How the Alpine Executive Experience Creates Strong Leadership Networks

The Alpine Executive Experience (AEx) is a peer network of over 75 high-performing Alpine executives that started in 2021 to increase knowledge sharing and create stronger, PeopleFirst communities across the portfolio.¹

In its fourth year, AEx hosted its second annual summit, where 40 executives across all five cohorts were able to connect in person and expand their leadership capabilities. With over 30 new leaders joining each year, the summit provides a space for both new and current members to meaningfully leverage this growing network.

Gathering in Person at the First Annual AEx Summit

The two-day summit in Austin, Texas, featured leadership development exercises and facilitated discussions. Attendees discussed PeopleFirst values and topics such as how to show up better as leaders for your team (and for yourself), how to avoid burnout, and how to find your sense of purpose at work.

Team members got the chance to gather informally and executives walked away with more connections within the broader AEx network, as well as tactical exercises they could bring back to their teams.

Small-Group Pods, Designed for Learning and Growth

In order to help individuals get the most out of the program, AEx organizers assign pods—groups of three or four who meet monthly to talk through challenges in their leadership roles.

When Suchi Reddy, chief information officer of Visual Matrix, a hotel property management software company, first joined AEx in 2023, she was placed into a cross-functional executive pod. She and three other AEx members from around the country meet monthly to discuss everything from challenges they face to their own development as leaders.

Designed to connect those who share similar experiences and those who bring entirely different perspectives, pods may consist of multiple female leaders, or a CFO and CMO hoping to learn more about how the other approaches strategic planning. Meeting fellow pod members in person at the summit helped create stickier, more dynamic connections.

For Reddy, what started as a professional support system has grown into true friendships. Despite their differences—she’s the only C-suite executive in her pod, and other members specialize in finance, operations and security—the group maintains an active group text and their monthly meetings cover everything from hiring practices and navigating change to family and pet updates.

“We can be as vulnerable as we want and share things that we’re less comfortable sharing with our teammates. We have a rule that anything said in the pod meeting remains there, and that allows for some very open conversations,” says Reddy.

Another unexpected benefit of the pod connection has been the network effect beyond AEx. When Reddy hired a new information security director, she connected him with security leaders at her pod members’ companies. Today, those leaders have formed their own small group and can lean on each other for questions, best practices and support.

“The AEx program provides people with a third space to show up and not feel like they’re performing,” says Alpine Chief Talent Officer Tal Lee Anderman. “It’s like group executive coaching; people ask for support with their challenges and anxieties within their roles. That culture has been cultivated within this group and it helps strengthen Alpine and each individual.”

“We can be as vulnerable as we want and share things that we’re less comfortable sharing with our teammates. We have a rule that anything said in the pod meeting remains there, and that allows for some very open conversations.”

 

Suchi Reddy, Chief Information Officer, Visual Matrix

 

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Case studies presented contain the opinions of past and present Alpine portfolio company executives. Alpine makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the information presented here. It should not be assumed that the portfolio companies discussed in these case studies were profitable or that future portfolio companies or experiences will be comparable. Past performance is not necessarily indicative, or a guarantee, of future results. Under no circumstances should these case studies be construed as an offer to sell, or a solicitation to buy, any security or as opinions regarding the provision of investment advisory services by Alpine. Please see Alpine’s Terms of Use on Alpine’s website for disclosures.

Endnotes

1. Portfolio companies bear the costs of participation in AEx.