Charting the Road Ahead for Today’s Executives
From the Director
Dear Leavey Executive Center Colleagues and Partners,
As I step into the role of Executive Director (Interim) here at the Leavey Executive Center, I want to first thank you for the warm welcome and express my enthusiasm for the work ahead. Our mission of uniting senior executives, thought leaders and practitioners to navigate the accelerating pace of change is more relevant now than ever.
In this newsletter, I’d like to share three key trends that are top of mind for executives today, reflect on how we as a community can engage them, and feature inspiring startups from the Santa Clara Bronco Family that showcases the innovation emerging from our ecosystem.
1. Navigating Uncertainty in the Macro Environment
The Leavey Executive Center is accelerating its position as a leading hub for executive learning, innovation, and workforce transformation. As technology reshapes every industry from AI and cybersecurity to advanced manufacturing and digital leadership, organizations are seeking partners who can help them prepare leaders for what’s next. Our Center is stepping into that role with renewed clarity, energy, and purpose.
The latest business outlook surveys show a sharp rise in economic uncertainty, with 55% of business leaders identifying unstable economic conditions as their top external challenge (2025 J.P. Morgan Mid-Year Outlook). Yet despite macro volatility, companies remain optimistic about their own performance and continue to invest in leadership development, operational excellence, and technology-enabled growth.
At the Leavey Executive Center, one of our priorities will be to convene senior leaders around scenario‑planning and stress‑testing: How will your business model fare under a sharp macro downturn? What is your resilience plan for supply‑chain or regulatory surprises? If you are interested to participate in this webinar on Navigating Economic Uncertainty, please register your interest here.
2. The AI and Technology Inflection Point
We stand at a technology inflection point. Executives are increasingly prioritizing AI/GenAI as a strategic lever for competitiveness, yet many feel uncertain about how to govern, scale, and embed it. Leadership must now marry innovation with oversight, adopting new technologies while managing risk, ethics, and workforce impact.
At Leavey, we are launching an 'AI & Leadership' working group this quarter, featuring executives who have deployed AI, plus expert speakers who will guide participants through frameworks, case studies, and peer learnings. Please register for the 'AI & Leadership' working group if you are interested in participating.
3. Talent, Culture, and the Future of Work
The future of work continues to shift with hybrid models, generational dynamics, leadership shortages, and new employee expectations. Executives must renew their commitment to people as the center of transformation. Culture, leadership development, and organizational design are as strategic as technological or market issues.
We will host a Future of Talent & Culture breakfast roundtable for People and Talent Management Executives in our Center located in Santa Clara, CA. This session is limited to 15 senior executives for a candid discussion over breakfast. Please register for the People and Culture Breakfast Meetup if you are interested in participating.
Startups Spotlight from the Santa Clara Bronco Family
AIConform: Compliance with Confidence, Assurance with Intelligence
AIConform is a Silicon Valley startup co-founded by Dr. Haibing Lu, Co-Chair in the ISA Department at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. The platform delivers AI-driven, enterprise-level audits and enables organizations to achieve continuous compliance across all major regulatory and security frameworks. Its comprehensive control library, spanning SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 42001, and NIST CSF, is fully integrated and dynamically adaptable through AI-powered customization.
Traditional audits are slow and fragmented. AIConform replaces manual spreadsheets and disconnected workflows with an end-to-end assurance platform that continuously monitors controls, automates evidence review, and simplifies documentation. At its core, CompliAgent automates control testing and report generation while helping enterprises evaluate security and privacy posture, identify gaps, and remediate issues, making audit readiness faster and more reliable. Powered by a proprietary large language model trained on audit, legal, and compliance data, AIConform outperforms generic AI in accuracy, traceability, and domain understanding. It delivers assurance that's intelligent, explainable, and auditor-centric, turning compliance from a burden into a continuous advantage.
If you are interested to learn more, please connect with Dr. Lu at hlu@scu.edu or let me know via email at ssundararajan@scu.edu if you need a warm introduction.
Samvid: The Revenue Control Tower
Samvid is an AI-native “Revenue Control Tower” founded by Professor Ram Bala that tackles one of the most persistent financial challenges in modern enterprises: revenue leakage. Built at the intersection of large language models, knowledge graphs, and self-improving autonomous agents, Samvid transforms messy, siloed operational data into precise, real-time decisions that protect revenue and strengthen compliance. Rather than traditional chatbots or static dashboards, Samvid provides an intelligent command center where enterprise-grade agents collaborate to analyze contracts, optimize pricing, detect risks, and simulate business scenarios—delivering actionable insights once accessible only to expert teams. With live deployments in procurement, supply chain, and support functions, Samvid is redefining how organizations manage revenue and operational complexity in the era of AI-powered enterprise systems.
If you are interested to learn more, please connect with Dr. Bala at rbala@scu.edu or let me know via email at ssundararajan@scu.edu if you need a warm introduction.
In Closing
My commitment as Executive Director is to foster a vibrant, high‑trust community of senior leaders who share insights and collaborate to drive change. The Leavey Executive Center will be a forum where you can tap into leading practices, test new ideas, connect with peers, and leave with actionable insights.
Thank you for your leadership and for joining me on this journey. Together, we will chart a path through complexity, accelerate transformation, and shape tomorrow’s organizations.
With gratitude,
Sriram Sundararajan
Executive Director (Interim)
Leavey Executive Center