Leveraging Leadership

Event Planning, Ribbon Cutting, and Community Building: Rolling Out a Global Brand’s US Presence

• Emily Sander • Season 1 • Episode 195

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Jacki Grosso, Chief of Staff and Communications Manager at Lotte Biologics, shares her journey from managing Olympic events to leading in biotech. She talks about organizing a major ribbon-cutting event, bridging cultural gaps with Korea, refreshing the Syracuse Bio campus, and communicating complex science in simple terms. Jacki also gives practical advice on staying flexible, building strong relationships, and balancing multiple roles.


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Who Am I?

If we haven’t yet before - Hi👋 I’m Emily, Chief of Staff turned Executive Leadership Coach. After a thrilling ride up the corporate ladder, I’m focusing on what I love - working with people to realize their professional and personal goals. Through my videos here on this channel, books, podcast guest spots, and newsletter, I share new ideas and practical and tactical tools to help you be more productive and build the career and life you want. 

 

Time Stamps:

01:00 Jacki's Career Beginnings
03:25 Transition to Biotech
03:49 Lotte Biologics' Mission and Vision
05:06 First Year as Chief of Staff
07:26 Community Engagement and Volunteerism
10:50 Event Management and Cultural Sensitivity
17:46 Balancing Local and Global Responsibilities
18:37 Digital Marketing and Thought Leadership
22:41 Internal Communication and Employee Engagement
30:35 Environmental Branding and Campus Modernization
34:32 Final Thoughts and Advice for Chiefs of Staff

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Our guest today is Jackie Grosso. And Jackie is hailing from Syracuse, New York. Um, so all the way on the other side of the country. But Jackie, thank you so much for joining us.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Beautiful. So when we first connected, we were just going back and forth on different chief of staff certifications and groups and training, and we had a chat about that. And I know that you've been accepted to Chief of Staff Association, which is exciting and a great program. Um, but you are the chief of staff and communications manager. So a

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

And just to get us started, can you give us a quick background of how you got up to that role and what you have been doing up to that point?

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Absolutely. So my role at Chief of Staff at Lote Biologics, uh, we are a biotech company in Syracuse, New York, and I would where our headquarters are in Seoul, Korea. Uh, I like to think of my path to where I've gotten today has been quite a journey of, you know, twists and turns and. Pivots and things that are kind of e exciting and there's no straight trajectory on anybody's career. I don't think so. Uh, I started my career in mega event management with the Olympics. That was kind of on a lark, right? That was like, I think I'm gonna move to Atlanta and work on the Olympics. Uh, so that was where it started. And. Really, um, leaned into a lot of that project management roles, uh, at, at different venues for, uh, different sporting events. Really liked that energy of being, uh, in different, uh, activities and sporting in major league baseball or football, whatever it might be. Uh, and the Olympics of course. And then, um, decided that that's great. But, uh. I was always working when everyone else was playing. When you work in the, in those large event, you know, venues, and I said, so I think it was time to go back. I got my master's degree. I worked full-time while I did that and was able to work at Carrier Corporation and then move to medical device management, uh, at Welch Allen that is now, uh, Baxter. Uh, so really kind of pivoting, but always staying in that communications special event, corporate communications roles. Uh, I leaned into a lot of the operations management with different. Ways to be able to open up, uh, doors in different facilities around the world. Uh, moving over. I went to Syracuse University, which was a huge jump to go from for-profit to not-for-profit, but I really, um, loved being at a large major research institution. I think that working with students, you get to do a, a, a bit of everything. And I worked in strategic communications there. Uh, a lot of strategic initiatives. Syracuse University is large enough that it's basically like you're running a city. Mean there's 25,000 students, so anything can happen at any given time. And then, uh, most recently pivoted over to, uh, biotech after a long career at Syracuse and, uh, and moved over to Chief of staff at Lotte Biologics. Which we're really like a startup, right? So it's, it's kind of all over the place. Uh, but we're really like a startup and, and you're getting to do a little bit of everything.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

what's their mission and what's your, what's your objective as a company you're trying to achieve?

