Episode Archive

37 episodes of The Owner's Box @WashU Olin since the first episode, which aired on March 26th, 2024.

  • Founding Values, Evolving Leaders with Chip Wade, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group

    May 26th, 2026  |  Season 3  |  55 mins 34 secs
    chip wade, danny meyer, detroit, hospitality, manhatta, new york city, ownership, restaurant, shake shack, ushg, washu

    For the final episode of this season's Owners Box, we talk to Chip Wade about how the unique approach to ownership of Union Square Hospitality Group, from its founding to its current capital stack, shapes how they go to market.

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    Follow Your Frustration: Jim McKelvey on Originality and Innovation

    March 31st, 2026  |  Season 3  |  47 mins
    entrepreneurship, innovation, philanthropy, st. louis, washu

    Today on The Owner’s Box, we are joined by Jim McKelvey. Jim is probably best known as the co-founder of Square, the payment technology company he built alongside Jack Dorsey that went on to reshape how small businesses accept payments. You may not know that Square is in a very small cadre of companies that Amazon tried to copy and couldn't, which Jim illuminates in his recent book, The Innovation Stack.  On today’s episode, Originality and Impact with Jim McKelvey.

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    Tactic's from the Owner's Box: Sustaining a Mission-Driven Media Company

    February 19th, 2026  |  Season 3  |  8 mins 13 secs
    business, family business, jeff bezos, media, mission, morgan stanley, news, the new york times, the washington post, thomas jefferson

    The Washington Post just announced it was laying off 30% of its workforce. 300 newsroom journalists told to put down their pens, entire sections gutted. How did we get here? What does it take to sustain a mission-driven media company? At the Owner's Box, we are interested in how ownership shapes a company's behavior and nowhere is that more interesting than in an industry with a mission to provide a public good.

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    S3: E4: New Growth from Deep Roots with Tad & Ben Edwards

    December 23rd, 2025  |  Season 3  |  43 mins
    a.g. edwards, brokerage firm, business, family business, father, financial services, private, public, son, st. louis

    Today’s guests are a father-son duo who have been on a fascinating journey of growing up with the family business, exiting that chapter, and deciding to start a new one. Tad Edwards was part of a multi-generational family business in the financial services industry, A.G. Edwards, that was ultimately acquired by Wachovia and then Wells Fargo. Tad took the pen on the next chapter of the family legacy by starting the firm Benjamin F. Edwards, and is now joined in the business by his son, Ben. On today’s episode, New Growth from Deep Roots with Tad and Ben Edwards of Benjamin F. Edwards.

  • Tactics from the Owner's Box: Ownership Overhaul at OpenAI

    November 6th, 2025  |  Season 3  |  7 mins 48 secs
    ai, data, family business, openai, ownership

    OpenAI's ownership redesign has the potential to shape how the technology on our screens and in our pockets affects our economy and our society. Can they deliver benefit to the public and profit to the few at the same time?

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    S3: E2: Business as a Mechanism of Change with Hatch Africa's Dave Ellis.

    October 24th, 2025  |  Season 3  |  37 mins 49 secs
    africa, business, eggs, impact investment, ngo, nonprofit, purpose, social impact

    Straight out of college, today's guest wanted to make an impact on the African continent. For him, the best way to do this was through policy or the work of a nonprofit. But early into that work, it was the pull of business and its potential to drive social value that pulled him in. Today's guest, David Ellis, is the founder and CEO of Hatch Africa, a company seeking to bring a new business model to sub-Saharan Africa to, in their words, bring eggs and chickens to every household.