Disruptor in Chief Maryville University

Dan Clerke is Maryville's director of esports and a graduate of Maryville University. Dan is an experienced esports manager with a demonstrated history of working in professional esports and higher education. He accrued over $5 million in prize winnings from teams recruited and managed at the professional level, and his teams have won multiple national championships while in charge of Maryville Esports, the top college esports program in North America. In this episode of Disruptor in Chief, Dr. Lombardi and Dan discuss the beginnings of our esports program, the current landscape, and where collegiate esports is headed. And fun fact: Dan is not just interested in helping Maryville win more trophies. He wants to elevate the entire industry - collegiate, high school, and professional esports.

We're turning the tables on Dr. Lombardi! He's usually interviewing a guest on his podcast, Disruptor in Chief. But for episode 4, he's switching seats and will be the interviewee, and Joanne Soliday will be asking the questions.

Joanne Soliday is a higher education consultant and strategic planning specialist with over thirty years of experience on college and university campuses. Following leadership positions on two college campuses, Joanne became a founding partner of Credo, a consulting firm focused on independent higher education. Since 2001, Joanne has had the privilege of working with more than 250 private colleges and universities. Her work with these institutions inspired her to author “Surviving to Thriving: A Planning Framework for Leaders of Private Colleges and Universities.” Since her retirement from full-time consulting in 2014, Joanne has served as a presenter and keynote speaker at higher education conferences across the country and is privileged to be engaged in many formal coaching relationships as a strategic advisor to independent college presidents. In 2016, Joanne was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by her alma mater. She and Dr. Lombardi are coauthors of "Pivot: A Vision For The New University."

Enjoy!

Welcome to this episode of Disruptor in Chief! Your host is Dr. Mark Lombardi, President of Maryville University. In this episode, he is joined by Phil Komarny, an award-winning senior executive, national thought leader, and Maryville's Chief Innovation Officer. Phil has been developing and motivating teams for over 25 years, and most recently served as VP of Innovation at Salesforce, where he focused on emerging technologies such as blockchain, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

Bill O'Connor is one of the foremost experts on innovation and founding partner of Agents of Innovation, an innovation consultancy based in Silicon Valley with offices in Boston. He's conducted 600 innovations with 250 corporations, working with 8,000 professionals. He's worked with Tesla, Renault, Google, Starbucks, Twitter, Autodesk, Meta, The World Bank, and many more. 

In this inaugural episode of Disruptor in Chief, Dr. Lombardi discusses the future of higher education with two Maryville University professors. Dustin York EdD is Associate Professor of Communication and a sought-after communication and innovation specialist, and Matt Raithel is Professor of Practice of Game Design and owner and studio director of Graphite Lab, a mobile game design company.