Features October 2019

He had mergers and acquisitions down to if not a science, then an art—Arlen R. Shenkman having fronted a 150-member team for German-based multinational software heavyweight SAP. Each year, that team vetted 500 to 600 companies as potential acquisitions, though only a few made the cut, and those companies tended to fall under three general […]

Reminded of the old saying that cleanliness is next to godliness, Michael Cadotte chuckles. While the thought hadn’t crossed his mind, it might well hold true. For in addition to being the vice president of safety and quality at one of North America’s commercial cleaning heavyweights for the past 25 years, Cadotte is a parochial […]

Livio Vicco remembers a painful experience from life on the road. He was conducting a trade visit during a freezing wet winter in Poland, far from the warmth of the sun-soaked home office in Colombia. Unprepared, he walked the slushy streets in his fancy leather shoes, soaking his feet and chilling them to the bone. […]

The title to his latest book might sound like something a debauched rock ‘n roller would fess up to: “Thirty Years in a White Haze.” “Not that kind of powder,” Dan Egan emphasizes with a laugh. On the contrary, he’s referring to what can be the fluffy and pristine gift from above or the cause […]

Frank Ceballos knew the recruiting job would likely be a temporary one—a chance to sharpen his skills for the next big position. His focus was simple: Do the work, do it well and don’t make too much noise. It took less than a month for Ceballos to toss that last one aside. Drawing on his […]

Growing up in Arvin, California, a modest town of 21,000 about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, Elia Quintana remembers driving past the hundreds of oil fields that dot the arid hills of nearby Bakersfield, their beams and heads bobbing like giraffes at a waterhole. To her, they were as much a part of the […]