LEADER PROFILES

What did you study in college?/ Describe your career path.

Linnea: I studied Business Management.  I'm currently interning at their HR office right now hoping to go into human resources someday.

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Sue: My name is Susan Ripley. My title is Executive Director, Senior Risk Management Officer. I support risk management activities for three business segments of RGA. I’m also part of a global team of risk colleges that cover other business segments for RGA. I was a business major with a math minor. Subsequently, I earned my MBA. I also completed a series of classes the acronym is FLMIO- fellow of life office management- which is an insurance credential. The exams that we’re studying for are related to many insurance business practices, including valuation. Of course there’s been through the years, other informal education through conferences or company learning programs.

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Dean: I'm Dean Abbott, I am a senior Vice President and Head of US Group-Re. US Group-re 118 people primarily in Minneapolis and Edison, New Jersey. We offer reinsurance, so we sell insurance to insurance companies, covering primarily employee benefits. We reinsure group life insurance, group accident insurance, long term disability, and medical benefits. We also reinsure Medicare and Medicaid. In my responsibility, I just oversee the division so it’s business development and sales, our pricing, our financials, and our operations. It’s like a little re-insurance company inside of a larger one. I was a double major in Mathematics and Computer Science. Then I became an actuary. Back in the mid-80s, when I graduated, if you were a math major you either became a professor, a high school teacher or an actuary, so I became an actuary. There’s a series of exams to become an actuary, ten exams that take a long time and then you become FSA or a Fellow in the Society of Actuaries. I’ve heard people equate it to a PhD, I don’t feel like it’s that much work, but I do feel like it’s at least comparable to a Masters degree. It’s an industry type exam. That’s really where my training for insurance came in as far as the technical aspect of it. 

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Sharon: My name is Sharon Burstein and I started in accounting many years ago. I had a wise person once to tell me if you really want to understand the business you got to do the business. And I started at rosemont to understand how to make censor chips so I worked on the production floor to understand them. My love of accounting and systems kind of led me on a different path very quickly. Every company goes through many implementations of ERPs. I've implemented JDE, Oracle, SAP. It’s all about the business. so my passion for the business and to see different business opportunities and operations helps me grow my career everyday. I’ve done everything from censorship, chicken processing, to rolling of steel rivets and pipes, and now I'm in corporate real estate.

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Katie: I went to Gustavus Adolphus College. I graduated in 1980. There I had a Religion and Psychology major which perfectly prepared me for a career in Health Care Administration. I started out with a really interesting job straight out of college for the first two years. It was in the early 80s when a lot of the South-East Asian refugees were coming over from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam and St. Paul was doing a lot of resettling with Lutheran Social Services and other organizations. My job was working for the Public Health Department and coordinating across both nonprofit and public entities and I jumped into the deep end of the pool with that first job. I actually supervised a group of interpreters. From there, I thought I might be interested in running primary care clinics, but I found that to be very mundane, very kind of everyday the same thing over and over again, and not much room for creativity. With that, I went to go work for Medcenters Health Plan which was the early stage of the HMO movement of the early 80s. I've never had to apply for another job during all of that time. I worked continuously for 36 years without having to apply for a new job but what I say that is that Medcenters was acquired, merged, for a stint I worked for Aetna and did the management for that plan and plans across the country. Then when Health Partners became came out of their merger of Medcenters and Group Health, I was part of HealthPartners. My current role is Senior Vice-President of Health Plan operations and Government Programs. I essentially lead a lot of the teams that support our core insurance operations, you know a lot of customer-facing functions for both members, providers, employers. The part of my job that I really really like is that I'm kind of right at the crossroads of a lot of the innovation and a lot of the ideas for how we can innovate on our products. My job is to figure out how we're going to actually take a concept car and make sure that it actually can work on the roads, that it’s going to perform in the ice, and all of those kinds of good ideas and actually bringing them to fruition with all of my teams. I'm still doing that to this day.

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How would you describe yourself in college?

