TAC Leadership Spotlight Series: Mark Weinsten

Mar. 25 – (PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Tartan Leaders of Tomorrow had its third Tartan Athletics Club Board of Directors Leadership Spotlight Series of the semester with Mark Weinsten discussing real world examples. Weinsten is currently the managing director of BRG Corporate Finance and is a member of the Corporate Finance leadership team. He recently served as COO and CRO of Neiman Marcus Group leading the iconic retailer through a restructuring that eliminated $4 billion in debt while preserving 13,000 jobs.

The following are points Mark discussed with the students in attendance.

Credibility

• Own Mistakes
• Accountability

Purpose

• Don’t do it for the sake of doing it
• Why is more important than the how?
• Greater sense of purpose, part of the team

Need to know your people

• There is no “I” in team, but know that a lot of “I’s” make up the team
• Diverse opinion, bring different people around you
• Andrew Carnegie Quote - No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.

Be Fair

• Don’t have to treat everyone the same, but be consistent

Embrace Change

• Famous Coaches who changed and remained great
  • Bear Bryant – integrated Alabama football, changed to wish bone offense
  • Nick Saban – primarily had run offense, brought it offense coordinators to create a faster offense
  • Coach K – went to a 2/3 zone to win
  • Alex Ferguson (Man U) - played different lines

During Covid, over communicate and set realistic goals!

Junior Roles

• Can lead through small team building actions, ask for more responsibilities on projects