When the Bausch Lomb CEO steps down announcement landed on October 12, it read like a legal filing with the feeling redacted. Brent Saunders, the company’s chief executive since 2023, was out. The board described the departure as a “mutual agreement.” It offered no reason. Chairman Thomas Appio took over as interim CEO, effective immediately.

The facts are thin, and yet that is the point. On October 12, 2026, Bausch + Lomb announced that Saunders had stepped down as CEO. The board characterized the move as a mutual agreement. No reason was disclosed. In the same announcement, the company named Appio, its chairman, as interim CEO with immediate effect.

In addition, buried in that same announcement was a very different kind of news. Both Bausch + Lomb and its parent, Bausch Health, said they expect to raise their full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA forecasts on preliminary third-quarter results. Updated guidance arrives October 28. Bausch + Lomb’s current full-year adjusted EBITDA forecast sits between $1.025 billion and $1.075 billion. Appio, for context, has been Bausch Health’s CEO since 2022. As a result, he now leads both companies. Reuters reported the departure on October 12.

Who Brent Saunders Is, and Why This Exit Matters

Saunders is not a placeholder executive. Consequently, the silence around his exit is harder to shrug off. He ran Bausch + Lomb once before, from 2010 to 2013, then returned to the top job in 2023. In between, he built one of the most recognizable CEO track records in pharma. He led Allergan until its $63 billion sale to AbbVie in 2020. Boards do not usually wave goodbye to operators with that resume without saying why. That they did is the story.

The Timing Is the Story

Companies do not raise earnings forecasts and lose their chief executive on the same day by coincidence. One of those announcements says everything is fine. The other says the CEO is gone. Put them in the same press release. Consequently, investors are left to do the math themselves.

Still, Citi noticed. The bank described the timing of the departure as “seems sudden,” which in analyst language is about as close to raising an eyebrow as it gets.

Meanwhile, this is not the first CEO exit this year to arrive with more questions than answers. When MongoDB’s CEO walked out the door the day before investor day, the market had to fill in the blanks too.

The Take: “Mutual Agreement” Is Corporate Code

First, let us translate the phrase. “Mutual agreement” is what boards say when they have agreed on the wording and nothing else. It tells you the departure was negotiated, the lawyers were involved, and both sides would prefer you stop asking questions.

That might feel like diplomacy. In fact, it is not. It is a rumor machine. In the absence of a reason, every possible reason rushes in to fill the gap: strategy fights, boardroom politics, a better offer elsewhere, a worse story underneath. A vague announcement does not protect the company from speculation. Instead, it guarantees it. Strip away the phrasing and the Bausch Lomb CEO steps down announcement is a case study in how not to handle a leadership transition. For more on how leaders communicate under pressure, see our Leadership & Management hub.

To Be Fair to Boards

However, vagueness is not always evasion. Boards have real constraints: personnel privacy, ongoing negotiations, severance terms that legally limit what can be said. Sometimes saying less is the responsible choice.

Nevertheless, a listed company is not a private club. Shareholders own the business. When the CEO leaves without explanation on the same day guidance goes up, “mutual agreement” is not an answer. It is a placeholder for one. Investors can handle bad news. What they cannot price is a mystery. We have seen the pattern before: when LinkedIn’s CEO exited amid Microsoft’s return-to-office push, the framing of the departure became the story.

What Founders Should Do

Here is the practical takeaway. Indeed, it applies whether you run a public company or a twelve-person startup: write the exit playbook before you need it.

Therefore, decide now, while nobody is leaving, what your company will say when a senior leader departs. Who speaks. What the statement covers. How much you will disclose and when. The template takes an hour to write on a calm Tuesday. It is nearly impossible to write well in the 48 hours after a chief executive resigns.

Finally, the rule is simple: say what you can, say it once, and say it in plain language. “Mutual agreement” says nothing the first time. It says less every time you repeat it.

What to Watch Next

The Bausch Lomb CEO steps down story gets its next chapter on October 28. That is when Bausch + Lomb reports and updates its full-year guidance. The earnings call will be the first time Appio faces analysts as interim CEO. Expect the first question to be about Saunders. The answer, however, will be careful. The gap between those two things is where this story lives.

The post Bausch + Lomb’s CEO Is Out, Nobody Will Say Why, and Forecasts Just Went Up appeared first on CEO Medium.

The Job Nobody Notices Until It Breaks

Carolyn Hayden-Garner has spent more than thirty-five years of her life in payroll leadership and is also leading Stock & Equity Compensation on a global scale. Along the way, she has landed on something most org charts don’t show. The strongest organizations aren’t held together by what people can point to, such as the software, the policy, or the vendor contract. They’re held together by what nobody sees at all: the trust between departments, the relationships built before anyone needed them, the culture that lets someone say “I made a mistake” without immediately bracing for the fallout.

Those are called the invisible systems. And they only become visible once pressure shows up and something has to hold.

Payroll Isn’t Math. It’s a Promise.

When you ask most people what payroll does, they say something about hours and paychecks. Instead, Carolyn Hayden-Garner is an avid believer in something else: every pay cycle, an employee makes a quiet decision about the company they work for. Will it do what it said it would do? Nobody says that out loud, of course. But it’s there, under every direct deposit the company makes.

That is why a payroll mistake never lands as a technical error to the person it happens to. It lands as “something went wrong with my life” (think uncleared rent or a bill that’s due) before the correction is issued. Carolyn Hayden-Garner emphasizes: Get the numbers right, and you’ll decide how much trust that employee brings to work the next morning.

The Midnight Hero Isn’t Who You Think

Every payroll team has a midnight hero, the person who stays until midnight every cycle to make sure nothing slips. Leaders love to praise that person. But why does the job require such a person? If your process only holds together because one of your most experienced employees is willing to absorb the strain, that is not dedication. That’s a system held up by one person’s back.

Here’s a test she’d put to any team, payroll or otherwise. If your three strongest people walked out tomorrow, would the operation still run? If your answer is negative, you have a structure that was set to not survive without there being specific people propping it up.

Accountability Isn’t Punishment. It’s Ownership.

Early on in Carolyn Hayden-Garner’s career, she watched one of her strongest employees make a huge, costly mistake. Now, the instinct in the majority of workplaces is to make an example out of it, so everyone can get the message. But she went a different way.

