Hey, I’m Johnny. Join me as I speak with highly accomplished executives in tech to learn how they successfully navigated their way to the top. We’ll explore key lessons learned through wins and fails, impactful stories and much more.
Papanii Okai is the Executive Vice President of Product Engineering at Rocket, where he leads the teams building AI-powered systems that transform how millions of people experience homeownership. Before Rocket, he served as CTO of Venmo, scaling a platform trusted by over 60 million users, and held senior engineering and architecture roles at PayPal across nearly six years. His career spans fintech, platform architecture, and human-centered design, with a through line of translating emerging technology into systems that actually serve people. Originally from Ghana, Papanii brings a global perspective and a leadership philosophy rooted in building things that last and people who thrive. We're glad to have him on the Executive Runtime.
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24 Feb 2026
Meet Rory Verrett
Rory Verrett is the founder and managing partner of Protégé Search, a boutique executive search and leadership advisory firm focused on diverse talent. Over two decades, he has placed C-suite leaders at organizations including Patagonia, Ben & Jerry's, Twilio, Pinterest, and The New York Times.
Before founding Protégé Search, Rory served as the first-ever Head of Talent Management at the National Football League, where he managed succession planning, leadership development, and executive search functions. He also led diversity practices at Spencer Stuart and Russell Reynolds Associates, two of the world's most prestigious executive search firms.
Rory is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Howard University. He has testified before Congress on best practices in inclusive recruiting, advised the Biden administration on leadership strategy, and authored The Pomegranate Principle: Best Practices in Diversity Recruiting (Wiley). He is a former president of the Harvard Law Black Alumni Association and former trustee of Howard University. He now operates Protégé Search from Lisbon, Portugal, serving clients globally.
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19 Jan 2026
Meet Alphonzo Terrell
Alphonzo Terrell, Spill CEO and co-founder, discusses building a new social media platform and leveraging experience from Twitter to connect with culture, in an interview with Johnny.
2 Dec 2025
Meet Smruti Patel
Smruti Patel, SVP of Engineering at Apollo GraphQL, discusses building high-performance APIs at scale and transforming data platforms, emphasizing security, reliability, and efficiency in this interview.
9 Sept 2025
Meet Stephen Ovadje
Host Johnny interviews Chief Marketing Officer Stephen Ovadje about scaling financial products and leading through complex transformations in consumer lending and fintech.
12 Aug 2025
Meet Rob Zuber
Host Johnny interviews Rob Zuber, a five-time CTO and three-time founder, about his unconventional C-suite journey and leadership philosophy of "being wrong as fast as humanly possible."
15 Jul 2025
Meet Kathryn Koehler
Kathryn Koehler, Netflix's Director of Developer Productivity Engineering, shares her 25 years of software development experience and discusses product-focused and people-oriented leadership in an interview with Johnny.
9 Jun 2025
Meet Will Larson
Chief Technology Officer Will Larson discusses engineering leadership and his influential books with host Johnny in an insightful interview.
5 May 2025
Meet Troy Dennis
I'm excited to welcome Troy Dennis, Head of Digital Transformation for North America at Mastercard. Troy brings over two decades of experience in fintech innovation, payments strategy, and product leadership across some of the most influential financial institutions in North America.
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9 Apr 2025
Meet Lucia Guillory, PhD
Today, I'm thrilled to welcome Dr. Lucia Guillory, Chief People Officer at Virta Health and a fascinating example of someone who's successfully bridged the worlds of academia and corporate leadership. Lucia's journey offers a masterclass in combining analytical thinking with human-centered leadership.
24 Feb 2025
Meet Zaina Orbai
Join me as I speak with Zaina Orbai—a remarkable executive coach and growth catalyst who has helped shape some of Silicon Valley's most successful companies. With over 20 years of executive leadership experience, Zaina played pivotal roles in scaling both Yelp and The RealReal through their IPOs, growing Yelp from $80M to $1B in revenue and expanding it to over 20 countries.
Zaina's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zainaorbai/Learn more about Zaina's coaching service: https://zainaorbai.com/Email Zaina: zaina.orbai@gmail.com
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Branding and design by Lori Evelyn: https://www.lorievelyn.com/
26 Jan 2025
Welcome to Executive Runtime
Welcome to the Executive Runtime Podcast. Here's a quick introduction to your host and the purpose of this show. Stay tuned for our first full episode and guest in the coming weeks!
Who has been a guest on Executive Runtime
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Alphonzo Terrell
Smruti Patel
Stephen Ovadje
Rob Zuber
Kathryn Koehler
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
813
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 47 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
36
Social presence
90
YouTube
66
Engagement
32
Contact Executive Runtime
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Questions about Executive Runtime
Who hosts Executive Runtime?
Johnny host the show. Published by Johnny Austin.
How often do new episodes come out?
The show publishes weekly, based on its RSS feed.
Does Executive Runtime take guests?
Yes. Guests have been identified in episode analyses.
Host of Executive Runtime?
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