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

So Lotte Biologics is a division of Lotte Corporation, which is based in Korea. And Lotte Biologics is, uh, a contract development and manufacturing organization, A-C-D-M-O, as it's known in the biotech industry. And we manufacture different therapeutics for companies. So our vision is to be able to enable a healthier world, and our, essentially what we can do is take a recipe for a, a, a drug or a, a therapeutic and be able to manufacture it for a different company. There's a lot of reasons why large pharmaceutical companies want. Uh, to have A-C-D-M-O and being that we're based in the United States and we're FDA approved, as well as approved by 62 other regulatory agencies, it's a good partnership for them to have as they work on development and manufacturing of different drugs and pharmaceuticals.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Okay, so you started small with the Olympics just to start kick off your

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Yeah.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

and then you went to running essentially a small city and then now you're in biotech at a

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

bunch of

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Yeah.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

but sounds like, you know, events and, and energy and communications has been somewhat. Of a through line for

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Great.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

So, um, can you just give us a, a glimpse of like your first 90 days or maybe even your first year in your chief of staff role? What was, what was that like for you?

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Sure. So I think, you know, I like to, one of the things I said in my job interview was, I'm very comfortable when things are messy and, and like that big bowl of spaghetti. And then let, let's take it apart and rebuild it and what works. Doesn't or doesn't work, we can change things. Right. I think, I think that's, that adaptability is one of the biggest assets in this role is that things are not set in stone. This is not how you do things. Let's figure out and make it work for what our needs are. We're a small company. Uh, we're entering into a very competitive marketplace as a contract development and manufacturing organization. Uh, we're in central New York. Which we're not exact. We're more of a biotech desert than a, a biotech ecosystem like in Cambridge. So I think that what we really be able to do is lean into our strengths of our company and, and the people. We retained about 96% of the people who were with the prior organization prior when our company bought. So that to me was extremely meaningful, right? That we didn't have to do layoff communications or transition communications that. 96% of the people stayed up. So lean into those strengths of the people who are longtime employees, nurture them, be able to really talk about that standard of excellence that we have, reliability, high quality, uh, you know, those are the things that we're gonna be able to, to leverage when we talk to prospective customers.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Okay. And it sounds like, fill

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Yeah.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

It sounds like in your first year there was some sort of acquisition or something like that where, uh, there, like as chief of

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

were taking on. Okay. Let me take on the chief of staff

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

but also the comms part of that and blend those together a little

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Really, it was, it, it was very much, uh, a, a chief of staff in dealing with, you know, I'm a team of one, so to speak, and so I have a little bit of a unique skillset in that I. I'm working with our government officials and I recognized immediately how important it was for us to welcome people in and, and be very graceful in the community as a new company. I'm from Central New York. I'm from Syracuse, so I was really proud to be part of the team that was going to revitalize this campus that had been, you know, ki kind of sluggish, um, had it had been very steady, but there hadn't been great growth. And now, so we welcomed people from the mayor's office, from the county executive's office, from some of the state senator's office. And you know, that was kind of my first and foremost, like, let people feel comfortable coming to the facility and talking about what we do, because I was also learning about biotech and what we did. Right. You know, putting your AP bio to work every day. So, so that was fun. Uh, I think. So that, right. Incorporating all that event experience and what does that mean for someone to go through? What are those touch points that are going to be very meaningful to someone as they come through the facility and tour? How do we work with, we have a lot in central New York of R one research institutions, uh, for academics, right? So leveraging. All my experience working in higher education with how do we leverage those relationships and make sure that we're working with the right faculty to get the right interns, to get the right, you know, keep the talent that we can in central New York. And then also working with our, um. You know, just our general community, where does it make the most sense for us to, um, leverage relationships for volunteerism and the spirit of the community?