Her solution: name the problem the mistake created, fix the process that led to it, and protect the employee’s standing long enough for the lesson to stick.

This difference in strategy may seem subtle at first, but Carolyn Hayden-Garner believes that when you punish people hard enough, they stop telling you when something’s wrong. Which means you don’t have fewer problems; you just find out about them later when it’s out of your hands. Her leadership rests on the idea that people don’t get stronger from being reminded they failed. They get stronger when you show them how to come back from it.

Stop Mentoring. Start Sponsoring.

There’s a big difference between telling someone what you know and opening a door they can’t reach on their own. Carolyn Hayden-Garner has spent most of her career doing the second one. Especially for women coming up in payroll leadership, she’s noticed the same pattern over and over. A qualified woman looks at an opportunity, decides she’s only ready for eighty percent of it, and waits. Someone else looks at the same opportunity, decides they’ll figure out the rest, and takes it.

Her fix isn’t a pep talk about confidence and self-trust. It’s sponsorship, saying someone’s name in a room they’re not in yet, recommending them before they ask. Leaders who wait for people to feel ready are usually just watching someone else’s hand go up first.

Carolyn Hayden-Garner’s Vision for Organizations That Outlast Their Leaders

Pressure isn’t going to go anywhere. Another deadline, another vendor issue, another executive who wants answers before you have them. So the goal shouldn’t be building a team that survives a crisis, but building one that never has to depend on the crisis going away in the first place.

Carolyn Hayden-Garner leaves leaders with three queries worth writing down. Firstly, what’s invisible in your organization that needs to become visible? Secondly, where is trust sitting on a person instead of a system? And thirdly, who’s the next leader you’re actually developing, not just supervising?

Answering these questions honestly will reveal something most org charts don’t: whether your organization is standing on structure or standing on you.

Related reading: Small Changes, Big Impacts: The Everyday Habits That Quietly Decide How Productive You Are at Work, and explore more in our Leadership & Management hub.

Connect with Carolyn Hayden-Garner on LinkedIn for insights on payroll leadership, organizational trust, and building teams that thrive under pressure.

Carolyn Hayden-Garner, a global executive, professional coach, and advisor, has a question she likes to ask a room full of leaders. It’s not “What’s your process?” She asks them when everything goes wrong at once, when all your systems are down, vendors don’t reply, and the deadline’s tomorrow, what’s actually holding your organization up? If their answer is “me,” she’ll tell them that’s not a compliment. That is a problem.

Carolyn Hayden-Garner, a global executive, professional coach, and advisor, has a question she likes to ask a room full of leaders. It’s not “What’s your process?” She asks them when everything goes wrong at once, when all your systems are down, vendors don’t reply, and the deadline’s tomorrow, what’s actually holding your organization up? If their answer is “me,” she’ll tell them that’s not a compliment. That is a problem.

The Job Nobody Notices Until It Breaks

Carolyn Hayden-Garner has spent more than thirty-five years of her life in payroll leadership and is also leading Stock & Equity Compensation on a global scale. Along the way, she has landed on something most org charts don’t show. The strongest organizations aren’t held together by what people can point to, such as the software, the policy, or the vendor contract. They’re held together by what nobody sees at all: the trust between departments, the relationships built before anyone needed them, the culture that lets someone say “I made a mistake” without immediately bracing for the fallout.

Carolyn Hayden-Garner has spent more than thirty-five years of her life in payroll leadership and is also leading Stock & Equity Compensation on a global scale. Along the way, she has landed on something most org charts don’t show. The strongest organizations aren’t held together by what people can point to, such as the software, the policy, or the vendor contract. They’re held together by what nobody sees at all: the trust between departments, the relationships built before anyone needed them, the culture that lets someone say “I made a mistake” without immediately bracing for the fallout.

Those are called the invisible systems. And they only become visible once pressure shows up and something has to hold.

Payroll Isn’t Math. It’s a Promise.

When you ask most people what payroll does, they say something about hours and paychecks. Instead, Carolyn Hayden-Garner is an avid believer in something else: every pay cycle, an employee makes a quiet decision about the company they work for. Will it do what it said it would do? Nobody says that out loud, of course. But it’s there, under every direct deposit the company makes.

When you ask most people what payroll does, they say something about hours and paychecks. Instead, Carolyn Hayden-Garner is an avid believer in something else: every pay cycle, an employee makes a quiet decision about the company they work for. Will it do what it said it would do? Nobody says that out loud, of course. But it’s there, under every direct deposit the company makes.

That is why a payroll mistake never lands as a technical error to the person it happens to. It lands as “something went wrong with my life” (think uncleared rent or a bill that’s due) before the correction is issued. Carolyn Hayden-Garner emphasizes: Get the numbers right, and you’ll decide how much trust that employee brings to work the next morning.

That is why a payroll mistake never lands as a technical error to the person it happens to. It lands as “something went wrong with my life” (think uncleared rent or a bill that’s due) before the correction is issued. Carolyn Hayden-Garner emphasizes: Get the numbers right, and you’ll decide how much trust that employee brings to work the next morning.

The Midnight Hero Isn’t Who You Think

Every payroll team has a midnight hero, the person who stays until midnight every cycle to make sure nothing slips. Leaders love to praise that person. But why does the job require such a person? If your process only holds together because one of your most experienced employees is willing to absorb the strain, that is not dedication. That’s a system held up by one person’s back.

Every payroll team has a midnight hero, the person who stays until midnight every cycle to make sure nothing slips. Leaders love to praise that person. But why does the job require such a person? If your process only holds together because one of your most experienced employees is willing to absorb the strain, that is not dedication. That’s a system held up by one person’s back.

Here’s a test she’d put to any team, payroll or otherwise. If your three strongest people walked out tomorrow, would the operation still run? If your answer is negative, you have a structure that was set to not survive without there being specific people propping it up.

Here’s a test she’d put to any team, payroll or otherwise. If your three strongest people walked out tomorrow, would the operation still run? If your answer is negative, you have a structure that was set to not survive without there being specific people propping it up.

Accountability Isn’t Punishment. It’s Ownership.

