Welcome to FinTech TV.
I'm Amy Blair.
The power of leadership goes beyond the boardroom where tech, sports, and service intersects as AI transforms our world and global headlines grow heavier.
Some executives aren't just watching from the sidelines.
They're suiting up stepping in and giving back.
And joining us now is the global CEO, endurance athlete, STEM advocate, and board member Ronda Viteri.
Welcome to the New York Stock Exchange.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Remy, it's an honor to be here.
Well, first and foremost, I know that you wear many hats, but what do you think is most pertinent in the world right now when it comes to leadership?
Leadership, there's a next generation of leadership coming about.
We're all trying a fast paced world, but we need to have empathy as well on what's going on in the world globally in and out of those office rooms, which is very important, and being to keep up with change.
Yeah, and here you are at the New York Stock Exchange, and just in this year alone there's been so much sweeping change.
So as an endurance athlete, I know you've done a lot of training and it's not just the physical, is it?
It's also about mental endurance.
So what are some key lessons that you've learned?
Well, through sports, the endurance absolutely Done 14,040 races now, Remy since 2015.
Thank you, and I've learned a lot, learned to change during a race and you do that in the boardroom, learn to pivot the fast pace, the cadence.
You have to keep up the cadence in a race just like in business.
You have to keep turning.
We're on the stock exchange floor.
These women and men need to keep up with the pace of change.
You have to have endurance.
You have to have a good heartbeat.
You have to remain healthy.
And you can't take care of yourself or your team in any company if you're not taking care of yourself.
So I've been on a mission learning from that and showing the world that you need to do this in and out of running your company, be healthy, the way you think.
It's all mental.
Yeah, absolutely.
And we hear that analogy often when we're flying, for example, that if the masks come down, you have to take care of yourself first before your friends and family or other passengers around you.
So give us some key takeaways.
What's your secret sauce when it comes to success?
Sleep, eat right, surround yourself with the right people, help each other, give back, bring joy to your life as well.
If you see something and someone's not performing, deal with it fast.
Very key to success.
Do not let a bad apple in and learn when to when to leave, Rey.
Learn when to leave and learn when to say I need help.
Yeah, absolutely, and I think those are some key lessons here, but Easier said than done, isn't it?
And why is that?
I think people just don't like to deal with conflict and they see it as a sign of weakness where they want to ask for help or say I don't know something.
Those words are very powerful.
I don't know, but I'll learn and always keep the learner's hat on, and some people have just become obsolete.
Yeah.
And speaking of becoming obsolete, one term that we hear often is AI, and that's artificial.
Intelligence, right, but we're humans, so it's so important to know when to use AI and when not to use AI, but you've been in the executive leadership space for a long time in tech.
So what's important to know about AI?
AI is here.
It's here to stay.
I remember doing an interview when Sam Altman first came out in Congress and Senate.
Don't be afraid of it.
OK.
Embrace it.
Be honest with your company and the team.
On which jobs are at risk of going away for AI, so you can job skill and get the education for people to put them in other jobs.
So that's everyone always asks me, should I be afraid of it?
Am I going to lose my job?
Well, learn something new and you won't be at that risk, but it is here to stay and obviously the cybersecurity.
I could talk for hours on AI as well, yeah, and there are both risks as well as opportunities.
Just like the markets when it comes to artificial intelligence, and I think another thing that we're well aware of is that people are living longer, right?
So it's not just say 2 or 3 generations in the workplace, it's more.
So what do you think is important when it comes to leadership in terms of understanding what's happening across all demographics?
Oh, yes, I made it a point to work in every industry so I can have the demographic, geographic lived around the world.
Leaders need to do that.
It's important to get out of your silo.
We're sitting here in New York Stock Exchange.
Wonderful.
All leaders should go overseas and work for a little while.
Keep that in mind and cross pollinate your talent and your thinking and learn something new every day, even if it's one thing, but put yourself through a class, invest in yourself.
I know everyone's going to say, oh, I don't have time.
Well, you make time for what's important.
And that cross pollination for people say who can't make it abroad or they just don't have that flexibility or their jobs, their positions don't allow them.
What can they actually do to raise awareness and actually build their empathy skills?
Empathy says take an online class, MIT, Harvard, NYU law.
There's some wonderful classes online.
There's really no excuse since the pandemic.
We're all working online a lot and we've had to adapt to that, but education has been one of the first adapters to that.
So you don't have to go study abroad if you can't afford it, but you can maximize your time as well.
And Rhonda, you just mentioned the pandemic and it is in the rearview mirror, but Since we're living longer, I'm sure we'll face another market crisis given that we're living through so many cycles.
So what do you think is important as we gear up for change, diversify.
I remember being here for the Lehman crash and too big to fail.
I let through all of those diversify the risk.
If you look at your portfolio here in the New York Stock Exchange risk tolerance.
What is your risk factor even in business?
Make sure you're looking at your.
You're on it.
Get ready and I always say this in sports.
Stay ready so you don't have to get ready.
Please do that before a crisis hits for anyone leading a large company and your C-suite.
And finally, Rhonda, I understand you're training for yet another race and you've spent many years training.
So I'm sure with every new endurance event you learned something new about yourself.
So how do you keep going and how do you start building if you're still at the beginning?
Well, I just run, walk, run.
I tell people that even in business, start something.
It takes about 90 days to form a habit.
It takes an average human 7 or 8 times to listen and understand something.
So races you need to build a baseline.
This Saturday we're swimming the Navy SEAL swim in the Hudson River, 5th year in a row.
Um, that's the next race, but what I do, Ray, is I always have something on the calendar.
There'll be 21 races this year and everyone says, how do you do that?
You manage around it and you treat them as training.
Not everyone you need to go out there and win.
Some of them are training races, but you have to just start somewhere just like in business, you start, you make a KPI, a key performance indicator, and you keep moving the goalpost.
Well, Rhonda, it was great talking to you.
Thank you so much for joining me and thank you so much for sharing your knowledge as well as your insights.
Thank you.
My pleasure.
