Executive Guidance

Redefining the Modern CISO: Lessons From Inside Zscaler

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 22:53:15 GMT

Join Toptal’s Cyber and Information Security Practice Lead, Zohra Ibrahimi, and Brad Moldenhauer, VP and CISO in Residence at leading cloud security company Zscaler, as they explore how modern security leaders enable the business while managing risk at scale. The conversation covers zero trust beyond the buzzword, AI’s impact on attackers and defenders, and how CISOs can communicate material risk clearly to boards and executives.

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The Importance of Content Distribution and Brand Authority: Lessons From Stacker’s CEO

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 20:24:10 GMT

Join Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, and Stacker Co-founder and CEO Noah Greenberg as they explore how modern brands turn content into a true growth engine. Noah, whose content distribution platform is used by brands like Sofi and Redfin, shares insights on data-driven storytelling, brand authority, and why distribution, not volume, is what separates high-performing content teams from the rest.

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Navigating GEO and AI Search: Lessons From Scrunch’s Head of Marketing

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 23:15:43 GMT

Join Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, and Scrunch’s Head of Marketing, Kevin White, as they explore how AI-powered search is reshaping buyer behavior and discovery. Kevin shares insights on navigating GEO, why experimentation matters more than best practices, and how clarity, structure, and customer-first thinking are essential to winning visibility in the age of LLM-driven search.

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The Human Side of Cybersecurity: Lessons From Yahoo’s Director of Security GRC

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 22:20:24 GMT

Join Toptal’s Cyber and Information Security Services Practice Lead, Zohra Ibrahimi, and Yahoo’s Director of Security GRC, Steven Asifo, as they explore how modern security leaders can build strong security cultures at scale. Steven shares insights on making security approachable and why communication, trust, and human-centered leadership are essential to effective risk management in an AI-enabled world.

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Why Great Marketing Starts With Business Mastery: Insights From Lumivero

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 16:44:25 GMT

In this episode of the Executive Guidance podcast, Lumivero CMO Tessa Barron joins Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, to share her journey from marketing execution to strategic leadership. Learn how she builds proactive, audience-driven teams and why true marketing impact starts with fully understanding the business.

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Redefining Go-to-Market Strategy With Focused Execution: Lessons from Pavilion CEO Sam Jacobs

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 18:14:14 GMT

Join Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, and Pavilion’s Founder and CEO, Sam Jacobs, as they explore how modern leadership is evolving. Sam shares how Pavilion helps go-to-market leaders accelerate their careers through clarity, education, and community, while redefining what it means to build organizations rooted in focus and long-term growth.

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How AWS Is Helping Enterprises Build, Scale, and Innovate With AI

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 17:38:52 GMT

Join Toptal’s Cloud Services Practice Lead, TJ Urglavitch, and Divyesh Shah, Head of Partner Solutions Architecture at AWS, as they explore how AWS is shaping the future of cloud and AI through partnership and innovation. Divyesh shares how AWS empowers its partner ecosystem to deliver measurable impact, integrate responsible AI, and enable enterprises to build secure, scalable, and trusted solutions.

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Turning Personalization Into Performance: Lessons From Movable Ink

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 23:39:55 GMT

Join Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, and Movable Ink’s VP of Growth Marketing, Justin Keller, as they discuss how AI and creative automation are reshaping personalization. Justin shares how Movable Ink helps brands transform data into meaningful, one-to-one experiences, combining technology, creativity, and strategy to deepen customer engagement and drive growth.

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AI and the Future of B2B Marketing: Insights From Chili Piper’s Co-founder

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 02:05:33 GMT

In this episode of the Executive Guidance podcast, Toptal’s Jeff Gangemi sits down with Chili Piper Co-founder and Co-CEO, Alina Vandenberghe. Alina shares her journey from engineering and sales into entrepreneurship, and how she built Chili Piper into a global company redefining B2B growth. They explore how AI agents are transforming top-of-funnel marketing, and what it really takes to lead with authenticity in a remote-first world.

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Personalization at Scale: How AI Will Rewrite the Marketing Playbook

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 20:51:00 GMT

Join Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, and Jon Miller, co-founder of Marketo and CEO and co-founder of a stealth AI startup, as they explore how AI will reshape B2B marketing. Jon shares why the old playbook of gated content and marketing-qualified leads is losing effectiveness, how personalization remains marketing’s north star, and why AI is the platform shift that will unlock the next generation of martech.

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Cloud, AI, and the Future of Public Safety: Insights From CentralSquare’s CPO

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:26:07 GMT

In this episode of the Executive Guidance podcast, CentralSquare Technologies CPO Brian Fugere sits down with Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, to share how his team is bringing modern technology to one of the world’s most critical sectors: government operations. Brian discusses product strategy for always-on public safety systems, the role of AI in automating field reports and inspections, and why combining UX discipline with deep domain knowledge is key to success in govtech.

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Aligning Global Marketing Strategy Around the Customer: Insights from MetLife

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 15:52:45 GMT

In this episode of the Executive Guidance podcast, MetLife’s SVP and CMO of Regional and Institutional Marketing, Global Customer Insights, Koley Corte joins Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi to explore how she leads one of the most complex marketing portfolios in global financial services. Koley shares how customer insight drives her strategy, how she balances depth and scale across markets, and why real leadership means knowing both your people and your numbers.