Early on in Carolyn Hayden-Garner’s career, she watched one of her strongest employees make a huge, costly mistake. Now, the instinct in the majority of workplaces is to make an example out of it, so everyone can get the message. But she went a different way.

Early on in Carolyn Hayden-Garner’s career, she watched one of her strongest employees make a huge, costly mistake. Now, the instinct in the majority of workplaces is to make an example out of it, so everyone can get the message. But she went a different way.

Her solution: name the problem the mistake created, fix the process that led to it, and protect the employee’s standing long enough for the lesson to stick.

This difference in strategy may seem subtle at first, but Carolyn Hayden-Garner believes that when you punish people hard enough, they stop telling you when something’s wrong. Which means you don’t have fewer problems; you just find out about them later when it’s out of your hands. Her leadership rests on the idea that people don’t get stronger from being reminded they failed. They get stronger when you show them how to come back from it.

This difference in strategy may seem subtle at first, but Carolyn Hayden-Garner believes that when you punish people hard enough, they stop telling you when something’s wrong. Which means you don’t have fewer problems; you just find out about them later when it’s out of your hands. Her leadership rests on the idea that people don’t get stronger from being reminded they failed. They get stronger when you show them how to come back from it.

Stop Mentoring. Start Sponsoring.

There’s a big difference between telling someone what you know and opening a door they can’t reach on their own. Carolyn Hayden-Garner has spent most of her career doing the second one. Especially for women coming up in payroll leadership, she’s noticed the same pattern over and over. A qualified woman looks at an opportunity, decides she’s only ready for eighty percent of it, and waits. Someone else looks at the same opportunity, decides they’ll figure out the rest, and takes it.

There’s a big difference between telling someone what you know and opening a door they can’t reach on their own. Carolyn Hayden-Garner has spent most of her career doing the second one. Especially for women coming up in payroll leadership, she’s noticed the same pattern over and over. A qualified woman looks at an opportunity, decides she’s only ready for eighty percent of it, and waits. Someone else looks at the same opportunity, decides they’ll figure out the rest, and takes it.

Her fix isn’t a pep talk about confidence and self-trust. It’s sponsorship, saying someone’s name in a room they’re not in yet, recommending them before they ask. Leaders who wait for people to feel ready are usually just watching someone else’s hand go up first.

Her fix isn’t a pep talk about confidence and self-trust. It’s sponsorship, saying someone’s name in a room they’re not in yet, recommending them before they ask. Leaders who wait for people to feel ready are usually just watching someone else’s hand go up first.

Carolyn Hayden-Garner’s Vision for Organizations That Outlast Their Leaders

Pressure isn’t going to go anywhere. Another deadline, another vendor issue, another executive who wants answers before you have them. So the goal shouldn’t be building a team that survives a crisis, but building one that never has to depend on the crisis going away in the first place.

Pressure isn’t going to go anywhere. Another deadline, another vendor issue, another executive who wants answers before you have them. So the goal shouldn’t be building a team that survives a crisis, but building one that never has to depend on the crisis going away in the first place.

Carolyn Hayden-Garner leaves leaders with three queries worth writing down. Firstly, what’s invisible in your organization that needs to become visible? Secondly, where is trust sitting on a person instead of a system? And thirdly, who’s the next leader you’re actually developing, not just supervising?

Carolyn Hayden-Garner leaves leaders with three queries worth writing down. Firstly, what’s invisible in your organization that needs to become visible? Secondly, where is trust sitting on a person instead of a system? And thirdly, who’s the next leader you’re actually developing, not just supervising?

Answering these questions honestly will reveal something most org charts don’t: whether your organization is standing on structure or standing on you.

Related reading: Small Changes, Big Impacts: The Everyday Habits That Quietly Decide How Productive You Are at Work, and explore more in our Leadership & Management hub.

Related reading: Small Changes, Big Impacts: The Everyday Habits That Quietly Decide How Productive You Are at Work, and explore more in our Leadership & Management hub.

Connect with Carolyn Hayden-Garner on LinkedIn for insights on payroll leadership, organizational trust, and building teams that thrive under pressure.

Connect with Carolyn Hayden-Garner on LinkedIn for insights on payroll leadership, organizational trust, and building teams that thrive under pressure.

The post Carolyn Hayden-Garner and The Invisible Systems That Hold Organizations Together appeared first on CEO Medium.

“I know what it would take for me to lead the next phase of this work well: being in Redmond full time, every day. But my life and my family’s life are here in the Bay Area,” Roslansky wrote in his farewell post on LinkedIn. “I thought about this for a long time. It’s the right call.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella praised him in a Thursday memo to staff, writing that “Ryan leaves the organization in a strong position,” according to reports from Fast Company and Stocktwits.

The record speaks for itself

Roslansky spent nearly 18 years at LinkedIn and Microsoft. He became LinkedIn’s CEO in 2020 and more than doubled the network’s users on his watch. Last year his role grew again when he took charge of Microsoft’s Office software group and co-led the M365 and Copilot AI efforts. Dan Shapero, the company’s chief operating officer, will take over at LinkedIn.

This is not the resume of a man who was failing. Which is exactly why the reason for his exit matters.

LinkedIn CEO leaves Microsoft in a year of leadership exits

Roslansky’s exit caps a year of churn at the top of Microsoft. The company has already lost gaming chief Phil Spencer and Rajesh Jha, who led the Experiences and Devices group. Longtime security chief Charlie Bell stepped back from leadership into a non-leadership role earlier this year. Each exit had its own story. Together, they describe a company in the middle of a major shakeup, where the cost of staying keeps rising at the top. For more on how top leaders handle hard calls, see our Leadership & Management hub.

The take: return to office is the most silent layoff tool ever built

Here is the part nobody at Microsoft will say out loud. Return-to-office mandates have become the simplest layoff tool ever invented. No exit packages, no headlines, no morale-killing all-hands. You make the terms harsh enough that the best people fire themselves.

To be clear, that is one reading, not a fact. By every report, Roslansky made his own call, and Nadella’s praise reads like an honest sendoff, not a shove. But step back and look at how it works. When the price of a job becomes moving your family, the people who leave first are the ones with options. That is not a layoff. It functions like one. And it doubles as a loyalty test: those who comply stay, and those who can afford to walk, walk.

