Learn from Leaders
Learn from Leaders is just one way the Lakeland Business Management program provides value-added experiences for our students and community.
Access to local leaders in business management, human resources, entrepreneurship and leadership gives students and community members the opportunity to learn from the best, ask questions and gain invaluable insight into the business world.
The following event requires registration!
View the live presentation videos from our previous guests here.
Panelists:
With 13 years of experience in the Habitat for Humanity network, Chad has dedicated his career to supporting families in need of safe and affordable housing. For the past three years, he has been an integral part of the Lake-Geauga Habitat for Humanity ReStore and now serves as Executive Director, where he continues to champion the organization's mission. Before joining Lake-Geauga Habitat for Humanity, Chad worked for Habitat for Humanity of Portage County for nine years, further solidifying his passion for serving families and making a lasting impact in the community. Chad also had the opportunity to participate in two international Habitat mission trips-one to El Salvador and another to Vietnam-where he gained firsthand knowledge of Habitat's global initiatives, seeing how the organization helps improve living conditions and empower communities around the world.
Outside of work, Chad enjoys spending time with his family, which includes his wife and daughter, in their home in Stow. He has a passion for gardening, cultivating both flowers and vegetables in his yard. Halloween is another special time of year for him, as he loves decorating his home and celebrating the season with his family.
Nathan Rutz is a professional composter which means he gets to drive big machines, start hundreds of seedlings, think critically about our social-ecosystem, and talk about poop and corpses in professional settings. He works as Director of Soil at Rust Belt Riders Composting in Cleveland Ohio, a worker-owned cooperative that rescues food from the landfill and makes and sells compost and compost based products for home gardeners and organic growers under the name Tilth Soil. He is a Certified Compost Operations Manager through the US Compost Council and elected board member of the Ohio Organics Council. Rust Belt Riders won best small scale composter of the year from USCC in 2019, a special recognition award from SWANA-Buckeye chapter in 2022, and the H Clark Gregory Award for outstanding service to the compost industry through grassroots efforts from the USCC in 2024. Nathan is glad to be living on Earth and hopes that compost can play a role in healing broken places while making use of squandered sunshine.
Brandi Haught | Banking Relationship Manager at Key Bank
Mariam Shamszad | Technology Development Manager at Lubrizol Corporation