Linnea: I would say I’ve been involved in a lot during my time at Gustavus. I've been on the dance team since freshman year and then I was Captain for this past season. I'm the coordinator for Gustie bodies which is a program for kids with special needs to play with. I’m a Gustavus Ambassador which we enhance the public image of the president at different on campus and off campus events. I’m in the Delta Phi Omega sorority. I'm one of the Conference Directors for Gustavus Women in Leadership.

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Katie: I was involved in everything on campus. I loved liberal arts and being able to take a lot of different classes. I took language classes. I studied abroad during my J-terms. I just found it all very interesting. I took philosophy classes and psych classes. I really loved all of the different aspects of that a lot of and enjoyed really good conversations with professors and students and just learning. I was very involved in all the things on campus, many different campus organizations, and in the thick of everything. I was able to serve in many leadership roles for those organizations.

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How are the skills you learned in college used today?

Linnea: I feel like I will use my problem solving skills. We get put in a lot of different group project in college. I’ve learned how to work with people with different personality types and people who work in different ways than you are not. I will also use my listening skills I feel like that sometimes is not talk about as much.

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Sue: The coursework that I took, other than maybe some accounting classes, really what those taught me is how to learn and become familiar with other business practices. The day-to-day applicability of those classes to the work I’m doing, college coursework or even Masters programs, that didn't prepare me for the work I'm doing today. The prioritization with liberal arts, because we were forced to write small and long papers we were required to list the premise and conclusion and support those items with facts, which is so transferrable into the working world every day. We love to reach out via the telephone to reach out to people, but so commonly it’s email. We need to be able to clearly state what’s our problem, how we’re suggesting to solve it, etc. That’s something my liberal arts education helped me with.

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Dean: The math major gave me the foundation that I needed to become an actuary. The first five exams were strongly math based and the others needed a strong knowledge of math. Even the work you do as an actuary is pretty heavily mathematical. The foundation that I was given in mathematics really made my actuarial work possible, without that I wouldn’t have even been hired, but the concepts that you need for actuarial work wouldn’t be there. Even the computer science computers helped too because of logical thinking and computers are used quite heavily in being actuary. It gave me another aspect that I was able to bring too. Sue nailed it too. When you’re in college it really teaches you how to learn. I’m a huge proponent of the liberal arts because it teaches you how to learn from different aspects. It’s still tests and papers, but philosophy is different from art and history and literature is different than economics. Each one works your brain in different ways. Each one teaches you how to learn, but it teaches you how to learn a lot of information in a short period of time, which is a lot of what the workplace is. It teaches you how to prioritize. You have a lot of different things thrown at you at once. That helps you with the prioritization and pick out what is important and being able to then turn it into something useful. I was involved in a few extracurriculars in college, which I helped with the juggling and interacting with people. College teaches you how to interact with people too. Additionally, the ability to communicate. If you’re really knowledgeable on something, you need to be able to effectively communicate that. If you can’t communicate to someone what good does that knowledge do?

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Sharon: I have an Accounting degree with a minor in Computer Science. Today, I believe my accounting gave me a background in the business. Computer Science has changed so much so I can't say anything I learned there really applies other than maybe the structure of how to think about rolling out an application.

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Katie: I had very much so liberal arts education and so I feel like in a lot of ways my education is still extremely relevant. I learned how to communicate, how to write, how to research, how to think. I I always jokingly said if I took a philosophy class where I had to prove the existence of God through various theses, I could write a coherent business letter or memo. I think that's the thing that I really enjoyed about my job. Every year is a new year, there’s new employer requirements, there’s innovation that we’re driving internally as well as externally, there’s all of the new stuff with health reform and systems. None of that existed when I first started my career but what I was extremely well equipped with, as a result of a liberal arts education, is the ability to continue to learn and grow and actually to thrive on that throughout my career, and really throughout my life.

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When were you first told that you were a leader or when did you first become aware of yourself as a leader?

Linnea:  I feel like I knew that I wanted to become a leader early on in life in dance. Around freshman year I was on the JV team and there I was put into a leadership position helping people out with different skills and that's when I learned that I wanted to have a greater leadership position and eventually I became a captain. You can start small.  Leadership doesn’t mean you’re the captain. You can show your leadership in other ways.

