, then into defense advising, then into graduate study. Each transition built on what came before, and the thread connecting them is a consistent interest in how…
Read MoreWestport’s Michael Gold on Transparency, Tradeoffs, and Trusting Your Advisor
Trustworthiness in wealth management is easy to claim and difficult to evaluate. Michael Gold, who has led Gold Family Wealth in Westport, Connecticut for more than two decades, argues that families should measure it not through marketing language but through observable advisor behavior specifically, how an advisor handles tradeoffs and uncertainty. The Tradeoff Test Every…
Read MoreHow Judd Zebersky Turned Jazwares Into a Global Toy Leader
Few founders in consumer products can trace a clearer line from professional pivot to industry dominance. Judd Zebersky left a law practice he built from scratch to explore toy manufacturing in China, armed with curiosity and little else. Twenty-nine years later, the company he started, Jazwares, employed roughly 1,400 people and distributed products in more…
Read MoreKelcy Warren on Pipelines, Spreads, and the Art of Midstream
Most people think about energy in terms of drillingwho finds the oil, who takes the risk, who strikes it rich. Kelcy Warren thinks in terms of what happens after the well comes in. Where does the crude go? How does the gas get from the wellhead to a market that can actually use it? Who…
Read MoreThe Ecological Footprint Framework Behind Colcom Foundation’s Mission
Colcom Foundation relies on ecological footprint analysis as one of its core tools for measuring environmental sustainability. Unlike carbon emissions data alone, the ecological footprint attempts to capture the full range of resources a population consumes and the waste it generates, measured against the biologically productive land and water available to absorb that demand. What…
Read MoreHow Justin Nelson Built a JP Morgan Team Around Human Connection
Most finance executives spend their careers chasing returns. Justin Nelson, a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, has spent his chasing something harder to quantify: trust. Over nearly 30 years overseeing more than $15 billion in assets, Nelson has come to believe that the human element of wealth management matters as much as any…
Read MoreColcom Foundation Puts Overpopulation at the Center of Environmental Giving
Many environmental funders focus on clean energy, climate policy, or land conservation. Colcom Foundation occupies a different and less commonly funded niche: the relationship between human population size and ecological sustainability. Based in Pittsburgh, the foundation was created by Cordelia S. May in 1996 and has consistently argued that overpopulation is an underappreciated driver of…
Read MoreCustomer Growth Strategy: Scaling to Nearly 1 Million Active Merchants
Priority Technology’s growth to nearly 1 million active customers reflects disciplined execution of customer acquisition and retention strategies. Building a customer base of this scale requires more than good products; it requires systematic approaches to identifying prospects, converting them to customers, and retaining them as active users. Customer acquisition strategy likely emphasizes multiple channels including…
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