Joelle Emerson: Why Company Culture Is a Core Governance Issue
Joelle Emerson, CEO and co-founder of Paradigm, discusses why company culture should be treated as a core governance issue and how boards should think about leadership, AI-driven workforce change, and the evolving politics of workplace culture.
Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein · Joelle Emerson, Evan Epstein
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Show Notes
(0:00) Intro
(1:35) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel
(2:22) Start of interview
(3:01) Joelle's origin story
(7:00) The Journey of Paradigm, the culture company she co-founded in 2014. "Our goal is to help organizations build healthy and high performing cultures where people from all backgrounds can come together, do their best work and thrive."
(11:15) On the current backlash against DEI.
(16:49) On Coinbase's "mission focused company" statement in 2020.
(21:53) The Politics of Company Culture, and Silicon Valley's approach.
(26:15) The Shift from Public to Private Companies
(29:33) AI's Impact on the Workforce
(35:18) The Role of the Board on Workplace Culture
(37:23) Talent executives and CHROs on Boards
(39:54) Rethinking Compliance in Organizations
(42:43) Evaluating an organization's culture
(45:22) Books that have greatly influenced her life:
- Growth Mindset, by Carol Dweck (2007)
- Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (2025)
- Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel (2022)
(47:04) Her mentors.
(48:24) Quotes that she thinks of often or lives her life by "Do the best you can until you know better. And then when you know better, do better." (Maya Angelou) "Forward is a pace" (heard from a Peloton instructor, Robin Arzon)
(49:08) An unusual habit or an absurd thing that she loves
(49:44) The living person she most admires (inspiring now): Lindsey Vonn.
(50:30) The Unique Perspective of a Lawyer-CEO
Joelle Emerson is the CEO and co-founder of Paradigm, a company that empowers organizations to create innovative, high-performance workplaces where everyone can do their best work.
You can follow Evan on social media at:
X: @evanepstein
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/
Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/
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Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License