Microsoft is not the only company finding quieter ways to shrink headcount. Sam Altman recently called out CEOs for blaming AI for layoffs they had planned anyway, a practice he labeled “AI washing.” The RTO version is subtler. The spreadsheet never shows a headcount cut. The org chart just gets quieter at the top.

If a mandate can push out a CEO with a 1.3-billion-user record, it can push out anyone.

Founders: your office policy is your pay policy

There is a lesson here for founders who like to copy Big Tech playbooks. Location freedom is pay. A five-day office mandate is a pay cut for everyone whose life does not fit inside your zip code, and the cut lands hardest on the people with the most options. Your best people always have another offer.

Roslansky is not a victim of this policy. He was not fired. Frame it plainly: a man with options did the math and chose his family. But his exit previews the math behind every mandate. The question was never whether some people would leave. It is who leaves first.

What to do instead

Start by being honest about which roles truly need in-person work, and treat a required move like the life event it is. If being together is truly worth it, make the office worth the commute: real teamwork, not badge swipes. And if the quiet goal of a mandate is to shrink the workforce, say so, because your best people will read the policy correctly even if you never say the words. Do not copy Big Tech office rules unless you are also prepared to offer Big Tech pay.

The bottom line

The headline writes itself: a CEO chose his family over Redmond. The harder question belongs to every company still drafting its own mandate. Every office policy is a hiring policy and a retention policy wearing a different costume. Microsoft just learned what happens when the bill lands on someone who can afford to say no. Decide what your mandates are worth before your best people do the math for you.

The post Microsoft’s Return to Office Push Just Cost It a CEO appeared first on CEO Medium.

Who Greg Lui and Earthmade Are

Lui, also known as Yiu Kong Lui, founded Earthmade Computer in 2021, a closely held technology company working in database colocation and processor procurement. Before tech, he ran a Sichuan hot-pot restaurant famous for its seriously spicy food. It is the classic founder reinvention story: an outsider who hustled his way into one of the hottest markets on earth.

Prosecutors say that between 2023 and 2024, Earthmade became something else entirely: the purchasing engine for an alleged scheme to move restricted American computing power to China without the licenses U.S. law requires.

The Alleged Transshipment Playbook

According to the federal indictment unsealed October 1, Lui and his alleged co-conspirators bought high-end servers containing advanced GPUs, including Nvidia processors, the same class of hardware at the center of the industry’s fight over AI’s future. They shipped them to countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, where U.S. law required no export license, prosecutors say. From there, they allegedly re-exported the servers to China.

The indictment alleges they gave U.S. manufacturers false documentation to misrepresent end users, used freight forwarding companies to move the goods, and even staged dummy servers to mislead inspectors, according to the Justice Department.

The money trail prosecutors cite is striking. From January to October 2024, Earthmade allegedly received more than $176 million from two Malaysia-based shipment companies as part of the scheme.

The Emails Prosecutors Say Matter Most

Cases like this turn on paper, and prosecutors say Lui’s own emails are central. In January 2024, Lui allegedly emailed a conspirator that a Malaysian transshipment company wanted to buy 70 servers with export-restricted GPUs. Attached, prosecutors say, was an export compliance form showing the Malaysian company knew U.S. export laws restricted the sale, transshipment or export of those servers.

Later that month, Lui allegedly submitted a purchase order to a U.S. manufacturer for 27 of those servers for about $7.6 million, then shipped them from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur. The packing list itself identified the GPUs as export-controlled and stated that shipping them to China required a license. In March 2024, a co-conspirator allegedly emailed a Malaysian government official confirming they had transshipped the 27 servers to a China-based buyer.

Lui faces three federal charges: conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, smuggling, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted on all counts, the Justice Department says he faces a combined statutory maximum of 50 years in federal prison: 20 years on the conspiracy count, 20 on money laundering, and 10 on smuggling. An indictment is only an allegation, and the law presumes Lui innocent until proven guilty.

What the Greg Lui Chip Smuggling Arrest Means for Founders

The Greg Lui chip smuggling arrest is not really a story about chips. It is a story about what happens when a CEO treats export law like paperwork. The government did not only go after a company. It charged a person, and prosecutors are reaching for a half-century of prison time.

In AI hardware, your compliance posture is your valuation. One indictment can erase enterprise value overnight, frighten off serious investors, and turn your inbox into a prosecution exhibit. The founders who survive the gold rush will be the ones who treat every intermediary, every end-user certificate and every shipment as if a prosecutor is reading over their shoulder. Because one might be. Even Nvidia’s Jensen Huang has argued AI firms should get no regulatory waivers: the industry’s biggest winner is telling you the rules are the rules.

A Founder Playbook for Export Compliance

You do not need a legal department to start. You need discipline:

• Vet every intermediary. Know who your distributors and freight forwarders really serve. If a new overseas customer shows up with large orders and vague end users, slow down.
• Demand end-user certificates in writing. Get signed, specific statements of who will use the product and where. File them where you can find them. A compliance form you cannot produce is a compliance form you do not have.
• Bring in outside export counsel before you scale. Not after the first big international order lands. A few hours of counsel early costs a fraction of a federal defense.
• Assume your emails will be read aloud in court. If you would not want a prosecutor quoting a message about transshipment, do not write it. And do not do the deal.

The Gold Rush Lesson

The AI gold rush rewards speed, but it punishes shortcuts brutally. Lui allegedly built a fast-growing hardware business on one of the most valuable supply chains in the world, and now he is fighting for his freedom. Remember that prosecutors have charged him, but no court has convicted him. But the lesson does not depend on the verdict: the fastest way to jail was never the technology. It was the shipping manifest.

For more on building companies that last, explore our Entrepreneurship & Startups hub.

The post Greg Lui Treated Export Law Like Paperwork. Now He Faces 50 Years. appeared first on CEO Medium.

The clash has a backstory. The Pentagon designated Anthropic a supply chain risk after Amodei refused to let Claude be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons, and a federal appeals court recently upheld that designation. The night before the White House lunch, on September 28, Amodei had a private dinner with Trump.

There is also history between the two men on regulation itself. An earlier proposal for a self-regulatory body backed by Anthropic, OpenAI and Google was abandoned after opposition from Huang, along with Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.