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Sue: I think we all have had leadership opportunities that aren’t necessarily only related to our work, we volunteer, we have informal social group, we have the opportunity to be leaders and followers in all of those places. Early in my career, I certainly had to develop leadership skills because  my first job was to try to create multi-company administration systems in a finance area. I needed to have leadership skills there, but I was involved in one non-profit. I don't want to sound smug, but I think we all have opportunities to take on leadership activities.

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Dean: Elementary school is when I first heard, “you’re a leader” and then through junior high, high school, and college. Being a leader doesn’t mean you’re a leader in ever situation, because you need to be a follower too. If someone is always a leader and doesn’t know how to be a follower then I don’t think you’ll necessarily be the best leader. I think leadership can sometimes be by title, if you’re class president, if you’re head of a committee, or if you have people reporting to you, or if you have a line of business that you’re responsible for. I also think you can be a leader by influence, in your friend group you can have influence over what the group does, what the group talks about, or what the group is thinking. I think leadership comes in different forms and different places. Being a manager of people and a leader are two different things.

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Sharon: When I was a controller and you got to join leadership meetings and they said you are a leader representing this or that today's world everyone can be a leader in a particular role and step up to the plate.

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Katie: I just kind of grew up feeling like I was a leader. I had parents that really equipped me probably to do things beyond what normally would be done at my age. I use an example of when I was probably in third grade. We were at a motel and my dad said you can go pay the bill.  I walked down there and figured it out. I think that's just being equipped and having the confidence that even at a very young age that you could improvise, you could think things out, and really be self empowered to be able to figure things out. I would say even in elementary school and then in High School, Junior high, and then on to college, I was always in leadership roles. I seemed to gravitate towards to those. I was viewed positively by my peers. I had a personality where I had a good relationship with my teachers and so I think sometimes they would put me in leadership roles. I think that constantly set that in motion where being given opportunity increased your skills, which increased your confidence, which then gave you more opportunities, and learn more skills.

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How do you define leadership in a professional context?

Linnea: I describe leadership in professional context as someone that empowers others to be there best self and she encourages others. The focus is on others instead of yourself like you want to be a leader by gaining people's respect not forcing people to have your respect. I feel like leadership to me is being someone where people can come to you and you help them with problem solving.

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Sue: We have such different organizational structures today compared to when I joined the workforce. You had one boss that you typically got direction from and you were involved in other business practices, but it was certainly more rigid. Today, we have Matrix structures. I always say it in a nice way I have lots of bosses, which is true. Both Dean and I have a lot of stakeholders and we have to know when to include, when to report, when to escalate. It’s much more complicated, but in a good way. It’s working for a global company and this is an efficient way to do it.

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Dean: It’s not as rigid as it used to be. It’s more dynamic and more different manager is somebody who's more focused on tasks and getting something and productivity. Managers focus on the productivity of their staff and their area. They’re making sure that they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing and encouraging them to do better, maybe be more productive. When it comes to leadership, leadership is a level above that. You’re helping to set the strategy and you’re picking the people out who have the good ideas and you’re elevating them. You don’t necessarily need to have the best ideas, but you need to pick out the best ideas. Then be able to set the strategy and set the direction we’re going. Then encourage people do their best and do people do better than they can even realize, pull the best out of people, encourage them, motivate them, mentor them to take it to the next level. Encourage ideas. Ask what people would do differently. Leaders are involved in something bigger than just tasks. I subscribe to servant leadership. My job as a leader is to support people in setting the direction and then encourage the people to report to me and the people that report to them to do their best and to really help support them to do their best. It’s higher level strategy versus tasks. 