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How to Lead Brand Reinvention and Build High-impact Teams: Lessons From Avid’s CMO

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 17:14:32 GMT

In this episode of the Executive Guidance podcast, Avid CMO Angela Stelle sits down with Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, to share how she’s helping a legendary brand evolve for a new generation. Angela reflects on the leadership lessons learned from years of cross-functional experience and explains how building the right team, driving brand reinvention, and showing up with confidence and humility are key to lasting impact.

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AI and the Future of Media Strategy: Insights From Publicis

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 22:34:41 GMT

Join Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, and Publicis Media AI Strategy Lead, Jason Smith, as they explore how AI is transforming media strategy. Jason shares insights on the role of AI in audience segmentation, creative testing, and campaign optimization, while emphasizing the importance of responsible AI governance.

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AI and the Next Evolution of Commerce Content: Insights From Forbes

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 21:32:23 GMT

Join Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, and Emily Jackson, SVP of eCommerce at Forbes, as they discuss the evolution of commerce content, the role of AI and search in product discovery, and how publishers can balance trust with monetization in the digital age.

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Building an AI-ready Culture: Lessons From Ricoh’s Digital Transformation

Thu, 15 May 2025 14:38:50 GMT

Join Toptal’s Cloud Services Practice Lead, TJ Urglavitch, and Ricoh’s Vice President of Portfolio Software Solution Development, Ashok Shenoy, as they discuss how Ricoh is successfully implementing AI by focusing on people and processes. Ashok shares how Ricoh built an AI-ready culture, integrated human oversight, and ensured data governance for long-term success.

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Rethinking B2B Marketing: The Power of Brand in Long-Term Growth

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 16:59:51 GMT

Join Evidenza co-founder and former global head of development of The B2B Institute at LinkedIn, Peter Weinberg, for an insightful conversation on the future of B2B marketing. In this episode of Executive Guidance, hosted by Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, Peter shares insights on the balance between brand and performance marketing and why distinctiveness—not just differentiation—is key to long-term success. Discover how B2B marketers can break free from short-term thinking and drive sustainable growth.

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Insights on Building Content-Driven, Agile Marketing Teams at Airbnb, Salesforce, and Logitech

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 22:55:33 GMT

Join Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, and Logitech marketing leader, Hayley Nelson, as they discuss the evolution of content marketing. Hayley shares how she built high-performing content teams at Salesforce, Airbnb, and Logitech, applying agile methodologies, newsroom principles, and deep customer insights to create compelling brand stories that build trust and drive engagement.

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Reinventing Gifting: Inside Edible’s eCommerce Transformation

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:38:08 GMT

Join Edible’s VP of eCommerce, Erica Randerson, for an insightful conversation on blending legacy with innovation. In this episode of Executive Guidance, hosted by Toptal’s Growth and Digital Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, Erica shares insights on Edible’s transformation, from expanding eCommerce capabilities to launching new brands like freshfruit.com. Discover how Erica leverages data, AI, and franchise agility to redefine the gifting experience and position Edible for its next 25 years.

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Cybersecurity in Digital Transformation: Insights from Inside Google Cloud

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 20:15:20 GMT

Join Google Cloud’s M.K. Palmore, a Director of the Office of the CISO, for an insightful discussion on building trust and agility in cybersecurity. In this episode of the Executive Guidance podcast, Toptal’s Information Security Practice Lead, Michael Figueroa, invites M.K. to discuss his career in national security and the private sector, covering strategies to foster resilient digital transformations, enable workforces, and scale security solutions for businesses of all sizes.

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Cybersecurity Insights: Proactive Thinking, Ad Platform Safety, and More

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 19:29:23 GMT

Join Yahoo’s CISO, Sean Zadig, for a deep dive into how proactive cybersecurity leadership fortifies global advertising platforms. In this episode of our Executive Guidance podcast, hosted by Toptal’s Information Security Practice Lead, Michael Figueroa, Sean shares insights from his federal cybercrime investigations and explains how thinking like an attacker drives effective security strategies that protect millions of users worldwide.

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Marketing Spotlight: Building Brands With Product-led Storytelling

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 22:44:04 GMT

Join Yahoo Mail’s VP of Product, Kyle Miller, for a conversation about how bold product innovation can drive brand transformation. In this episode of our Executive Guidance podcast hosted by Toptal’s Growth Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, Kyle shares insights on leveraging product-led storytelling to reshape brands and create meaningful customer experiences.

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B2B Marketing: Keys to Innovation and Growth in B2B Saas

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 19:31:19 GMT

Join Toptal’s Growth Marketing Practice Lead, Jeff Gangemi, and Writer’s Vice President of Demand Generation & Growth, Andrew Racine, in an insightful chat about driving innovation and growth in B2B SaaS marketing. Tune in as they discuss current challenges and opportunities, exploring topics such as the role of leadership in brand building, demand generation versus demand creation, and the importance of building communities in B2B SaaS.

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AI and Cybersecurity: Challenges and Opportunities

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 22:13:40 GMT

Join Toptal’s Information Security Practice Lead, Michael Figueroa, and Intel’s Federal CTO and Senior Principal Engineer, Steve Orrin, in an engaging and insightful discussion about leveraging AI in a new era of cybersecurity. They explore AI's latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in enhancing security measures, preventing cyber threats, and ensuring national security. Tune in to hear these experts discuss strategies for modernizing technology infrastructures and gain valuable insights about the importance of balancing legacy systems with emerging technologies, in both the private and public sector.

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