Welcome to the Mission Possible Podcast, where we dive deep into the stories of extraordinary individuals who push the boundaries of what’s achievable. Each episode features leaders, visionaries, and changemakers who share their personal journeys, pivotal moments, and practical wisdom on overcoming challenges, driving innovation, and creating meaningful impact. Join us as we explore resilience, purpose, and the power of embracing uncertainty to transform obstacles into opportunities.
Season two of Mission Possible closes with Priya Dalwadi, B/CORE's CFO and a finance leader who refuses to be the calculator. Priya grew up watching her father build a CPA practice now in its forty-fourth year, with clients still flying across the country to see him. The inheritance shaped her belief in finance as a human discipline. She brought it with her to GW, into Lockheed Martin's financial leadership program, and through her first GovCon rotation in pricing where she sat in the back of...
13 Apr 2026
Jake Huffman: One Level Deeper
Senior technologist Jake Huffman grew up in a North Carolina county with one stoplight, got rejected from architecture school, and fell into engineering because someone told him he wasn't an artist. A sophomore materials science class changed his direction. A steel plant nearly scared him out of metallurgy. A Coast Guard repair center gave him helicopter parts to build with no experience. And a graduate school math problem introduced him to writing code. Every turn came from the same instinct...
30 Mar 2026
Troy Scoran: Say Yes, Then Go
Troy Scoran is a technologist at B/CORE who built his career by raising his hand before anyone asked. He grew up in a western Pennsylvania town of two thousand people and three stoplights, got recruited off LinkedIn, and moved to Tysons Corner to join a fifteen-person startup with one condition: don't box me in. Chad and Zil brought Troy on to talk about what it looks like to build a career through initiative. The conversation went somewhere honest. Troy described how saying yes to everything...
16 Mar 2026
Sarika Lamont: The Cost of Standing Still
Sarika Lamont is the Chief People Officer at a B2B technology company and a former GovCon talent leader. She built an integrated talent management framework from scratch, pitched it to two different CEOs, and now leads AI transformation from the people side of the house. Chad and Zil brought Sarika on to talk about what happens when organizations refuse to change how they develop people. The conversation went deeper than expected. Zil described what it feels like to outgrow your leadership. ...
2 Mar 2026
Courtney Kelly: The Accidental Strategist
Courtney Kelly is the Chief Strategy Officer at C Speed. She grew up in a small Massachusetts town, trained in ballet for 15 years, studied history, and planned on law school. When that path closed, she landed in aerospace and defense consulting doing competitive intelligence and price-to-win work. From there she moved into Raytheon's strategy group and later KPMG, where she built a core philosophy: strategy only matters if you execute against it. In this episode, Courtney unpacks how she nav...
16 Feb 2026
Adam Chin: Algorithms for Human Connection
Adam Chin is a cloud and software engineer who calls himself a "chaos domino pusher" and a "safe extrovert," someone energized in trusted spaces but drained when masking. He traces how moving often as a kid built his ability to connect quickly, read rooms, and use shared context to build relationships. That same approach led to meeting his wife at a concert. Adam credits early mentors for showing him what approachable, context-rich leadership looks like. He explains how curiosity, ego-free co...
2 Feb 2026
Sue Gordon: Nose Down, Head Up
Sue Gordon served as Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence and spent a long career at the CIA, rising to senior positions across all four Agency directorates. In this conversation, Sue shares the framework that guided her through an unconventional career path. She started as a zoology major doing Soviet missile analysis. She was moved off prestigious assignments she loved. Each setback became the transportation to her next success. Her approach is simple: nose down, head up. Mast...
19 Jan 2026
Season Two Kickoff: Balancing Tech, Work-Life, and Human Connections
In this episode, Chad Kim and Zil Vyas kick off the second season of their podcast with a discussion on the importance of human connections, staying curious, and learning from each other in a rapidly changing tech landscape. They reflect on the challenges and growth from their first season and share their personal goals for 2026. Topics include the importance of humility, the balance between work and personal life, building relationships, and the evolving roles within their tech company. The ...