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Hmm.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

And so we work closely with, uh. Central New York Make a Wish. Uh, we do. We have a lot of volunteer activities with them. We, we have a great science and technology museum here, right? We wanna inspire the next generation of researchers and scientists. So I would kind of be my three, three legged approach to how I looked at the role.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

And so it seems like that you're a power team of one, which I love. A lot of chiefs of staff will, uh, will, uh, resonate

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Yeah.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

And then it sounds like you're spearheading everything on the ground, like in

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

area, yet you've said you've, you're headquartered in

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Korea, so it's like

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

um, flavor too. So I'm wondering like, where is your principal

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

are there other team members that you work with? How does that work?

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Sure. So, um, Seoul, Korea right now is about 13 hours ahead of Syracuse, right? So they are, you know, they're, they're having lunch on Saturday, so to speak, you know. Um, so what we try to do is I do have counterparts that are there that I work very closely with, and again, it's that relationship building. I think it's, we, we work on a variety of different platforms, whether it's email, we use teams, we use cacao. Uh, which is the, like a WhatsApp, um, for, for in Korea. So people are, we're kind of sharing information all the time. Uh, I have, uh, meetings every other week with, um, my team in Korea and then a lot of other, you know, popup meetings I would call. But I like to have things set that we can go over a bigger agenda and then be able to just have little touch points, uh, throughout the weeks as we need to.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Yeah. And just outta curiosity, like what, what types of updates are you sharing or what types of things are they

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

in? Since literally you're kind of like, they, they aren't

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Yeah.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

so they're getting most of their information from you. So what are they

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Right. So I would say I like to over communicate in these situations. And for example, we just had a ribbon cutting for our new antibody drug conjugate facility, and that's a huge$80 million investment that we made here in Central New York and Syracuse and one of our ex we, we demoed existing. Lab space and it's a state-of-the-art, uh, a DC facility, which is kind of next generation cancer therapeutics. So again, really proud to be a part of that growth since I was, no one was coming over from Korea, for example, for, for the ribbon cutting, uh, except our CEO and some other key, key leaders. But I knew that I had to have a very thorough event plan, making sure that I was. Culturally appropriate with do everything that I was doing. I wanted to be really mindful, uh, that we didn't americanize this in too much and make, make it inappropriate from any cultural perspectives. I credit my training, uh, you know, always working at global institutions, uh, for that and again, being very, um, cognizant of. How we most appropriately recognize the moment and celebrate it down to the colors that we used. Were they appropriate? How do we is, is, is red appropriate? Is it not appropriate? It's, you know, within our brand colors. But I just wanted to make sure that every, every detail was extremely thought out and well-planned. So started about six weeks in advance, sharing documents, an event plan, getting feed. Their feedback from that. Making sure that at our corporate headquarters, everything was aligned. Uh, these are situations where I feel that you ask for permission, not forgiveness, right? You know, sometimes it's the other way around. But in this instance, I wanted to be extremely respectful of our CEO and our, um, our chairman, you know, who we're gonna be coming for the, for the event, uh, in very delicate and sensitive matters handled appropriately. So I think that's another. Gift that I've kind of gotten along the way with working with different leaders, uh, the, um, that VIP treatment that, you know, making the most appropriate decisions they have sometimes, again, have to be super quick, but we have to pivot and make a decision for whatever we needed. And, you know, having an outdoor event in Syracuse in March is always risky. So

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

your fingers.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

it was, I, well, I had my backup to my back backup. Right. I always like to say with event management, you have to have your doomsday scenario, right? We, we've had a, a quite a winter here with a lot of snow, so I had contingency plans. Uh, fortunately we ended up with a. Glorious spring day and, uh, you know, everything went off just without, without a hitch. But I was super excited that, you know, we didn't have to go to the plan B as I, as I already,

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Or C or D

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

yeah, Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Ab Absolutely. And it's the, the devil's really in the details with those events. Particularly I think to instill confidence in A-C-E-O-I wanted him to walk in. We really did a very brief run through. I had to run a show, here's how this is going to work. And you have to have a command and control of the situation, uh, and then be able to be flexible throughout it.'cause I was also serving as mc for the event. So I couldn't, you know, troubleshoot from the sides or anything, uh, like I normally would. But again, I think, uh, having the event management experience that I do, coupled with the ceremonial events that I've done, like a commencement or a convocation in higher education, where there's such a deep respect for protocol and tradition, it really, you know, at the time you don't think, you don't know what's gonna help you, but those types of situations really. You know, uh, help, help me tremendously.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

