Jan 20, 2021
Listen to Jennifer’s inspiring conversation with brothers John Gregg and Tom Gregg about the impact of a global pandemic on businesses and how to be successful despite the unique and unprecedented challenges it brings.
Episode Highlights:
- Expanding a business during a pandemic
- Tom's secrets to creating a successful business during a pandemic
- How businesses can be a part of the solution and the value of community involvment
- How vaccines will impact businesses
- The benifits of business coaching
Links and Resources:
Medium Rare Restaurant http://www.mediumrarerestaurant.com/
Beyond CEO Coaching https://beyondceocoaching.com/
BalinBac Therapuetics and Pandemic Resources https://www.balinbac.com/
About the Guests
John Gregg
John has over 35 years in the pharmaceutical industry and his past start-ups have successfully brought new anti-infective drugs to market. John is uniquely qualified as a COVID-19 expert as he was previously responsible for new product planning for Pfizer for its coronavirus R&D program. Prior to that he held senior roles as an executive at Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. John holds a B.A. degree in biology (microbiology focus) from the University of Chicago and an M.B.A. in Marketing & International Business from New York University.
Tom Gregg
Tom currently co-owns and co-operates Medium Rare, a national known and successful restaurant group in the Washington DC area. Tom is also a co-founder and partner in Beyond CEO Coaching, a coaching company that specifically coaches Black CEOs. Tom bootstrapped his first software company at age twenty-seven with $10,000 and grew it to number 134 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing privately held companies, and was one of the Deloitte Fast 500 fastest growing tech companies for four straight years. After ten years and only one capital raise, Tom was able to successfully sell his company to a leading international security software company. During that time, Tom also owned a company in Shenzhen, China doing primarily commercial real estate management, and it was one the few wholly foreign owned entities in China at that time.
As a hired-gun President of a publicly-traded, international food manufacturing business Cuisine Solutions, Tom helped the company grow the company from $7M in quarterly sales to $25M in quarterly sales $1.5M in profit and the stock price from $.30 to $7.15. At the end of his tenure, Tom temporarily moved his family to Paris to lead an upscale food brand featuring famous chefs of the world. Tom has served on a number of for profit and non-profit boards to include the Starlight Children’s Foundation and Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
Among many long-distance hikes, Tom successfully hiked the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail averaging a marathon a day for 85 consecutive days in 2017, and he recently authored a book about the experience, A Cool Breeze on The Appalachian Trail, which utilized the strategy and lessons he has learned in business. Tom is an ultra-marathoner and has run in the Army Ten Miler in Washington DC fifteen consecutive years, and he qualified for and ran in the Boston Marathon at the age of fifty.
Tom has been a member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) for over twenty years including many years of leadership on the local and regional Boards. Prior to that, he was a member of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO). Tom is an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Washington DC Area, and he co-hosted a local radio show that coached entrepreneurs to start-up and run businesses. He also co-hosted a podcast for the NFL Players Association on transitioning to business after football. Tom has fifteen years of experience coaching youth sports and Special Olympics (soccer, basketball and running). Tom has taught at universities in Shanghai and Chengdu China.