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Katie: I think that's a really good question. I think that you can be a leader in a professional context regardless of whether you have a formal responsibility in your position. I work for teams where I have direct accountability. I have about 12 direct reports, but my overall team is about 500- 570 generally, and I also work very extensively with a lot of different cross-functional teams,  information systems areas, marketing, product development, contracting, network management,  bto with my peers and with other line staff. In the roles that I'm playing, you're painting a vision for what you're trying to accomplish, even if it's just a small goal that you're trying to accomplish. I think if you went and asked all my people what are what things are important to Katie, what are the things that are valued in our operations, I would bet every one of them could probably say the top five things be pretty right on. I always thought of myself as my job is to paint that vision so that if I was gone for a year that that it would be embedded and hardwired into our operations. Painting that vision, painting those values, getting people to work as a team, being a role model for you know if you want people to collaborate then you need to collaborate, if you want people to go the extra mile and pursue excellence you need to make sure you're setting that out, integrity, always being above reproach, always doing what's right for the customer, being very authentic in terms of those things, and then caring about people as people. I think if you have people that care about each other and treat each other with respect and you model that behavior yourself you know that's what you end up getting in your teams and not having tolerance to having that erode.

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What does it mean for you to be a leader in your day to day role? How has this evolved over the course of your career?

Sharon: Mentoring is a huge part of being a leader I work with people just out of college to people who've been with Cargill about 25 years. I hired a brand new staff of about 9 people in the pas year. They’re all Cargill employees I'm not but I have a Cargill background having worked there for 19 years so I'm guiding them to learn organization to to be curious enough to learn about the organization. They make everything you eat and so I want them to learn and so I try and mentor them in different ways and unfortunately sometimes you have to draw the line and say no. No does not mean a bad word but a lot of people think no means kind of like when you were two,  but no really is something that you have to learn to appreciate. Its helping you with guard rails. Leadership has completely evolved and one of the things I tell everybody is have a mentor. Because everything is changing and the world’s going, computers are changing, everything is shifting. You have to have to be resilient and agile to do anything in a leadership role today.

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Katie: I probably touched on that little bit in the previous answer, but I can talk a little bit about earlier in my career. I think it's important for somebody earlier in their career and as they’re emerging leader, you don't have that positional authority. You maybe aren't in as strategic a role, from a broad vantage point. I would say manage your own desk like it's a business. Know what your goals are, know what you’re trying to accomplish, take initiative, think about how to do it better, smarter, cheaper, better meet the customer's needs don't just come in and do the motions. If you're doing a job, put your mind to it and do the best you can. Establish those relationships. Learn to work with others. I think those are things that you can do early in your career that you still do and practice and embed yourself as you get further along in your career, but I think that's a place where you looked to for additional leadership roles.

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Is there any advice that you were given that you have have taken with you

throughout your career?

Linnea: I feel like just a lot of stuff I have learned in Gustavus Women In Leadership is know how to use your voice and know that you have a voice and really feel empowered to use it and speak out. Say what you want and be assertive. Go for it because you have a voice and you should be able to use it in all walks of life.

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Katie: I was fortunate early in my career to work with some people who were really good mentors and modeled some of the behaviors that that I see: where you're able to have that sense of integrity and doing the right thing was rewarded. I've been very fortunate to be in organizations that have a lot of consistency with my values. I think that's that's one thing is being in organizations where I can make sure that I am doing the right thing, not having to cut corners, or ever feel like my personal integrity is compromised in any way. I think also too just a sense of continuous improvement, continuous learning and growing.

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What do you look for in an emerging leader?

Sharon: Someone who is curious and who keeps the bigger picture in mind not just your day-to-day job and considers how this will help the organization that you're at. 

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Katie: When I look at some of the leaders who really have potential in my area that I have mentored and have grown with over the years, it is really going the extra mile. They may not know the industry or know the particular topic well, but being proactive, being accountable, doing the work, asking questions, taking some risks to ask others, going above and beyond, collaborating with others, being a good team player by being respectful are all important.

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What characteristics do you currently see in the incoming workforce and what character gaps do you see?/ What traits do you see in our generation that will help in becoming a business leader?

Linnea: I think one thing about our generation is that they’re very progressive and forward thinking. We think about which of my actions today are going to impact the next 10, 15, 30 years. We are really thinking about the holistic approach as well, which I think will really help us become better leaders.

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Sharon: I don’t think people are as curious as they should be or they’re not in the curious in the area their job needs.