One caution: neither side has confirmed the Roosevelt Room exchange. The Journal’s account rests on unnamed sources, so it should be read as reported, not as confirmed dialogue.

What the Dario Amodei Jensen Huang White House AI Clash Really Means

Set the personalities aside and this is a leadership question: what does a chief executive owe the public when their product can do harm? Amodei’s answer is that warning about the risks is part of the job. Huang’s reported answer is that such warnings overstate the danger and invite regulation that slows progress.

There is business logic in Amodei’s candor. The chief executive who names the risks early gets to shape how the public understands them. Warn first, and you are never caught explaining later. Every founder building anything powerful has to decide which side of that line they stand on.

The tension will not resolve soon. Voluntary agreements like the one signed at the White House lunch leave the hardest safety decisions to the companies themselves. That arrangement only works while the people running those companies agree on what the risks are. The Roosevelt Room exchange suggests they do not.

Sources: Newsmax (citing the Wall Street Journal), International Business Times, TechFocus24, WUTV.

Read more on CEO Medium: Leadership & Management, Sam Altman Calls It ‘AI Washing’: The CEOs Blaming AI for Layoffs They Planned Anyway, Jensen Huang Says AI Firms Should Get No Regulatory Waivers, Should AI Replace the CEO Instead of Workers? The Math Says Maybe.

The post Jensen Huang Took on Dario Amodei at the White House. Here Is What the Fight Is Really About appeared first on CEO Medium.

How Workplace Productivity Habits Can Reshape Our Brains

Habits have the ability to completely change the way that our brains function, and we can use this to make positive changes in our lives. Habits drive much of our daily behavior, so realizing this gives us a way to shape and change small things that have a ripple effect. Our brains tend to choose the option they are used to because it requires less energy than deviating from it. With consistency and repetition over time, we can rewire our brains to choose the healthy option, which can lead to a healthier life in all aspects.

Physical and Emotional Health Matter

People build habits to improve their physical and mental well-being. When you feel good both mentally and physically, all aspects of your life tend to improve as well. You’ll experience more positive emotions, be better equipped to handle stress, and be more productive in your personal and professional life.

Experiencing physical pain can be a major barrier to productivity and overall contentment with life. When you spend each day contending with pain, especially back pain, it becomes more difficult to respond to stressors at work. As a result, your performance can suffer. Building habits that prioritize physical health has far-reaching consequences that can lighten the load from other aspects of life. When your body feels good, you’re far more likely to do good work.

Even if you’re physically healthy, it is still imperative to take care of your mental health. Many companies prioritize employee mental health, so look into the wellness programs your company might offer. Building good habits around mental health is vital to your satisfaction at work and your overall health. Communication is vital, both with coworkers and management, so you have the space and flexibility to monitor and prioritize your mental health.

Small, Easy-to-Implement Habits That Can Make a Difference

It’s easy to see how big changes can make a difference, but sometimes small changes have the biggest impact on your day-to-day life. By making small tweaks to your routine and mindset, you can create a domino effect that positively affects every aspect of your life. From mental and physical well-being to workplace productivity and stress reduction, these little changes can touch every part of your day.

Set Yourself Up for Success

Each night before work, set yourself up for success the next morning. No matter what line of work you’re in, the fewer decisions you make first thing in the day, the sharper your brain will be when it’s time to get to work. Figure out what you’re going to wear, what you’re going to have for breakfast and lunch, and have a rough idea of your schedule. Then, lay out your clothes, meal prep, and set your coffee pot to brew when your alarm goes off.

This keeps you from becoming inundated with choices the moment your day starts. It helps you stay sharp when work requires important judgments. It can also help you start the day on the right foot: prepared and organized rather than scrambling and behind.

Build in Breaks

It may seem counterintuitive, but taking breaks throughout your workday can greatly improve your productivity. When setting your schedule or planning for deadlines, block in specific time for breaks so you don’t burn out. Breaks away from screens are especially important if your job requires a lot of time in front of a computer or on the phone.

Your breaks should be productive in their own right. If you build in a ten-minute screen-time break, scrolling on your phone defeats the purpose. Instead, go for a walk, step outside for fresh air, or do some stretching. These choices support your physical health and give you the brain break you need to stay sharp.

Commit to Getting Started

Often, the largest barrier to productivity is simply getting started. It can be easy to put off a new project, even if you know it won’t be difficult. The best way around this hesitation is to enact a two-minute rule: if it will take less than two minutes to complete, do it immediately. By forcing yourself to get started, you can build momentum that makes it easier to transition to the next project. Our brains are like a ball at the top of a hill. It’s easier to stay still, but once you start moving, it becomes much easier to keep going.

Workspace Organization

Your workspace is one of the most important aspects of productivity. Take the time to set up a physical area that supports you and your needs. Remove anything that tempts you to resort to bad habits. Instead, support the positive changes you’re making. A comfortable chair, screens at the right height, and a space that fosters positive emotions are all vital to your productivity.

If your workspace is physically uncomfortable, it can cause a snowball effect. You may dread work because it causes pain, and that discomfort can bleed into every area of your day. Cater your workspace so that it’s a place you enjoy being, and your work will show it.

For more practical ideas, explore our guide to supporting employees during open enrollment and our roundup of small business ideas for 2026.

About the Author

Sherjan Husainie is the Founder of KIRO, the world’s most advanced chiropractic brand. He studied Aerospace Engineering at the University of Toronto and Financial Engineering at UCLA Anderson. Before founding KIRO, Sherjan worked at Google and was a Vice President in Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley. His mission is to make modern, accessible chiropractic care available to 100 million members globally.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherjan

The post Small Changes, Big Impacts: Four Small Habits That Can Improve Workplace Productivity appeared first on CEO Medium.

Since becoming CEO in the early 90’s, he has guided the company’s projects from its Vancouver base while also expanding interests into telecommunications, software, renewable energy, hospitality, and real estate investment management.

From Physics to Property Development

Terry Hui grew up in Hong Kong before moving to California as a teenager. There, he studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley, earning his degree in 1983, then completed a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Santa Clara University in 1985. Later that year, he moved to Vancouver.

