In this episode of the DeWinter Difference, Derek sits down with Dave Stephenson, Chief Business Officer and Head of Employee Experience at Airbnb. Dave shares his incredible career journey, from being a ski racer and aspiring architect at Montana State, to roles at Procter & Gamble, Amazon, and his current position at Airbnb.

They discuss the importance of gaining deep functional skills, the value of mentorship, and the critical role Airbnb played as an Olympic sponsor. Dave also offers advice for aspiring leaders and reflects on his own experiences, including teaching skiing and what he’s learned hosting on the Airbnb platform.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

00:30 Meet Dave Stephenson: From Amazon to Airbnb

01:05 Dave's Early Career and Education

02:35 Transition to Amazon and Joining Airbnb

04:26 New Role at Airbnb and Leadership Insights

07:20 Advice for Aspiring Leaders

10:36 Airbnb's Role in the Olympics

14:44 Personal Experiences with Airbnb

18:41 Future Aspirations and Final Thoughts

About Dave Stephenson:

Dave Stephenson is responsible for growing Airbnb’s global businesses and overseeing Airbnb’s employee experience. As Chief Business Officer, he is focused on commercializing Airbnb’s new and existing businesses, recruiting and developing Airbnb’s global supply of stays, Experiences, and services, and executing Airbnb’s global in market strategy. As Head of Employee Experience at Airbnb, he oversees talent and leadership development, recruiting, compensation, diversity initiatives, and Airbnb’s Live and Work Anywhere program. Dave previously spent five years as Airbnb’s Chief Financial Officer.

Prior to joining Airbnb, Dave spent 17 years at Amazon, where he was Vice President and CFO of their Worldwide Consumer Organization. Dave also served as CFO of Amazon’s International Consumer business and led finance across many areas of the company, including Amazon Web Services, North America Retail, and Merchant Services.

Dave holds an MBA from the University of Iowa and a BS in Industrial and Management Engineering from Montana State University. He is an Airbnb host in Washington State.

In this episode of the DeWinter Difference, Dara Bazzano, SVP, Chief Accounting Officer at T-Mobile & Independent Board Director sits down with Derek to share insights from her career journey. From her start in public accounting to a run of successful executive leadership positions and board seats, Dara shares what propelled her through professional and personal challenges, including early motherhood and divorce, and what inspired her to move on from public accounting.

Derek and Dara discuss how she developed the skills necessary to lead her team at T-Mobile, the best ways to advocate for your needs in a professional setting, and the best podcasts they may or may not be listening to.

In this episode of the DeWinter Difference, Derek chats with Anarghya Vardhana, a Partner at Maveron, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm that invests across the US in end consumer brands. Anarghya shares her insights on finding career success through authenticity, the key traits she looks for in leaders before investing, and her professional journey from Stanford to Google and eventually to the world of Venture Capital.

Learn more about the DeWinter Difference podcast and share your thoughts and comments at DeWinterGroup.com/dewinter-difference

About Anarghya:

Anarghya spends her time understanding consumer and cultural behavioral shifts, identifying the billion-dollar businesses that will emerge, and partnering with the right founders to help grow those startups into iconic consumer brands. She is particularly interested in companies improving the health and wellness of large populations and she has invested across early stages and sectors such as mental health (Two Chairs, Tempest), women's health (Alife, Odela), rare disease (Allstripes), healthcare platforms (Goodbill), and connection and community for wellness (RecRoom, Co-Star).

Prior to joining Maveron seven years ago, Anarghya was a seed investor and a product manager at several startups, notably Medable in the healthcare space. She started her career at Google and has been in the Bay Area tech scene since her undergraduate years at Stanford, where she studied Science, Technology, and Society, graduating with honors with a focus in Human Biology, and Mathematics. Anarghya was listed on Forbes "30 Under 30" for venture capital, won the Diversity Champion Awards from Forbes and JP Morgan Chase, was nominated for the NVCA's rising star award, and gathered several accolades during her time at Google. She is a Kauffman Fellow, and an active participant in All Raise and other diversity initiatives in tech and venture capital. Anarghya hails from the pacific northwest, is a slow marathoner, and is an Indian classical dancer (Bharatanatya).

About Maveron:

Maveron is a consumer-only venture capital firm that empowers consumers to live on their terms.