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Katie: I've been fortunate to be able to work with some teams particularly on some really large-scale systems projects. It really does, out of necessity, have quite a few of what might be considered younger generation employees that are part of those teams. I think one of the things that I see in those teams that I really value is they want to be accountable, they have a high degree of self-confidence, and really want to be able to figure things out without a lot of direction. As a leader it is important to have some guardrails around that when you have multimillion-dollar projects and I'm accountable to people. I try to give people a lot of latitude and discretion so that they can find that positive growth than and opportunity in their roles. I think this is almost kind of a cliche about some of the younger generations, but really needing to give people a lot of feedback and positive affirmation, and people wanting to know that they're on the right track and doing the right thing.

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What traits, behaviors, and skills do you think are necessary for leaders in today’s age?

Linnea: You need need a lot of education. You need to have a good amount of knowledge and you need to be able to understand all aspects of the positions. You need a background in finance, marketing, HR, all the different c-suite positions. You need to have at least have a background of it because if you're the CEO and you’re putting together a budget and you don't have a finance background you’re really going to have a hard time to do if you don't have that background.

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Sue: I think servant leadership is a good approach for today's and future leaders. I think it is important to listen. There is sometimes a tendency for some to think they have all the answers, but it is so important to take time to listen. Think of integrity as a noun. It mandates being honest and having strong principles. At the end of the day, those are the people that will gain respect and be able to influence a team. 

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Dean: Integrity is huge. If people can’t trust you, you don’t follow people you don’t trust. Which means having people’s back. Don’t gossip. Be truthful with people even if it’s hard. I think that’s key. Listening is very important. Hard work too. It doesn’t mean you have to work 80 hours per week. It just means that when you’re at the office you’re doing your job and you’re doing quality work and taking ownership of your work. If something goes wrong, admit it and then fix it. Respect your fellow workers. Treat people with mutual respect. I treat everyone I talk to with equal respect. Everyone has a role they play and there’s a reason they’re there. Be positive and have a positive outlook, but realistic optimism. Have a can-do mentality. Have the ability to influence people. You can’t just say “I’m going to start influencing people”. That comes with trust, knowledge, and integrity. Influencing people is an outcome.

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Sharon:  You have to be very curious. What I mean curious is not questioning the heck out of everything. It's being passionately curious about what you want to learn more about the organization, more about what other leaders are doing in the organization, peer coaching and the way they look at the world. Since I work in a global company, you have to look at things at all angles. The world is so global so you have to keep a level setting.

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Katie: I think in general, and probably now in the post-pandemic world even more than ever, being able to be flexible, being able to be resilient, being able to continue to learn and grow and adapt. The things that I'm doing now didn't exist when I first was in my career. I think that pace of change is only accelerating and will continue to accelerate. If I look back 30 years and then look ahead 30 years, I can't even imagine the change and the exponential change that'll happen. At the same time being able to have those good interpersonal relationships and that core integrity at the root of all of it.

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What was one of your biggest challenges in becoming a leader of your organization? How did you overcome it?

 

Sharon: Making sure your voice is heard. You have to really step up and let them know. You have got to be confident and sometimes you have to have a little bit of candor so that candor is not necessarily negative. You need to use it in the right tone. Give presentations and make people really want to hear what you have to say. You don’t always have to talking. Speak when you really need to and sometimes be a listener.

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Katie: In this organization, I started as a leader. I really didn't start as an individual contributor and then end up being promoted into a leadership role.  I would say probably the challenge if anything was through some of the mergers and acquisitions. There were different cultures that we had to blend and we had to prove our value over and over again to some of our co-workers and often in other parts of the country kind of in legacy roles. That that would sometimes be a challenge, to be able to get that sense of respect for what we do in our areas and not to run the risk of not continuing to exist because you had to prove that. For example, our service center is valuable and should continue to exist rather than being blended into a different one.

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What is the most rewarding aspect of being a leader in your organization?

Linnea: Being a leader is knowing that people trust in you and for me that makes me feel like  I'm doing something right that I'm making an impact on someone else and they're trusting me to be their leader. I feel like the day of the Women in Leadership conference I really felt myself stepping up to that role like throughout the whole entire 10 months of planning we've all contributed equal parts but during that day I felt like I really stepped up and was like we need this and being on top of everything. I feel like I really prepared and rose up to that challenge today. With everything being so chaotic I remained that constant person and found ways to problem solve. It was incredibly rewarding.