He had originally planned to start a software business, but family property holdings brought him into real estate development, where he worked on projects including Vancouver’s Cambridge Gardens near Cambie Street and 10th Avenue.

Soon after Hui began his career in development there was a major transition for Vancouver. Li Ka-shing, a Hong Kong billionaire businessman, led a consortium  that acquired the city’s former Expo 86 lands in 1988, with Concord Pacific created to develop the property. The Hui family was part of the original consortium. After the company went public for a brief period, the Hui family took over ownership and made it private again in the early 2000’s.

Transforming Vancouver Through the Expo 86 Lands

The skyline-evolving assignment that has defined Terry Hui’s career is Concord Pacific Place along Vancouver’s False Creek.

Construction began in the early 1990s after Vancouver planners moved the proposal toward a connected urban community. Residential towers were built alongside parks, retail areas, community centre, childcare facilities, school sites, pedestrian routes, and waterfront road and service infrastructure.

Today, it contains more than 11,000 homes across eight completed neighbourhoods, with about three kilometres of seawall and extensive public parks and pathways.

The project changed Vancouver’s downtown geography on a scale rarely attempted by a private developer. Former Expo grounds became a permanent residential district with tens of thousands of residents and more than half of it is public realm. The planning approach behind the development has since attracted attention from planners worldwide studying high-density communities.

Bringing Concord Pacific Model to Toronto

Terry Hui took Concord Pacific’s large-scale development model to Toronto in the late 1990s. CityPlace, now a core downtown neighbourhood, was developed on former railway lands beside the CN Tower and Rogers Centre.

The 45-acre project is almost complete with approximately 30 residential towers, more than 18,000 residents, 120,000 square feet of retail space, an eight-acre park, schools, a library and a community centre.

Concord Pacific subsequently developed Concord Park Place in North York, expanding its Toronto presence beyond downtown.

After its successful expansion into Toronto, Hui further expanded the company through international markets, with development activities in Seattle and London UK. This move added Concord Pacific projects in two additional countries alongside its Canadian portfolio.

Continuing to Build Beyond Real Estate

As Concord Pacific’s real estate projects took off, Terry Hui also used the company as a base for ventures in technology and infrastructure.

He launched Novus Entertainment in 1996 to provide high-speed fibre-optic services to Concord Pacific communities and other multi-family properties. Hui expanded into software withMaximizer, a Vancouver CRM company.

Renewable energy became another major business. Concord’s energy operations under Concord Green Energy have included solar, wind, and hydroelectric projects across Canada with over 500 megawatts of renewables in their portfolio. The group has also developed renewable-energy projects with First Nations communities in Alberta.

Hui’s pursuit of technology and efficiency has found its way into Concord Pacific developments. The company was first to have fibre-connected communities, high-speed internet infrastructure, electric-vehicle charging facilities, and include water damage protection systems to mitigate water related incidents.

Recognition, Leadership, and Community Impact

In recognition of his work as CEO of Concord Pacific, Terry Hui received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and the Rix Award for Engaged Community Citizenship. He has also been recognized as a UN Global Citizens Laureate.

His public appointments have included the Business Advisory Council to APEC and the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council on Asia-Pacific. He also serves as a director of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and is a co-founder and board member of the Quantum Gravity Society.

His interests outside business include cycling, skiing, and competitive sailing, where he has also contributed support. In 2024, Concord Pacific provided lead sponsorship and assembled coaching and operations for Team Canada competing in the inaugural Women’s America’s Cup and the Youth America’s Cup in Barcelona.

Shaping Canadian Cities for More Than Three Decades

Terry Hui’s tenure has taken Concord Pacific from developing Concord Pacific Place to becoming a diversified group with operations and investments spanning several industries and countries.

While Terry Hui’s net worth is not publicly disclosed, his position as CEO of Concord Pacific places him at the helm of one of Canada’s most significant, privately held development companies.

The former Expo 86 property remains the clearest measure of his impact as a developer, as the land now serves as the most prominent part of Vancouver’s skyline. Under his leadership, Concord Pacific turned a temporary exhibition site into a massive permanent community on False Creek. Additionally, the company’s Toronto projects placed thousands of homes on former railway land beside one of Canada’s most recognizable landmarks. Beyond towers, Concord is also the largest private provider of park land and public art in Canada.

More than 30 years into his career, Hui continues to shape Canadian cities through the communities, infrastructure, and investments he builds across the country.

The post Terry Hui: The CEO Who Built Concord Pacific Into an Urban Development Powerhouse appeared first on CEO Medium.

Ingrid Heyerdahl has worked around senior executives in many cities. She sees a clear problem: many powerful men run their bodies into the ground. 

And no one is talking about it. 

Not their board. Not their trainer. And certainly not their doctor, who writes another prescription for sleeping pills and calls it normal. 

But Heyerdahl says it without apology: power, authority, and longevity all begin with the body. When that foundation slips, everything built on top of it becomes harder to sustain. For the CEOs, founders, and investors operating between Europe and Asia, that directness is exactly what they came looking for. 

The Body as a Blind Spot

“The men I work with do not need to be told they have a problem,” she says. “They already know. What they need is someone who understands their environment well enough to solve it without moralising, without shaming, and without making them feel like they are being managed.” 

Heyerdahl’s credibility with this audience is not incidental. She grew up between Norway and Southeast Asia. She also lived in Australia, Qatar, France, the USA, and Singapore. This gives her insight into the travel-heavy lives of her clients. 

Through her career in corporate communications and strategy, she had unusual proximity to how these men operated in multinational environments. She watched as men who were extraordinarily disciplined in business  rigorous with their numbers, relentless with their teams, precise with their time  had quietly let their physical condition slide over years of back-to-back schedules and long-haul travel. 

“The body becomes the blind spot,” she says. “Not because these men don’t care. But because every other priority has a system, a team, a budget. The body gets whatever is left over. Which is usually nothing.” 

The Personal Stakes

But the pattern became personal long before it became professional. In 2006, Heyerdahl lost her father to colon cancer. He was a senior executive whose health had been the trade-off for four decades of professional ambition. He was 62. 

“My father was not someone who focused on his body,” Heyerdahl says. “He focused on his business. His health was something he said he would get to at retirement. And then he ran out of time.” 