It's a perfect

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Yeah.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

like. And I'm curious, are, is this, was this like a once, like a year type of event or are you doing multiple events like this? A y um, a year.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

This was the first event that I've done at this scale on our Syracuse Bio campus. We had done a, an event, I wasn't with the company at the time when, um, we made the purchase and they did a much larger ribbon cutting for, to celebrate the whole, um. The whole acquisition and purchase at the site. So, uh, this was the first to see how, you know, what, what are we gonna do? How, how do I do events? You know, I like to bring the flavor and the celebratory nature of what we do at commencement into a corporate setting. So we did have, you know, I had to have my live tr live music, you know, I made sure that there was a trumpeter and a keyboardist and really just leaning into understanding. The remarks, you know, I helped people draft their remarks. Uh, I helped, you know, do the run a show. I wanted things to be very tight. I knew that our CEO and leadership had a very tight schedule. They were only in Syracuse for a very short amount of time, and then they also wanted to tour our labs and see the facility. And it's a situation where you have to gown up, right? So you're in. Tyvek suits, zip up with, you know, hair nets and, um, beard coverings if appropriate, and gloves. So you have to allow for all that time, right? You know, what, how much, how long is this going to take? All right. We've got this amount of time so that, you know, the, the preparation is really key. Uh, but I think that if you plan it well, things, you know, things tend to go go about as well as you can. Hope for in those instances and in working with a great team on site from security to EHS and, and everybody that I had here, you have to really know how to dot connect to get everything done.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

And then after effort is done, like everyone breathes a huge sigh of relief where it's like, oh, it went off. went really

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Yeah.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

that's amazing. Um, do, so I'm curious, focus is mostly in your. In your, um, geographic location it sounds like, but are you doing other things too with other events or, um, you know, team meetings at the

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

or with other team members? Or is it for you, is it mostly My job is to make sure we have a presence here in this, uh, central

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

area and really get our footprint there.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, I like to think that we're, we're local, but global. So I'm very focused. We're, Syracuse is the only site in, um, in Central New York that we have, uh. But I have also traveled to Europe, um, to meet with prospective customers. Uh, we have, uh, several international trade shows. Uh, we also have Bio USA that's coming up that, uh, last year was in San Diego this year. It's in, uh, Boston in June. So we're just like many, we're just kicking off into that big trade show season, which is really important for us as a new company.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Okay, so kind of chief of staff and then the communications piece seems to be emphasized where like you're getting brand recognition or you're making connections with potential partners and just getting, getting the company out

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm. Right? Yes. And I would say that my background in digital marketing really helps in this area, right? I've kind of d done a lot now that when I start talking about it, but being, having a background in digital marketing and understanding how. You can have these one to many conversations with the right, if you're targeting the right audience, and making sure that we're partnering with the right publications and being able to have, um, ed educating and, and meeting our, our audience, our prospective customers where they are. So that's done, you know, at trade shows through digital marketing, uh, through thought leadership. So I'm trying to lay the groundwork for a lot of that. Um. Uh, areas of expertise that I, I really feel that we have some great scientists, great leaders that can be able to educate people and, and are getting more and more comfortable with sharing their expertise through thought leadership.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

And how does that work? So I'm thinking like scientists who. are perhaps

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

and very technical and then trying to get that message out so perhaps non-technical

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Right.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

can understand that. Is there a bit of, bit of translation just with like the deep subject matter expertise to a general population?