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Katie: I think that the biggest thing is just being able to have common visions for whether it's a project or overall operation, some of our innovations when we're dealing with times of challenge and working and collaborating with others to achieve our objective. Have fun!  Some of the people I've worked with for many many years as well as accepting new team members onto our teams. Having those interpersonal relationships, it's really what makes the work fun in addition to the challenge and the reward of getting the work done.

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What resources would you recommend to emerging leaders?

Linnea: I feel like the best thing you can do if you want to be a leader is find someone that you respect as a leader and use them as a mentor. Learn from them and what made them become such a great leader. My mentor has taught me be confident and taught me to grow into the those skills.

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Sue: One book that I have enjoyed is by Dr. Dawn Graham. I learn a lot from her. One of her favorite quotes is, “Action brings clarity.” I think that’s so true. Sometimes when a project or any task seems to ominous, if you just start on it then you start to see, “Oh! I need a response from this stakeholder” or “I don’t have this information”. Once you start on a project you’ll see what the next steps are. She has written a book called “Switchers” which sounds like it would be only be applicable for people that are thinking about switching their career path or expanding their skillset. She talks about what are the types of roles you want to have, what are the qualifications needed for these things. It would be helpful for a broad group of people.

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Dean: There are two books that are excellent. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. It’s the most manipulative title, but I’ve had all my kids read it. I've read it a couple times. It’s really a good book. The idea of it is to get what you want, help others get what they want. It’s not just about what you get, but how can you help others. The other book is by John Maxwell called, “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.” It’s a list. I should mention he’s a pastor, but he’s not a pastor anymore. He’s a leadership guru. There are a couple of examples when he goes to religion so if that bugs you look beyond that, but he provides a lot of great examples. One thing he brings up is the power of interest because you need to start planting the seeds now by showing the characteristics of leaderships now so that you’re ready when a leadership opportunity comes. It’s within your domain. Ask leaders “what did you do?”. Ask to take people to lunch and ask “how did you become successful?”. Personal finance is much like leadership.

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Sharon: There are a lot of good books out there. However, I would say join a local networking group in the area that you want to pursue. There are a lot of great emerging leaders in Minneapolis. I would tell people to seek out a networking group when you enter any sort of company and if there isn't one ask if you can start it.

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Katie: The resource I would say is develop your skills, whatever it is. If you learn good project management skills, good communication skills, or analytical skills, those are things that you can use over and over again. You are able to apply things, connect dots in non-traditional ways. I would say be interested in the world, expose yourself to as much as possible, read the newspaper, stay up on trends, look at things from multiple perspectives because it's important to understand those diverse perspectives, and continue to learn and grow as a person. Make sure that you're continuing to grow as a person and in some of your skills.

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What advice would you give to your college graduate self?

Linnea: Know that you can do whatever you want and be successful in whatever path you choose.

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Sue: Take advantage of the best opportunities available to you. You can find the perfect fit later.

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Dean: Build a trust with your coworkers. Become a student of your industry, be eager to learn whatever you’ve been given for a task. Read about it, talk to people, set up meetings, or attend lunch to learn more about the responsibility you’ve been given. Once you’ve shown that you’re reliable and you’re eager to learn then you can start contributing those ideas and have influence and suggest improvements. Develop trust and understanding and then ask “how can I make it better”. You have to be careful too. When you’re a young person at your company you don’t want the people who’ve been there for a while to think “you guys have no idea what’s going on”. You need to have good people skills. Value the people for what they’ve contributed. Bring up ideas in a respectful way. Ask questions, build up people, show interest when talking to people who’ve been there for a while. You’re going to be more interested in someone who’s interested in you.

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Sharon: Have a good mentor. Don’t have just one but have several. Some within the organization you're in and sometimes outside of the organization. You have to be grounded in where you want to go. What you graduate today will not be your job in 10 years from now. It's going to be something totally different because technology and the workforce are changing so fast. Keep your network strong and know that the people you meet early on in your career you may see over and over again so maintain a good relationship with them.

