Modern CEO readers weigh in with their top leaders

11/06/2024, 7:24 AM
fastcompany.com

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.

The new year is already well underway, but Modern CEO is taking one last look back. At the end of December we named E.l.f. Beauty’s Tarang Amin our inaugural Modern CEO of the Year, and we invited readers to nominate chief executives who embody the leadership values covered in this newsletter each week. Here are four more CEOs who earned your nods:

Craig Dubitsky, founder and CEO, Happy

In early 2024, serial entrepreneur Dubitsky unveiled coffee company Happy using a formula he’d applied to other businesses he’d launched, such as skincare brand EOS and toothpaste maker Hello Products: He took a product that many people think of as a commodity and reimagined it. In Happy’s case, he not only freshened up the packaging of the product, he took a new approach to social impact, granting an equity stake in the company to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

But it is Dubitsky’s leadership style that prompted Happy marketing executive Damon Grimes to nominate his boss as a Modern CEO of the Year. “Craig’s approach to leadership is infectiously positive and remarkably different from anyone I’ve worked with in my 27 years in the workforce,” Grimes tells me. “He is empathetic, listens, and makes us believe in ourselves and what we are trying to accomplish. It’s impossible not to feel it and be inspired by him. Craig’s positive leadership is the reason why I joined him at Happy and why so many others on the team have worked for him for over 12 years . . . since the EOS and Hello Products days.”

Thasunda Brown Duckett, president and CEO, TIAA

As CEO of retirement plan provider TIAA ($1.4 trillion in assets under management), Duckett is one of the most prominent executives in business—in 2024, Fortune ranked her 14th on its Most Powerful Women in Business list, up two spots from the prior year. Throughout her three-plus year tenure at TIAA, Duckett has advocated for greater financial inclusion for underrepresented investors, and more recently has encouraged women and people of color to learn artificial intelligence (AI) skills as a pathway to greater opportunity.

“To me, a modern CEO is someone who is extraordinarily capable at the work they do but also leads inclusively and stands for something authentically. That’s Thasunda to a tee,” says Jana Rich, founder of executive recruiting firm Rich Talent Group. “Not only has she broken barriers, such as becoming the first woman CEO of TIAA or being one of few Black women to lead a Fortune 500 company, she uses her position of power to do meaningful work like creating greater financial access for marginalized communities or speaking about diversity and inclusion to inspire others.”

Hala Hanna, executive director, MIT Solve

While Hanna was emceeing the Solve Challenge Finals in New York last fall—an event that brings together investors, philanthropists, and social impact innovators—news broke that Israel had launched airstrikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hanna, who grew up in Lebanon, “remained steadfast in her leadership, showed compassion for everyone’s experiences and an unflappable optimism for the future,” Bridget Weiler, MIT Solve’s director of marketing and communications, writes in nominating Hanna for Modern CEO of the Year.

MIT Solve, which was created by the university’s Office of the President in 2015, every year selects and supports Solver teams that use technology to address global challenges in areas such as climate, education, health, and economic prosperity. Under Hanna’s leadership, MIT Solve went through financial and organizational restructuring in 2024. Hanna lowered operating costs, in part by reducing spending on events and other non-core programming—moves that advisers say will ensure the group’s future. “Hala is a leader who is always focused on making the organization, herself, and society better,” says Neela Montgomery, CEO of beauty conglomerate Orveon Global and an MIT Solve advisor. “She has made tough choices that created a sustainable platform for MIT Solve and clarity for the organization. Her personal leadership during controversial global events such as the Middle East crisis has created a thoughtful dialogue and focus in Solve’s broader global community.”

Alyson Watson, founder and CEO, Modern Health

Watson founded the mental health platform Modern Health in 2017, long before the workplace began to expand and promote a broader range of employee benefits, including mental health care. She’s continued to find new ways to destigmatize mental wellness, through her writing (Watson contributes to Inc.com) and webinars. In 2024, Modern Health and Naomi Osaka’s media company, Hana Kuma, launched a podcast video series, Can’t Wait to Hear from You, featuring high-profile guests sharing their mental health care strategies. The company also announced a move into physical wellness with a program that guides patients through specialized topics such as fitness goals, sleep, and healthy routines.

Gyre Renwick, Modern Health’s president and chief operating officer, praises Watson for leading with vulnerability and business savvy. (Modern Health ranked No. 728 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in 2024, with 661% three-year growth.)

“In a world where mental health challenges are increasingly acute, my friend and colleague Alyson stands out as a CEO who combines innovation with inclusion, accessibility with excellence, and personal authenticity with powerful business results,” Renwick says. “Alyson is positively transforming workplaces both for the individuals and the businesses they serve.”

Tell us what you’d like to see in 2025

Looking ahead, what topics would you like to see Modern CEO cover in 2025? Would you like more management advice from successful corporate leaders or insights from edgier entrepreneurial companies and founders? Let me know how we can better serve you by dropping me a line at [email protected].