This week’s Influence podcast features Linda Leckman, the CEO of Intermountain Medical Group in Salt Lake City and a brilliant trailblazer for women in medicine. In a very real way Linda’s impressive career as a surgeon and CEO in healthcare all started when she was a teenager working as a candy striper when her desire to be a doctor first began. She went on to earn an undergraduate degree in history at Texas Christian University and a medical degree from the University of New Mexico before coming to the University of Utah to do a residency in general surgery. Linda was the first woman in the residency program at the University of Utah at a time when it was commonly thought that women didn’t have the temperament to be good surgeons, but she persisted and succeeded! During her second year, she was so happy that the university let three more women into its residency program.
After graduating in 1982, Linda established her own successful private practice as a general surgeon in Salt Lake City. After 14 years running her own surgical practice, Linda made the bold move to join the executive team of Intermountain Healthcare and three years later she was leading their newly formed physician group. Even though her experience in business and finance was limited, Linda was determined to succeed and worked her way to the top as she grew Intermountain Medical Group from fewer than 100 doctors to more than 1,000 as she greatly expanded her group’s impact to 180 clinics across the state. We hope you enjoy the insights of Dr. Linda Leckman, a brilliant thinker who broke down barriers so other women could move forward in leadership roles that have improved healthcare in Utah.
As the President and CEO of the Utah Technology Council for the past 16 years, Richard Nelson has played an important role in the growth of Utah’s technology ecosystem. Under his leadership, the UTC has been a force for good in creating the $300M Utah Fund of Funds and securing funding for the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative. Rich is a passionate advocate in helping Utah’s Title 1 schools and was a major force in raising the rigor in Utah’s high school requirements.
As the leader of Utah’s professional association for over 5,000 high tech, clean tech and life science companies, Rich is a connector of people who is always quick to mention others who helped lay the foundation for our current success. Named one of the “100 Most Influential People” and one of the “25 People Who Most Influenced Business in Utah”, Rich shares his valuable perspective on the rapid growth of technology companies in Utah. Rich was named “CEO of the Year” from Utah’s technology industry and received the “Distinguished Service Award” from the College of Engineering at the University of Utah. He has an MBA from Northwestern University and a BS degree in finance from Brigham Young University.
This week’s Influence podcast provides a rare glimpse into the life and success of Aaron and Monica Skonnard. Aaron Skonnard is the co-founder, president, and CEO of Pluralsight, the leading on-demand technology learning platform for developer training, and Monica is Aaron’s wife and invaluable sounding board and adviser. In spite of their personal success and the amazing growth of Pluralsight, they have managed to stay centered and are grateful to be in “a powerful position to make the world a better place.”
Aaron’s strong technical background began when he was a young boy learning his craft on an Apple Macintosh that his father brought home. After graduating from BYU with a degree in computer science, Aaron co-founded Pluralsight in 2004, a company with a core team of top programmers that initially developed course materials and taught classes and seminars to developers all over the world. It was at this time that Aaron, relied on Monica’s faith and strong support to make the bold pivot of immediately focusing his team on building the on-demand learning platform that would “change the way developers learn.” Pluralsight has never looked back!
A skilled programmer that has authored several technical articles, Aaron will always be a developer at his core, and much of the company’s success within the programming community is because Pluralsight is a company of programmers. According to Aaron, Pluralsight’s foundation is built “on this ability to learn from each other, the ability to surround yourself with the right people and keep surrounding yourself with the right people over time.”
Whether they are at work or at home, Aaron and Monica Skonnard share a common passion to make the world a better place! Please enjoy this inspiring podcast.