She spent years watching this problem from the inside of the corporate world, quietly building the knowledge and the real-world access to do the work properly. She realized that the “wellness” industry was failing these men because it didn’t speak their language or understand their constraints.

A Structural Advisory

What Heyerdahl does is not personal training. It is not a nutrition plan, a wellness programme, or executive coaching with a fitness element bolted on. She is precise about this distinction, because the distinction matters. 

“These men already know how to go to the gym,” she says. “That is not the problem. The problem is that nothing in their world treats their physical shape as a serious priority. I install that priority. I make it structural.” 

Her practice uses a 100-day private advisory. This one-to-one service fits a client’s real schedule. Jet lag recovery, restaurant choices on the road, hotel gym protocols at 6am in Singapore the advisory adapts to the life, rather than demanding that the life adapts to it. 

The Identity Shift: Standards Over Motivation

The method is identity-based. Heyerdahl’s central argument is that sustainable physical discipline is not a habit; it is an identity. The man who trains consistently at the highest level of professional demand does so because it is non-negotiable because physical standards have become part of who he is. 

“Motivation is an emotional variable,” she says. “It responds to stress, sleep, and pressure. It will fail. What does not fail is a standard. My job is to install that standard and hold it until the client no longer needs me to.” 

She is not evangelical about it; she is clinical. The profile she works with is consistent: a powerful man whose physical condition has quietly declined over years of high-demand travel. The result, after 100 days, is a training standard that holds across time zones and a shift in identity that outlasts the engagement itself.

The High-Performance Baseline

At the core of Heyerdahl’s work is a conviction she describes as body-first: the idea that physical training is not a complement to high performance, but its foundation. 

“Everyone talks about mental health now, which is important,” she says. “But the body is the infrastructure. Movement is the foundation for everything else. When you train first thing in the morning, everything after it is different the clarity, the energy, the capacity to handle pressure.” 

Physical presence matters in the environments these men operate in. It signals self-mastery and standards. That is not vanity it is a professional reality that everyone in these rooms understands and almost nobody says directly. 

But the deeper stakes are simpler. These men have worked hard for a life they want to be present for. Her father understood this too late. Heyerdahl makes sure the men she works with do not make the same trade-off. 

“You can be healthy and successful at the same time,” she says. “You do not have to choose. But you do have to decide that the body comes first. Every day. Regardless of where you are in the world.” 

Ingrid Heyerdahl is a Private Advisor based in Norway, working globally with senior leaders. Her 100-day private advisory focuses on body-first discipline and physical identity for men in high-pressure environments. 

The post She’s on a Mission to Save CEOs From the One Risk They Never Put on the Balance Sheet  appeared first on CEO Medium.

Corporate leadership transformation is changing how companies work. Employees now expect clear goals, flexible work, and honest communication. Leaders must respond while still keeping teams focused on results.

The change is visible in daily work. Many teams use digital tools, share decisions, and learn from customers. As a result, leaders need curiosity as well as authority.

Lead with a clear purpose

A useful purpose helps people choose what matters. Start by explaining the problem the company solves. Then, connect each project to that purpose. This gives teams a simple guide when priorities compete.

Good leaders also listen. They ask questions before offering answers. In addition, they make space for different views. This approach can reveal risks early and improve decisions.

Build trust through action

Trust grows when leaders do what they say. Share updates, admit mistakes, and explain difficult choices. Employees may not agree with every decision, but they can respect an honest process.

Prepare for the next change

Corporate leadership transformation is an ongoing process. Companies should review their skills, systems, and culture often. With steady learning and clear communication, leaders can help teams adapt and grow.

Explore more leadership insights from CEO Medium.

Corporate leadership transformation in practice

Change works best when leaders explain the reason for it. Share the goal, name the next step, and invite useful questions. Clear updates reduce confusion and help people take ownership.

Teams also need simple measures. Track customer results, employee experience, and delivery speed. Review these measures often, but avoid chasing every short-term change. A steady review helps leaders see what is working.

Modern leaders can also learn from leadership research and from direct conversations with their teams. Outside ideas can support better choices, while local knowledge keeps plans practical.

When leaders combine purpose, listening, and evidence, companies can adapt without losing their identity. That balance makes transformation more useful for employees and customers.

The post The Corporate World Has Started to Look Nothing Like Itself appeared first on CEO Medium.

You can have the best product, the most dedicated team, and a track record that speaks for itself — and still lose clients to a competitor who is simply more visible. More talked about. More featured.

Business magazines are one of the most powerful visibility tools available to entrepreneurs today. A single feature in the right publication can do more for your credibility than a year of social media posts, paid ads, or cold outreach combined.

In my experience placing business owners in publications across the US, the entrepreneurs who get featured are not always the most successful ones in their industry. They are the ones who understand which publications matter, what those publications look for, and how to position their story to get noticed.

This guide covers the best business magazines for entrepreneurs in 2026 and gives you a practical roadmap for getting featured in them.

Why Getting Featured in a Business Magazine Still Matters

Before diving into the list, it is worth understanding what a magazine feature actually does for your business in 2026.

It builds credibility that money cannot buy. Anyone can run an ad. Not everyone gets featured in a publication with editorial standards. When a business magazine chooses to feature your story, it signals to your market that an independent third party found your work worthy of attention.

It ranks on Google. A well-written feature about your business published on a high-authority magazine website can rank on the first page of Google when someone searches your name or company. That is permanent, compounding visibility that works 24 hours a day.

It creates a credibility asset you can use everywhere. Once you are featured, that logo goes on your website, your email signature, your LinkedIn profile, and your pitch deck. “As featured in…” is one of the most powerful trust signals in business.

It attracts the right clients. The readers of business magazines are business owners, decision makers, and executives — exactly the people most entrepreneurs are trying to reach.

The Best Business Magazines for Entrepreneurs in 2026

1. Forbes

Forbes is the most recognized business publication in the world and being featured carries enormous credibility weight. Forbes covers entrepreneurship, leadership, technology, finance, and business strategy across every industry.

Best for: Established entrepreneurs with a strong track record, unique business insights, or a compelling personal story.

