Episode 108 – From Military Officer to the C-Suite

There are many former military officers who are now at the C-Suite level.  Some Cameron-Brooks Alumni who have made the C-Suite level include Debra Crew, the former CEO of Reynolds American, Inc. and now President of Diageo North America; Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi; Roland Smith, former Chairman and CEO of Office Depot; Howard Friedman, President and CEO of Post Consumer Brands; Andy Callahan, CEO for Hostess Brands; Chris Hsu, former COO and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and current founder and CEO of Zibo; John McGrath, CEO of Pactiv Evergreen; Bill Horton, CFO of Weber Stephen Products, LLC.; Michael High, Business Unit CFO of Shell Deepwater Gulf of Mexico, and many others.  We are proud to have been a part of their success. I am sure all of these C-level executives would say a big part of their success and career growth coincided with what they learned during their time as a military officer. In this podcast, I caught up with Michael High to learn how he used his military experience to become the CFO of a Shell Oil business unit that generates approximately $5 billion to $10 billion in revenue annually and accounts for 10% of Shell Oil’s business. Michael is a former Army Military Intelligence Officer who transitioned from the military to business through Cameron-Brooks in 2005.  His career has spanned the globe to include assignments in Los Angeles, Texas, The Netherlands and New Orleans. Despite having only two Accounting classes in college, Michael found early success in his career leveraging his people leadership, problem solving and other soft skills to develop a track record of success.  He also maintained the mindset that career progression is not always linear. Rather, careers have periods of plateaus for building experience. After being patient, that experience would pay off in exponential career growth and promotions. For Michael, his experience launched him into a C-Suite level role. Michael shares his lessons learned in career management and how he mentors junior leaders in his company.  Enjoy the podcast and be ready to learn from someone who has rapidly and humbly achieved career success in business. To learn more about turning your JMO leadership skills into a successful transition and business success with Cameron-Brooks, visit our website and check out PCS to Corporate America. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Joel