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Katie: Know that you have got a fun road ahead. This is a journey not a destination. Each year I take stock of my career and I ask myself three questions. Am I continuing to learn and grow? Am I making a positive difference in the world and am I work for and with people that I respect and enjoy working with. As long as the answer to those things are yes, recognizing that every day isn't she isn't Nirvana, but as long as those things are genuinely positive.  That’s part of what has kept me at Health Partners and its predecessor as long as I did, because I am able to do those things. I've had a very satisfying career as a result.

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How do you think COVID-19 will shape consumer behavior? What challenges have you faced?

Sharon: I work in Cargill's logistics organization and so if it moves, we use that to ship it. We do everything. There's a daily briefing on barges, railcars, trucks. We have had a lot of issues with the trucking industry. Small towns don't want strangers in and so they were some that were actually abusing some of the drivers. When you tell them they are bringing the oil, flour, and toilet paper that you're looking for your store then it's like, “Oh I forgot I didn't think about it.” I have ran into issues like that. There are times when people need to drop off and hop on a crisis line and play that leader of saying, “Hey how do we help our drivers.” In Pennsylvania, they shut down there turnpike which meant there are no rest stops or food available to any of the truckers. So working with the local plants, we have packed meals to give the actual driver so that they would have something and then we worked with the state of Pennsylvania to open up the turnpike I have not been that impacted by COVID-19 other than having to hop on crisis call from time to time cuz unfortunately but business is probably over a hundred percent because we are doing a lot of oil Cargill feeds General Mills and a lot of meat packing plants and so we have to keep the product moving. It’s been a shift from restaurants to retail. Packaging has been our largest issue.

I think you're going to see a lot of people keeping stockpiles at their home. I think you will probably see people buy an extra bag of this or that when you’re at the grocery store if that was something you ran out of during COVID-19. I think people want to be more prepared than next time. I think there will be working remotely. Real estate is very costly so you may see more cube sit stations rather than offices.

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Katie:  In healthcare, we are at the epicenter of a lot of the COVID-19 work. Within a matter of days, having all of our health insurance operations people go home and work from home, at the same time as care delivery, getting equipped for the for the surge, and focusing on how we get telehealth from a very small foot print to scale virtually overnight. We're still working through a lot of those things and what will be the new normal for things you. Dentistry is basically shut down other than emergencies, so what does that look like in as we're living in this environment for a period of time. I'm working from home I'm on the phone everyday in both Webexs and Zoom meetings with both large groups and one-on-one with people. I would say, if anything, its probably a more intense feel to my role than normal and, not that it's not intense in normal situations, but I think part of it is you really really have to trust the people that work for you . They're working from home, they're taking broad direction, people are coming through, they're stepping up to the plate. I realize how much I do really value interpersonal relationships, those hallway conversations after meetings. A lot of times, if I was going to be talking about something controversial, I’d make the rounds ahead of time and say, “Hey, just want to let you know we're going to be talking about this want to get your perspective, anything I should be thinking about.” It's probably not worthy of picking up the phone and make me a call or sending an email,  but some of those interpersonal relationships I really miss. That's probably one been one of the things has been more challenging. I've really tried to make sure that I am there for my team and also for those people for their teams that we work with just a lot of communication, being transparent, saying what we know and what we don't know, and being available to talk through all of it. It’s still continuing to play out it'll be very interesting to see what the next months bring. The other thing I would just comment is that we we have been in a situation where because we've had to close many of our clinics for anything other than urgent situations, our revenue is down significantly. I think most healthcare providers are in the same boat. They're not doing elective procedures. Our revenue has really taken a hit from that standpoint, so to meet some of those financial challenges it's become necessary for us and I think probably for many other organizations as well, we've had to do some furloughs. People are still an employee of the organization, they still get their benefits, but they're out on leave for up in some cases an indefinite period of time. You're never comfortable with it and you feel badly for the people who are impacted and it's disruptive even if they're taking care of from a financial perspective with unemployment in the federal unemployment payments. It's still a really disruptive thing for people: having to talk through things with people, give them grace because we're not going to be able to do everything the way we've always done it but this this is what we need to do to be able to continue to keep our organization in a place where we're going to be able to be viable for the long-term.

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