In this episode of the DeWinter Difference, Derek sits down with Sheri Savage, Chief Financial Officer of Ultra Clean Technology. Hear from Sheri about her expansive career journey in hi-tech manufacturing and her long tenure with Ultra Clean Technology. Sheri and Derek discuss how career planning is different for today’s generation of early-career workers, her experience over the years as a female leader, the different skills needed for financial leaders as SAAS versus Hardware firms, and more.

Learn more about the DeWinter Difference podcast and share your thoughts and comments at DeWinterGroup.com/dewinter-difference

About Sheri Savage:

Sheri Savage has served as Ultra Clean Technology's Chief Financial Officer since July 7, 2016. Ms. Savage joined the company as the Senior Director of Finance in April 2009. Before joining UCT, Ms. Savage served at Credence Systems Corporation as Corporate Controller and Vice President of Finance and as Director of Internal Audit. Prior to Credence Systems, Ms. Savage held various accounting and finance roles at Protiviti and KLA-Tencor Corporation. Ms. Savage also served as Manager, Business Process Risk Accounting at Arthur Anderson LLP.

Ms. Savage holds a B.S. in Managerial Economics from the University of California, Davis.

About Ultra Clean Technology:
Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. is a leading developer and supplier of critical subsystems, components, parts, and ultra-high purity cleaning and analytical services, primarily for the semiconductor industry. Under its Products division, UCT offers its customers an integrated outsourced solution for major subassemblies, improved design-to-delivery cycle times, design for manufacturability, prototyping, and high-precision manufacturing. Under its Services Division, UCT offers its customers tool chamber parts cleaning and coating, as well as micro-contamination analytical services. Ultra Clean is headquartered in Hayward, California.

In this episode of the DeWinter Difference, Derek chats with Noland Granberry, Chief Financial Officer at Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. Hear from Noland about his journey from a successful career in the tech industry to shifting into the non-profit world with Second Harvest, surprising facts about food insecurity in Silicon Valley, and more.

Interested in getting involved with Second Harvest? Learn more and get connected with volunteering or donation opportunities at the links below.

Volunteer Information:
Sign Up to Volunteer | Second Harvest of Silicon Valley (shfb.org)

Donation information
Home | Second Harvest of Silicon Valley (shfb.org)
donor.relations@shfb.org

In this episode of the DeWinter Difference, Derek sits down with Jessica Aguirre, Emmy Award winning Journalist and News Anchor with NBC Bay Area News. Hear Jessica shares stories about her career journey, starting as a young journalist in Miami to becoming an Emmy-award-winning journalist and News Anchor with NBC Bay Area News, the changes she’s seen unfolding in the news industry, and the importance of listening.

Learn more about the DeWinter Difference podcast and share your thoughts and comments at DeWinterGroup.com/dewinter-difference

About Jessica Aguirre:

Jessica Aguirre is the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. evening anchor at NBC Bay Area News and an Emmy award winning journalist. Jessica has been a primetime, evening anchor, in the Bay Area for over 20 years.

In addition to anchoring the evening news, Jessica is the co-host of NBC Bay Area’s Race in America: The Conversation alongside Marcus Washington. The show explores racial equity and social injustice and attempts to bridge the divide between backgrounds and generations.

Jessica began her career at the Spanish Language network, Univision, while attending the University of Miami. Before arriving in the Bay Area in 1998 she anchored and reported in Los Angeles and Miami, earning Emmy awards for her series on the struggles of migrant children and for her investigative work on child molesters as well as an Associated Press award for her series chronicling the struggle of boat people fleeing Cuba. During her tenure at NBC Bay Area Jessica won an Emmy for her poignant series, on the emotional journey of an East Bay transgender teen and her efforts to preserve her fertility before undergoing sex reassignment surgery, another Emmy for her live coverage of the "Ghostship" warehouse fire in Oakland and for field anchoring from the deadly Sonoma and Napa county firestorms.

Most recently Jessica was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Silver Circle for twenty-five years of excellence in television journalism.

Follow her on Twitter @JessAguirreNBC

Learn more about the DeWinter Difference podcast and share your thoughts and comments at DeWinterGroup.com/dewinter-difference

About Matt Field:

Matt Field is Joby Aviation’s Chief Financial Officer. Before joining Joby, he served as the Chief Financial Officer, North America, at Ford Motor Company where he was responsible for the financial operations of a $100 billion revenue operation. In that role, Matt oversaw the finances of Ford’s largest automotive division, which employs more than 100,000 employees and produces more than 2.5 million units a year. Prior to joining Ford, he worked at Goldman Sachs and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.