AI for Growth: Lessons from Leaders

Julie Foster, is the founder of A New Path Life & Grief Coaching. She helps adults navigate grief, loss, and life’s toughest transitions with a mix of compassion, real-life experience, and practical tools that actually help.Julie has a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling from Bridgewater State University and has spent over 10 years working as a mental health counselor in the substance use disorder treatment field. She’s also a certified Grief Recovery Specialist, an ICF-trained Life Coach, and a certified Grief Educator through David Kessler’s program.Julie’s work is deeply personal. After losing her mother to glioblastoma in 2018, she went on her own healing journey and discovered the grief recovery methods she now teaches to others. Along with her professional background, she also brings more than 23 years of sobriety to the work she does today.She’s passionate about helping people move through grief in a way that feels supportive and empowering. Julie serves on the Women’s Wellness Committee at The JPH Organization in Marshfield and volunteers at Hope Floats Healing & Wellness Center in Kingston, where she co-facilitates a parent loss support group.

Sergei is the founder and CEO of 100XBIO, a Boston-based startup automating cell biology. An immunologist with 20 years of R&D experience, he previously led preclinical research for oncology and mRNA vaccine projects. He believes we cannot accelerate biotech while most lab experiments are still run manually. Sergei is now building a "one-click" benchtop instrument to make life-saving research 10x more efficient and research infrastructure AI-ready. Automating complex workflows is the only path to truly AI-driven biology labs.

Jeff Sigel is passionate about creating better work environments and more fulfilling careers for middle managers everywhere. After over 20 years of corporate experience in top US food manufacturing, grocery retail, and restaurant companies, Jeff coaches mid-level leaders and supports companies looking to empower their middle management teams. He is the author of “The Middle Matters: A Toolkit for Middle Managers.” When not coaching or writing, Jeff is the CEO of Twinning Edge, a company focused on enabling small business growth by leveraging AI, automation, and "digital twins." He speaks and trains mid-to-senior level executives on ways to leverage AI to become more effective and productive people leaders. 

Tamara Asselta is a strategic operations and business growth leader based in Portland, Oregon, with over 15 years of experience turning complex organizational challenges into scalable, revenue-driving, high-performing systems. She is the founder of Stratas Consulting, where she partners with startups and mid-market companies as a fractional strategic leader stepping in to build teams, coach managers, implement emerging technologies, launch new services, and guide organizations through growth and change.Before founding Stratas, Tamara spent nearly eight years at Adswerve, where she built the company's Adobe Services practice from the ground up, scaling it to over $8M in annual revenue and earning Adobe Emerging Partner of the Year two years in a row. As Senior Director of Professional Services, she led a 30+ person organization, managed a $13M+ consulting portfolio, and served as a trusted advisor to C-suite executives across Fortune 500 companies in healthcare, finance, retail, and tech.Her career has always been defined by the intersection of people and performance. Whether she's coaching a first-time manager through a tough conversation, restructuring an organization for greater agility, or helping a leadership team finally trust their data. Tamara brings both analytical rigor and genuine human care to every engagement.When she's not building organizations, Tamara can be found under a barbell as a recent powerlifter, on two wheels exploring new roads by motorcycle, or bringing people together in community. She's ridden across Spain and parts of the United States and yes, she'll probably tell you the story if you ask. 

Philip Cripe is a strategist, entrepreneur, and advisor working across technology, business development, and geopolitical analysis. He founded CripeHub Solutions and also runs belkin.marketing, a reviews-focused LLM business reputation and discoverability platform, while advising on practical digital and cross-border issues. Hands-on experience in technology, politics, business, project management for over a decade for each sphere separately. Bridges all of that experience to solve complex and unusual problems for clients and partners. Currently writing a research paper about the best practices in running elections.

Noel Wilson is the visionary CEO and founder of Intelligenic, bringing with him an impressive 28 years of expertise in software engineering. Throughout his prolific career, Noel has not only excelled in building cutting-edge software solutions but has also been instrumental in successfully bringing them to market. As Intelligenic’s CEO, Noel leverages his deep industry knowledge and wide-ranging experience to foster the most innovative use of artificial intelligence to automate the software development lifecycle. He honed his technical and business acumen at renowned global firms such as Accenture, Avanade, NetApp, EMC, Oracle, and Toptal. His roles in these organizations have seen him drive innovation and deliver high-value software solutions that meet and exceed client expectations. Noel's educational background is as robust as his professional experience. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Decision and Information Sciences, equipping him with a solid foundation in business and computer science. Further augmenting his expertise, he pursued and completed a Master of Business Administration, imbuing him with a strategic and managerial perspective essential for leading successful tech ventures. Both degrees were received from Santa Clara University.

