A chief executive officer is more than just the highest ranking officer at a company. A CEO is someone who bring teams together, supports their employees, and gives back to their communities. But, most importantly, they are someone who inspires others to believe in, and live out, the vision they’re working so hard to create. The 2019 CEO of the Year honorees not only put their companies first, but their people first.
BRANDON RODMAN
CEO | Weave
A Eugene, Oregon, native, Brandon Rodman graduated from Brigham Young University in 2004. Working in sales until 2008, he then pivoted his career entirely. Founding Recall Solutions, which later became Weave, from his attic in Lehi, Utah, he changed gears to create an essential business tool used in over 7,000 offices today. But it wasn’t easy. In fact, in the beginning, Mr. Rodman and his team struggled. “Our company had been turned down by nearly every investor in Utah,” Mr. Rodman says. “We were running out of money. It looked like the company was going to fail. Applying to Y-Combinator was a last-ditch effort to save the company. And it worked.” Selected by Y-Combinator for funding in 2014, it was the turning point they needed.
A decade since Weave’s inception, Mr. Rodman has used his intimate experience with trial and error to grow his software into something every office needs to function. When he founded the company, there were just two employees. In 2018 alone, he hired 150 new employees. Mr. Rodman attributes his success to his focus on people. “Put people first,” he says. “Everything else is much easier if you get people right.”
His focus on people has extended to every part of his business, and he has implemented a coaching staff for every single employee, enables instant matching on 401k, and provides stock options for every full-time employee. A father of four, he is particularly proud of the parental leave policy he launched in 2018.