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Yes. And I would say, um, I, I think that as, as a writer, you have to be able to really understand a lot of topics, right? You know, you don't need to be a deep expert in everything, but you need to have a little bit of knowledge about a lot. And my writing ability, I. Uh, because I can write fast and be able to digest things right? Tell me three things I need to be able to know. Uh, and so I work with a couple, um, really talented leaders who can teach me about biotech and what does this mean and how do I explain this? If, if, to someone with, you know, I, I always use the sixth grade science education, you know, like, how do, how do I explain this? Highly complex, you know, uh, chemistry to someone that isn't. Necessarily a scientist or doesn't have a scientific background in, in reporting. So if I can do that, then I think that a lot of other people can do, can do it. And yeah, I try to, you know, storytelling extremely important, right? That these are relatable topics that I don't think there's anyone right now unfortunately who hasn't been touched, touched by cancer, whether themselves or in their family. And what's very meaningful and inspiring to me is that we can. Work with different pharmaceutical companies to bring different therapeutics to the marketplace to help treat and extend people's lives. Right? So that's a very relatable story to people. Like there's no bad news there, right? This is all next generation manufacturing that's happening. Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

A thousand percent. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's a personal story for, for nearly

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Um, was that a challenge though, when you first got, there were people used to saying, okay, I have to be able to get, get that information out in a different way. Were you helping them learn how to, how to do that? Or was that just like, no, we're, we're happy to tell our story and we need someone to be able to. To, to package that up and

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Okay.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

out to a different audience. But we're more, we're more than happy to tell our story.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

I, I think, uh, you know, it was a little bit of a mix. There had not been a chief of staff in my role on site, you know?

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Um.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Right. So that was new and I was new to the company and, uh, to a lot of very senior and tenured individuals who'd been here. Uh, I didn't have a science background and I didn't, um. You know, I think that everything had kind of been handled what they called above site. So until Lote came in, we didn't have it. And human resources and uh, finance and communications in our facility, everything was handled what they called above site at a different location. Right. So this was kind of an education process for. Um, you know, leverage my skills, Lev lean into the experts that we've hired now, and we have to kind of figure this out. How do, how do we work together and how do we move the business forward very quickly? Um, so I, I think that that was, people are willing, I just have to give them the confidence to, um, you know, this is how we post things on LinkedIn. This is what's appropriate. Right. You know, this is how, and, and just the training, you know, I think. Biotech and pharma in general is a very conservative industry where there's, there's a lot of pro, um, you know, proprietary information that you can't sh you can't share. So I think we just have to kinda look and see, well, what can we share? What good news can we share? How do we talk about ourselves in a way that's relatable and, um, positive and, you know, demonstrating our reliability for, for customers and the quality. So we can do that in a, in a way that isn't, you know, we're not, you know, completely, um, sharing any company secrets or talking about our clients in a way that would be inappropriate. But we can talk about the good work that we're doing on, on our site. So, yeah, I think it's just being, you know, it's, it's the subtleties of communication that we can really work with people.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

And it seems like it was a very astute move by perhaps the CEO or some other leadership chairman to bring in people like yourself with the skillset that you had to. To compliment the, the amazing scientists and the different work you were doing at that deep level, but knowing that we're gonna have to have this, this component or this layer layer as well to do what we wanna do in the industry. So I was wonder,

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

like when you came in it was that a intentional move to be able to do that? What was the motivation behind

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

I like to think so. You know, I, I think it is, um, you know, in one of my former, um, managers called me the secret weapon because Right, because I could kind of. Toggle between worlds. I, I can go from manufacturing to VIP, I can go hospitality, I can, I can toggle in a lot of different roles and I think that's really the key to being a successful chief of staff is a bit of a chameleon that you can, you know. Morph into the situation that you're needed to be at. And that requires really good listening, uh, high degree of emotional intelligence, and, you know, really a, a deep sense of empathy for others. And, you know, those are the things that I, you're we're still learning, right? We're, we're still getting our feet wet in so many different things, but. What I always wanna make sure that we do is put our best foot forward, uh, in, in anything we do, whether it's the ribbon cutting or we're welcoming, um, guests to our facility, whatever it might be. Uh, you know, I think it's just important that we don't, um, make any missteps along the way. And that comes from just great teamwork, uh, good listening and great planning.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Yeah. And speaking of teamwork, who else on the team are you interacting with the most? I know you mentioned kind of the, the regular calls and meetings and then kind of the popup meetings and so forth, but I'm assuming like the CEO is one of your main people you speak with, and then are there others where it's like, yeah, you know, this person and I work pretty closely together on a regular