How to get featured: Forbes has a contributor network where approved writers pitch stories. The best path for most entrepreneurs is to be quoted as an expert source in an existing article rather than pitching a feature directly. Building a relationship with a Forbes contributor in your industry is the most reliable route.

Difficulty: High — Forbes receives thousands of pitches and the bar for coverage is significant.

2. Entrepreneur Magazine

Entrepreneur is one of the most widely read publications for small business owners and founders. It covers startups, growth strategies, franchise opportunities, leadership, and business culture.

Best for: Small business owners, franchise operators, startup founders, and entrepreneurs at any stage of growth.

How to get featured: Entrepreneur actively looks for real business stories with lessons other entrepreneurs can apply. Pitching a story about a challenge you overcame, an unconventional strategy that worked, or a milestone worth noting are all strong angles.

Difficulty: Medium — more accessible than Forbes but still competitive.

3. Inc. Magazine

Inc. focuses on fast-growing companies and the entrepreneurs building them. It is known for lists like the Inc. 5000 — the definitive ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America.

Best for: High-growth businesses, tech startups, and entrepreneurs with strong revenue growth stories.

How to get featured: The Inc. 5000 application is the most direct path to Inc. coverage. Beyond that, Inc. writers actively seek sources and experts through platforms like HARO. Being consistently helpful as a source builds relationships that lead to features.

Difficulty: Medium to high — growth metrics matter significantly to Inc. editors.

4. Fast Company

Fast Company covers innovation, business, and the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship. It has a strong focus on companies doing things differently — disrupting industries, building purpose-driven businesses, or solving problems in unconventional ways.

Best for: Tech entrepreneurs, innovators, purpose-driven businesses, and founders with a unique approach to their industry.

How to get featured: Fast Company responds well to pitches that connect your business to a broader trend or cultural moment. The angle needs to be forward-looking — what does your business say about where the industry is going?

Difficulty: High — Fast Company is selective and trend-focused.

5. Bloomberg Businessweek

Bloomberg Businessweek is one of the most respected business publications in the world, with deep coverage of finance, economics, technology, and global business strategy.

Best for: Businesses with financial or economic angles, companies operating at scale, and entrepreneurs with insights on market trends.

How to get featured: Bloomberg is primarily journalist-driven — they find their stories rather than accepting pitches from entrepreneurs directly. Being visible as an expert in your field through other publications, HARO, and LinkedIn increases the chances of a Bloomberg journalist finding you.

Difficulty: Very high — primarily for established businesses with significant scale.

6. CEO Medium

CEO Medium is a digital business magazine dedicated specifically to entrepreneurs, founders, and business leaders across the US. Unlike traditional publications that rely on journalists to find your story, CEO Medium works directly with business owners to craft and publish dedicated feature stories.

Best for: Entrepreneurs, small business owners, realtors, consultants, and founders at any stage who want guaranteed media coverage with a permanent, SEO-indexed article about their business.

How to get featured: CEO Medium offers feature placement packages. You get a dedicated article written and published about your business, permanent indexing on Google, and syndication to additional outlets depending on your package.

Difficulty: Accessible designed specifically for entrepreneurs who want coverage without the uncertainty of traditional pitching.

How to Get Featured in a Business Magazine: A Step-by-Step Approach

Step 1: Choose the Right Publication for Your Stage

Not every magazine is right for every business. Match your pitch to where you are:

• Early stage or local business: Start with regional business journals, industry trade publications, and digital magazines like CEO Medium where the barrier to entry is lower and the audience is targeted.
• Growth stage: Target Entrepreneur and Inc. where mid-sized business stories get regular coverage.
• Established business with scale: Go after Forbes, Fast Company, and Bloomberg Businessweek where the bar is high but the credibility payoff is enormous.

Step 2: Craft a Story, Not a Profile

Magazines do not publish profiles of businesses. They publish stories about people building businesses. The difference is critical.

A profile says: “Here is what our company does and how successful we are.”

A story says: “Here is a challenge we faced, how we approached it differently, what we learned, and what that means for other entrepreneurs in our space.”

Before you pitch any publication, identify the story angle — the conflict, the turning point, the lesson, the unexpected result. That is what editors are looking for.

Step 3: Research the Right Contact

Every major publication has editors and writers who cover specific beats. Pitching the wrong person is as bad as not pitching at all.

Spend 20 minutes on LinkedIn and the publication’s website identifying:

• Who covers your industry or business type
• What stories they have published recently
• What angles they seem to favor

Then personalize your pitch to that specific person and reference their recent work.

Step 4: Write a One-Paragraph Pitch

Your initial pitch should be one paragraph maximum. Include:

• Who you are and what your business does in one sentence
• The story angle in one sentence
• Why their readers would care in one sentence
• A soft ask — “Would you be open to hearing more?”

Do not send a full press release as your first contact. Send a pitch. If they are interested, they will ask for more.

Step 5: Follow Up Once

If you do not hear back within 7 days, send one follow-up email. Keep it short — one sentence reminding them of your pitch and asking if they had a chance to consider it.

If you still do not hear back, move on to the next contact. Persistence is good. Repeated follow-ups to the same person are not.

The Fastest Path to Getting Featured in 2026

If you want guaranteed coverage without the uncertainty of pitching editors who may never respond, working directly with a business publication is the most efficient path.

CEO Medium works with entrepreneurs and small business owners to publish dedicated feature stories that are permanently indexed on Google, written to tell your story the way it deserves to be told, and syndicated to additional outlets to maximize reach.

Once your feature is live, combining it with a press release distribution service can extend your reach even further.

Rather than spending months pitching editors with no guarantee of coverage, you get a published feature that builds your credibility from day one.

Final Thoughts

Business magazines remain one of the most powerful visibility tools available to entrepreneurs in 2026. A single feature in the right publication builds credibility, drives compounding traffic, and positions you as a recognized voice in your industry.

Start with publications that match your current stage. Build your story before you pitch. Personalize every outreach. Follow up once and move on.

And if you want to shortcut the process entirely, CEO Medium is here to make sure your story gets told.

Ready to get your business featured? CEO Medium publishes dedicated feature stories for entrepreneurs and business owners across the US.

The post The Best Business Magazines for Entrepreneurs in 2026 (And How to Get Featured in Them) appeared first on CEO Medium.