Want a front-row seat to how a global CFO blends tennis-honed grit with people-first leadership to rethink telecom’s future? In this episode, Klara Jagosova sits down with Jurgen Arts, Vice President & CFO for Market Area Europe & Latin America at Ericsson, who brings nearly three decades of experience leading M&A, finance transformation, and cross-regional teams.

We trace Jurgen’s path from an introverted Dutch tennis kid to a global leader known for transparency, curiosity, and balance — in business and in life. He shares how authenticity builds trust, how honesty early in a role prevents friction later, and how sports resilience fuels strategic decision-making.

We explore:
• How culture shapes leadership across regions
• M&A lessons from integrating Cradlepoint and Vonage
• The evolving role of AI as a practical co-pilot
• Building connected global teams and financial agility
• 5G network APIs and the shift to pay-per-use models
• Continuous learning, mentorship, and curiosity as long-term success drivers

🎾 Plus: Jurgen’s reflections on cooking, running, padel, golf, and inspiring his two sons to carry forward the family’s love for tennis.

Connect with Jurgen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jurgen-arts-ba808a3/

Send us a text

This content is also available in a video version on YouTube.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who may enjoy it as well, and consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can also submit your feedback directly on my website.

Follow @GrandSlamJourney on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and join the LinkedIn community.

What if we could revolutionize healthcare and other industries by using the untapped computing power that sits idle in hospitals every night? Meet Rani Yadav-Ranjan, Chief AI Officer at Greycloud AI, who's pioneering a breakthrough approach to AI that respects both data privacy and urgency.

After watching her mother's medical journey, Rani had a revelation: doctors function as "databases" of knowledge, but these repositories remain isolated within individual hospitals. Her solution? A patented system that transforms existing computers in closed networks into distributed training devices, operating during off-hours to build sophisticated AI models without compromising sensitive patient data. "From six o'clock till six in the morning, that's twelve hours of computing power we could use," she explains, describing how her technology chunks and chains data through multiple nodes, each with a unique blockchain identifier to ensure validity.

This innovative approach reflects Rani's decades-long career at the intersection of emerging technologies. As one of the most influential women in tech, with over 20 patents, she pioneered mobile payments in the early 2000s, navigated cultural resistance to e-commerce in Japan, and continues to advocate for the ethical development of AI. Through personal anecdotes about balancing leadership with motherhood and observations about gender bias in corporate cultures, Rani offers a master class in resilience and strategic thinking.

Rani's perspective on AI's future is refreshingly nuanced. Rather than fearing job displacement, she sees AI as enhancing human capabilities while emphasizing the irreplaceable value of experience. "What I use AI for is code reviews," she notes. "It's awesome to say, 'here's 3,000 lines of code, tell me where the missing semicolon is." As she prepares to publish her book "Constitutional Democracy in the Algorithmic Age," Rani continues to champion responsible innovation that serves humanity's needs while respecting our rights and privacy.

Connect with Rani on LinkedIn to follow her groundbreaking work at the intersection of AI, healthcare, and ethical technology development.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryadavranjan/

https://yadav-ranjan.com/

Send us a text

This content is also available in a video version on YouTube.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who may enjoy it as well, and consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can also submit your feedback directly on my website.

Follow @GrandSlamJourney on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and join the LinkedIn community.

Noah Sturm, Senior Vice President of Sales and Revenue at Augment AI, shares his journey from an unstructured upbringing through professional golf aspirations to becoming a transformative sales leader building AI-powered relationship technology to transform and redefine how B2B sales are done.

• Raised in a dynamic, homeschooled environment that fostered creativity, resilience, and comfort with uncertainty
• Developed extraordinary resilience, helping his family through his mother's cancer battle and later his father's passing during his college years
• Transitioned from a potential professional golf career to sales excellence, starting at RR Donnelly, where he grew from $70,000 quota to multi-million dollar accounts
• Joined N3 and later Accenture, becoming a vice president at just 28 years old, by focusing on execution rather than conventional experience
• Now building Augment to transform B2B sales by focusing on durable relationships and addressing the 83% of buying decisions that happen without salespeople present
• Believes AI should enhance human relationships rather than replace them, focusing on making mid-performers act like top performers through situational awareness
• Advocates for kindness, empathy, and spending less time on social media to foster genuine human connection

Get in touch with Noah on LinkedIn at noah-sturm-augment or email him at noah@augment.co

Send us a text

This content is also available in a video version on YouTube.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who may enjoy it as well, and consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can also submit your feedback directly on my website.

Follow @GrandSlamJourney on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and join the LinkedIn community.