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Yeah, I work, uh, a lot with our senior leadership team and, uh, that's, you know, everyone from facilities to director of manufacturing to, uh, development. And, and I've learned a lot from them. Uh, you know, particularly. On, you know, the science end of things and how do we talk about ourselves?'cause they have such deep background in, in our, them our manufacturing areas and they've been on site for so long. Uh, I work a lot with our human resources team because we're con as we're standing up a lot of our own policies and, you know, ways of working. I think it's really important that we have communication with. Those, um, with our employees as much as possible. And that's also setting up the systems and to get us where I think we need to be. I like to, uh, push ourselves outside of our comfort zone a little bit and think about how we can do things different, better, faster, cheaper, you know? Uh, I think, but also what's interesting is we have to meet our employees where they are. So we have. Folks who are 24, we have folks who are 64, and those generational gaps, people want their information in different ways, right? Some people are texting constantly. Other people want that one-to-one communication. So it's, it's a matter of finding that delicate balance and encouraging people to move forward. I think, you know, in, in. Go to social media, go to LinkedIn, it's okay to watch our YouTube channels. This is how it's okay to get information this way because this is, um, we're talking about our, our talking about our brand and what we're doing, and, and a lot of times you're gonna find out on social before your manager has the opportunity to tell you something.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Yeah, and I remember I would always try to encourage our our employees to like. Like posts on social

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

and your experience, like hopefully it's a good experience. But like those are the best brand ambassadors.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

uh, sometimes. And so things like that where if you have engagement, um, from staff in their own

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

you know, not, not twisting their words for them, but that can be some of the best marketing you can have.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Absolutely. You know, it. From a recruiting, you know, again, recruiting and retention. And I, I think using LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools that are, that's out there, um, with almost a billion people on LinkedIn around the world. And given that we're a global company, I'm a huge advocate for that. Right. You know, I think using short form video, um, using your employees as in partnering with them as experts. Particularly, I think a lot of people are like, no, I don't, I don't, I don't have anything to say at this. I'm like, yes, you do. You're an expert in your field. You, you know, what are you reading? What, what do you think about certain situations that are going on? It's okay for you to post that on, on your LinkedIn channel. I think it's interesting when people have opinions. Uh, and it, it helps position us for, um, you know, our expertise and to leverage that expertise when you can lean into different articles and demonstrate, you know, that that kind of thought leadership that we're really looking for.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Yeah, so it sounds like many chiefs of staff, you're moving in and out of like event

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

and ribbon cutting and this and these big, uh, massive peak events, and then like the internal employee engagement pieces and all the

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Right. Yeah.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

talking to a fellow chief of staff and you have some words of wisdom or any advice on like how to keep yourself organized and how to keep

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

straight and like, okay, I have. amount of time and I have all these important things to do. Any, um, any advice you would, you would pass on to fellow chiefs of staff?

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Gosh, I think, um. One thing I wish I did better was I better at technology and really leaning into, so I like to really find good partners in every professional discipline on my campus. So I have my, my Peeps, you know, in in, in it, in hr. And I like to ask a lot of questions, right? Like, how do I do this better? And I think that that's when you have enough. Um, awareness that you can lean into your, uh, your technology and be a, be comfortable in your, um, in your own self. That you don't need to be the smartest person in the room, but you can leverage other people who you know, are super smart. That's, that's a skill, that's a gift. And, and I'm okay not being the smartest person in the room and asking a lot of questions. I, I think that I can. Toggle again between and, and build those relationships. And they know I can lean into them and they can lean into me when something is needed.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

as you've been in this chief of staff role for a bit now, are you becoming the go-to person for your team members for anything I.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

