What to Look for in Senior Leaders with Jon & Jax Bari

Intro: Welcome to the Daily Bolster. Each day we welcome transformational executives to share their real- world experiences and practical advice about scaling yourself, your team, and your business.

Matt Blumberg: Welcome to The Daily Bolster. I'm Matt Blumberg, co- founder, and CEO of Bolster. And I'm here today with Jon and Jax Bari. Jax is a fifth grader at the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia. He is a co- founder of the Celiac Journey and a national advocate for Celiac disease. And far and away our youngest guest ever here on The Daily Bolster. Jon has over three decades of professional experience in the marketing and technology industries, which is where he and I first met a long time ago. And Jon and Jax, I'm so happy to have you here today.

Jax Bari: Thank you so much for having us, Matt.

Jon Bari: We're so thrilled to be here.

Matt Blumberg: Yeah. So you guys have had a really amazing journey building a national non- profit, and I wanted to talk to you today about interviewing. So everyone who listens to The Daily Bolster, whether it's a CEO, a board member, a CXO, does a lot of recruiting and interviewing of senior people, whether they're bringing them on board as a board member, an advisor, a part- time executive, a full- time executive. So my question to you today, running a national non- profit is what are the top three things you look for when you are bringing on board a new senior person?

Jon Bari: It's a great question because oftentimes we're asked by people, what can we do to help you? And they might see Jax on World News Tonight with David Muir or they might see or read about some of our other actions with the FDA and asking for a citizen petition. And we often stop and think, okay, well there are three things. One is whether they're a change maker. Two is what's the generosity of time factor look like? And three, what subject matter expertise can they bring? And I'll give you some examples. So we look for people who are willing to challenge conventional thought. And in our world of Celiac Journey, is a gluten- free diet all that's needed or is that all that's ever been available? Is voluntary labeling of gluten, all that's needed or all that's ever been available? And that's really a paradigm that we work with in trying to push the FDA forward. And we look for others who are willing to do that. And second, we look for those who not just could donate to certain celiac causes or research areas that we're passionate about, but really those who are willing to give their time to something like this. This is truly a labor of love. We're an involuntary club as it is, but one that we do for Jax and one that we do for many millions, 3. 3 million Americans with Celiac. And the third really is who can be a subject matter expert for this? I often say I should have paid more attention in science class and not so much as much in business. But really we look for those experts in science and medicine and regulatory affairs, legal and the like, who can help push the needle forward. And Jax can talk to you a little bit about one such person, but one who's near and dear to our hearts and our mission is Dr. Virginia Stallings, who is a pediatric nutritionist at Children's Hospital Philadelphia, and really one of the world's foremost experts on food allergens. And Jax, why don't you tell him a little bit about Dr. Stallings?

Jax Bari: So she wrote a report saying something about all or most of the food allergies, but leaving out gluten. And then my dad wrote to her and she said that the FDA told her not to include it because it's not going to cause anaphylaxis. And she's been very helpful in our meetings after that. And yeah.

Jon Bari: And just to be clear, her report that the FDA paid for back in 2016 from the National Academies of Science, the statement of tasks precluded her from studying celiac disease and gluten. And she said, " It's not for any reason that I didn't think it was important, but the funder, the FDA said, let's not look at this." But she's an example of a subject matter expert who really speaks truth to power and comes at it from a physician standpoint and someone who really cares about children and proper nutrition.

Matt Blumberg: Yeah. Well, and as you said, you're not a scientist and having someone on board as a director or an advisor or anything like that, that has that depth of domain expertise, that is no different than when we're doing a board search for a tech company and the CEO is talking about needing the voice of the customer or needing an expert whose experience goes well beyond that of the management team. So your experience definitely resonates.

Jon Bari: Yeah, it is certainly so, and I think it's a combination because we have that authentic storytelling with kids sharing the pediatric perspective, and then adults in the room who really try and say, " Well, wait a sec, we know how regulation's done here. We know how food manufacturing's done here." And we kind of put them all together and it seems to dovetail quite well with what our strategy and our goals are, and we continue to look for those people who are generous with their time.

Matt Blumberg: So I mean, those are great three things to take away. Generous of time, again, whether it's for- profit or nonprofit, if you're bringing someone on board as an advisor or director, they have to have the time to put in to do the job right. Change makers, most of the people who watch The Daily Bolster are building some kind of disruptive company in one way or another, more for- profit than not- for- profit, but still trying to create change in the world. So having people where that's kind of the critical experience that you're looking for makes a lot of sense. And then the depth of domain expertise. So three great tips on things to look for in senior people before you bring them on board. Jon and Jax Bari from The Celiac Journey, thank you so much for joining me.

Jax Bari: Thank you so much for having us.

Jon Bari: It's been our pleasure, Matt. We love your show.

Matt Blumberg: Thanks.