Stephanie Florio is the Co-Founder of Swob, an AI-powered hiring platform with over 9 million jobs across the U.S. A recognized hiring expert, Stephanie has appeared on BNN Bloomberg, The Marilyn Denis Show, and Elevate Tech Fest in Toronto. She specializes in helping restaurants and retailers attract and retain Gen Z talent, reduce hiring time, and build employer brands that resonate with the next generation of workers.Stephanie has also worked with the WE Organization as a mentor for the WE Incubation Hub Program, empowering young social entrepreneurs to launch their own ventures. She was named DMZ’s Women of the Year 2022, most recently nominated for the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award presented by Women of Influence, and was awarded the Next Generation Award in 2025 by ICCO Canada.

Chris Kille is a Boston-based entrepreneur, author, and operations expert who helps business owners scale without chaos by building backend infrastructure that actually works.. He’s the founder of EO Staff, a premium remote staffing company known for placing elite Virtual Assistants (VAs) into fast-growing businesses.  Chris built and sold four companies—including a payments business he scaled more than 10x in five years using just one domestic employee and four VAs. EO Staff was born from a personal turning point: after a cardiac event caused by burnout, he realized he needed help and discovered the power of remote staffing. What started as a survival decision turned into a mission to help others scale with freedom, not stress.  Since 2023, Chris has become a respected voice in the entrepreneurial space, published more than 100 times in Forbes, Entrepreneur.com, and other major media outlets. His writing and insights focus on system thinking, team leverage, and business freedom.  He’s a frequent podcast guest, speaker, and Forbes Council member known for blending real-life experience with high-impact execution. His first book, The Rise of Virtual Assistants, was published in 2023, and he continues to mentor business owners on how to grow with less friction and more intention.  When he’s not speaking, writing, or scaling companies, Chris is with his fiancée, Ashley, and their two dogs, Baxter and Handsome Harry, unplugging at his lake house in Maine, dreaming up what’s next.

Marc Belaiche (pronounced “BA-LAY-SH”) is the President of Guhuza, an innovative AI-driven staffing platform that is revolutionizing how companies hire and job seekers find their next great role.   Guhuza streamlines the recruitment process with live interview technology all built right into the platform, making it a comprehensive solution for hiring needs. With 30 years of experience in the staffing industry, Marc is a recognized thought leader in talent acquisition. He is also the author of “Tales from the Recruiter – A Recruiter’s Perspective on How To Get That Perfect Job”, providing valuable insights for job seekers navigating the modern recruitment landscape. Marc is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) and has served on the Board of the Halton-Peel CPA Ontario Association. He was also a long-time member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), where he contributed to the advancement of HR practices and recruitment standards. A seasoned speaker and media personality, Marc has delivered numerous presentations and appeared on radio and television, sharing his expertise on recruitment, online advertising, and e-commerce. His extensive experience in these fields positions him as a trusted authority on the future of staffing. Marc holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto.

The podcast 'AI for Growth' aims to bridge the gap in resources between large companies and small businesses by exploring the practical application of AI. The host, Megan Driscoll, emphasizes the need for small business owners to have access to the same leverage that big companies have enjoyed for years, and how AI, when used thoughtfully, can provide this leverage.TakeawaysAI for small businessesPractical application of AIChapters00:00 Introduction to AI for Growth

In this episode of AI for Growth: Lessons from Leaders, Jacques Fradet shares powerful insights from decades of executive leadership in operations, supply chain, manufacturing, and telecommunications. A hands-on Operations executive with a cross-functional background in Finance and Engineering, Jacques has driven transformational change across global organizations.Having served as Vice President with strategic worldwide responsibility at Inseego, Kyocera, and Windstream Capital, Jacques specializes in operational turnarounds, end-to-end process transformation, and performance optimization. His leadership has delivered measurable impact on revenue growth, cost reduction, supply chain resilience, and manufacturing efficiency.With deep expertise in telecommunications and global operations strategy, Jacques discusses how AI, digital transformation, and cross-functional alignment are reshaping modern enterprises. He shares practical lessons on scaling operations, leading high-performance teams, implementing holistic business transformation, and driving sustainable competitive advantage.If you're a business leader, operations executive, supply chain professional, or entrepreneur looking to leverage AI for growth and operational excellence, this episode delivers actionable strategies and real-world insights from the front lines of global leadership.

Jordana Matsos, the owner of Higher Equity Recruitment, shares insights on her experience in recruiting, business challenges, and the use of AI tools in various business processes. The conversation covers the challenges of starting a business, the impact of offloading processes too soon, the role of AI in marketing and content creation, lead generation, candidate sourcing, transcription tools, and website development. Additionally, the discussion highlights the challenges with AI tools and customer service. The conversation delves into the power of AI in data integration, optimizing AI for personal use and business operations, the challenges of AI misrepresentation and ethical concerns, and the role of AI in business growth and efficiency. The takeaways include the importance of AI and data integration, as well as the challenges of AI misrepresentation and ethical concerns.TakeawaysRecruiting PassionBottlenecks in BusinessOffloading ProcessesAI in Lead GenerationAI Tools and Customer Service AI and Data IntegrationChallenges of AI Misrepresentation