yeah. Um. Funny that I think we're leaning a little bit into the environmental branding on our campus and all the refresh, right? So how does that look? What does that look like on our campus? How do we refresh and make our, modernize our campus, uh, and, and lean into our, our, our corporate essence? And, you know, what we would want our visual identity to be? And so I'm helping, you know, we just got done picking out the paint colors for, uh, for different rooms and the furnishings and how do we modernize our campus so that we look like, like a 21st century company and, you know, really, uh. Having those, I, I think people really wanna take a place of pride in their workplace and being able to, we're refreshing conference rooms and shared spaces in cafeterias and what does that mean and what does that look like? And especially as we recruit talent to come to Central New York, that's very important because a lot of times, you know, they're coming from, you know, really beautiful corporate headquarters or, or wherever it might be in, in bigger cities. And we can compete with that, but it's just a matter of making sure that we're. Using our ability to lean into our visual identity. So it's everything from, uh, you know, again, paint colors and fonts and the graphics that we're putting, um, around, around our campus. And we just installed a huge 26 foot banner on the exterior of one of the buildings for the ribbon cutting. But it looks great and right, and people want that sense of pride when they come to work.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

I love that you said that because a lot of chiefs of staff don't think about that aspect, but yet people come to work every day. They wanna

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

of where they work. They wanna be, they wanna be able to share this with their family and friends and say,

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

is where I work, this is what I get. Do. And even just things like the

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

sit in, or even the

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

in if that, if the colors are bright and inviting, you have a certain energy to it versus, you know, you can imagine the, the dull

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Right.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

with kind of the rickety lights kind of creaking above them and all those things. So I think, I love that you said that'cause chiefs of staff with teammates can help create that environment for staff and for the employees and it makes so much of a difference.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

It. It really does. And I think the aesthetic of when, especially for younger, right? There's kind of, um. A huge competitive race in a lot of high, higher education institutions. Right? We see these college campuses and they're like, resorts, and so how do, right. We know you're coming and I You wanna,

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

This,

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

yeah, I was, it wasn't like that either, but I, I think what's really, I. Great is you want the students who are coming out of there, most of them are gonna go into labs, if they're going into to biotech, right. And, but our, we just renovated a beautiful new lab and it's light and bright and airy. And I, I think that those types of things really impact your, your, your mood at work, your sentiment, how you feel about your sense of place. And, and that's just really, really important. And we, we did a wonderful job of that at Syracuse University. Enormous pride in the campus. Um, arguably I think one of the most beautiful campuses on in the country, a very eclectic mix of buildings. And I took that experience from how we would continually refresh, you know, a campus that was 150 years old, plus I. And how do you make that feel modern and what modern spaces do people want? People study and work so much more collaboratively than they used to, that you have to be able to meet again, the audience where they are, the, the younger employees. They want senses of community and that, that I think really goes a long way with employee retention.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Absolutely. Yeah. You've said so much. You've said so much on meeting the audience, where they're at externally and

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

and going out to events and things like this, and then also meeting your audience. Internally, your employees and especially the younger generation. So

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Yeah.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

you've kind of got both those frames going on with your chief of staff role. Any final words of wisdom or things you want other chiefs of staff to know? Like I, I really would've liked to know this coming into the role or hear something that I found to be helpful over and over that you wanna share with people.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

Gosh. I think in this role, um. You know, being, being flexible is, is the most really listening and being flexible to see what the direction and the vision of your CEO, your general manager, that leadership team, right? What, what is that and look like and what, it's not just for the next three to six months, but what are the next three to five years look like and how do we lay that foundation for success now so that. When you move on to a different role or you're training someone who might take your role, how do you build that foundation from the ground up and then be able to pass it on to the next person? Right. You don't, people shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel if things are done. Um, done well, and I, I, I would really like, you know, for the next person who steps into my role to be like, wow, I've got this great foundation. Here's my go forward plan. This is what I need to do, and be able to, um, hit the ground running.

emily-sander_1_03-28-2025_100455:

Beautiful. Jackie, thank you so much.

jacki-grosso--she-her-_1_03-28-2025_130456:

really appreciate it. Great being with you.