20 Oct 2025
Lee Garber: Calculated Risks
Episode Description In this season one finale, I sit down with Lee Garber, our General Partner at NewSpring Capital, to get under the hood of calculated bets and strategic decision-making. Lee takes us through his fascinating journey from being "the guy behind the guy" - starting as a newspaper-selling kid who became his fraternity treasurer - to becoming a seasoned private equity professional making million-dollar decisions. We dive deep into the evolution of a PE career, from analyst to par...
6 Oct 2025
Rebekah Lovorn: Passion for Purpose-Driven Leadership
In this powerful episode, I sit down with Rebekah Lovorn, Executive Director of No Greater Sacrifice, to explore what it truly means to lead with purpose beyond self. Rebekah's journey is remarkable—from serving in the White House during 9/11 to volunteering for a dangerous deployment to Iraq in 2006, where she discovered her calling to serve Gold Star and wounded warrior families. For 15 years, Rebekah has built No Greater Sacrifice into a unique organization that breaks the cycle of generat...
22 Sept 2025
Joseph Stefano: Discipline, Curiosity, and Continuous Learning
Episode Description What happens when someone decides to pursue medicine, engineering, and business simultaneously while raising three kids? Joseph Stefano is living proof that with the right mindset and systems, you can excel across multiple demanding fields without burning out. In this episode of Mission Possible, Joseph breaks down his approach to managing 16-18 hour workdays while maintaining his roles as software engineer, medical student, recent MBA graduate, and father of three. But th...
8 Sept 2025
Vice Adm. Bob Sharp, USN (Ret.): Leading Through Complexity
Episode Description In this episode of the Mission Possible Podcast, I sit down with Bob Sharp, former Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, to explore his unconventional path from aspiring lawyer to admiral. Bob's candid storytelling reveals how he navigated massive organizational complexity—from leading 15,000+ person organizations through crisis to building coalition strategies that actually stick. What struck me most was Bob's refreshingly honest approach to leadership....
25 Aug 2025
John Quick: Facing Cancer with Courage
Episode Description In this deeply personal episode of Mission Possible, I sit down with John Quick, a team member who demonstrates that true leadership emerges in life's most challenging moments. John courageously shares his cancer journey—from an unexpected diagnosis during COVID lockdown to navigating complex treatment decisions and ultimately discovering what matters most. This isn't just a story about surviving cancer; it's about transforming adversity into clarity. John reveals how faci...
11 Aug 2025
Tyler Laverick: Navigating Entrepreneurship: Trust and Culture
Episode Description I sit down with Tyler Laverick to explore the entrepreneurial mindset that drives real business success. Tyler takes us back to his childhood - from selling trading cards and homemade necklaces door-to-door to watching his grandfather run a Ford dealership in small-town America. These early experiences shaped his understanding that business is fundamentally about trust, loyalty, and serving your community. The conversation gets real about the challenges of starting Bcore w...
28 Jul 2025
Vinita Fordham: Technology, Trust, and Transformation
Episode Description In this episode of the Mission Possible Podcast, I sit down with Vinita Fordham, a technology leader who's mastered the art of driving transformational change from within some of the most complex organizations in the intelligence community. Vinita takes us through her fascinating journey from a childhood fascination with silicon chips and radio building to becoming a staff officer championing cutting-edge technology deployments. What makes this conversation particularly va...
14 Jul 2025
Zil Vyas & Jason Hershcopf: Collaboration and Code
Episode Description: What separates software engineers who merely code from those who drive transformational mission outcomes? Chad sits down with veteran engineers Zil Vyas and Jason Herschcopf to explore the leadership principles that elevate technical teams from functional to exceptional. This conversation goes beyond typical tech talk to examine the human side of software engineering. Zil and Jason share their unconventional paths into technology—from pharmacy technician to application de...
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