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Greg Brown shared thisOperational discipline is vital when companies are scaling, unifying teams, and adapting to a new era of AI-enabled work. Congratulations to Laura Newell-McLaughlin on being named Chief Operating Officer of Illumia. Laura has helped shape this company across several important chapters, bringing deep experience in payments, campus commerce, product strategy, and operational leadership. Just as important, she understands the standards our customers operate under every day, where reliability, execution, and trust are non-negotiable. In this new role, Laura will help strengthen the operating backbone of Illumia across systems, support, supply chain, enterprise applications, banking operations, program management, AI transformation, and our Chennai operations. Laura is the right leader for this moment. I’m grateful for her partnership, excited for what comes next, and confident in the impact she will have as Illumia continues to scale with discipline and purpose. https://lnkd.in/g-Abwg5uIllumia Names Laura Newell-McLaughlin Chief Operating OfficerIllumia Names Laura Newell-McLaughlin Chief Operating Officer
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Greg Brown shared thisThese are the final three books I wish someone would’ve given me at the beginning of my leadership career. This series shaped how I think about culture, trust, and the responsibility to create the conditions where people can do the best work of their lives. The recurring themes—accountability, humility, clarity, and commitment—are about making sure that the team’s success is placed above everything, including your personal success. -- “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek Sinek shares that high-performing cultures are built on trust and safety. People commit more deeply to a mission when they believe their leaders value them, protect the team, and make decisions for something bigger than personal reward. My dad was a coach and mentor, and I learned early from him that the greater good of the team mattered more than individual recognition. Sports reinforced that lesson for me: the best leaders remove obstacles, create confidence, and help others win. “How you do anything is how you do everything.” This applies directly to servant leadership. Putting the team first cannot be situational. When trust becomes the foundation, teams can move through disagreement, have tough conversations, make real commitments, and hold each other accountable without fear. -- “Dare to Lead” by Brené Brown I wholeheartedly agree with Brené Brown’s stance that courage and vulnerability are leadership disciplines — not soft skills, not situational tactics. And leaders who commit to it have more honest conversations and make better decisions. For me, that often means starting with ownership. There are times when I will say to my team, “I got this wrong, and here is what we are going to do differently.” That kind of ownership only works when it connects back to values. If you value humility, it must show up in how you make decisions, give feedback, and hold one another accountable. -- “Surrender to Lead” by Jessica Kriegel and Joe Terry Terry and Kriegel define leadership as the ability to set the conditions for success. That requires the humility to accept what you cannot control, the courage to change what you can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Sustained excellence requires leaders to surrender to the reality that they cannot control everything. You cannot muscle your way through every team challenge or every external constraint. It makes no sense to try. The real leadership work is shaping the conditions where the best outcomes are possible. That means recognizing the behaviors you want repeated and investing in skills development. It means building a company where people can do the best work of their lives. Leaders must set the conditions for high performance. -- Ultimately, these books will teach you that leadership is not about being the center of the story. When you can build trust, live your values, and set the conditions for others to win, your culture will scale. And that is how organizations create performance that lasts.
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Greg Brown shared thisWith one son in college and another getting ready to take that step soon, I think about higher education both as a CEO and as a parent. That’s why I wanted my first article for Forbes to focus on a topic I care deeply about: how colleges can prepare students for an AI-enabled workforce with the rigor, judgment, and practical skills they will need to succeed. Students who can question an output, protect their own reasoning, and know where human judgment is non-negotiable will be the ones who thrive. Higher education has always been at its best when it prepares students for the world they are about to inherit. AI literacy is now part of that responsibility. I hope you’ll read the full piece and join the conversation about how higher education can prepare students for the workplaces they are already entering: https://lnkd.in/g-J8vAi8Why AI Literacy Should Replace AI Suppression On CampusWhy AI Literacy Should Replace AI Suppression On Campus
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Greg Brown shared thisCollege is still one of the best investments a young person can make — but only if families are honest about what they're actually buying. The credential alone isn't enough anymore. I was glad to share some thoughts with Business Insider on how I approach this conversation with my own kids. I'm a strong believer in higher education, but I think we owe it to students to hold it to a higher standard — and to be clear-eyed about what those four years need to deliver. As AI continues to transform countless industries, a growing priority in higher education needs to be whether students leave with the capabilities that will endure as technology advances: discipline, judgment, communication, adaptability, and the ability to keep learning. College should help students learn how to think, how to work, how to use modern tools responsibly, and how to contribute in a workforce that will evolve faster than ever before. Thanks to Kelly Burch and Business Insider for including me in this timely discussion. https://lnkd.in/gspnJRTXTech execs still send their kids to college — but not for the reasons you thinkTech execs still send their kids to college — but not for the reasons you think
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Greg Brown shared thisThe first set of books I shared taught me how to build organizational clarity and execution. These taught me how to scale. They shaped how I approach leadership transitions, strategic prioritization, talent decisions, and the harder question every leadership team has to answer: defining why this company can win. -- “The First 90 Days” by Michael Watkins Momentum is never accidental in a new role. Watkins treats leadership transitions as a discipline, because no new leader—no matter how qualified— arrives with all the answers. During my first 90 days at Illumia, I used this framework to accelerate my learning, diagnose the situation, and create clarity. When you secure early wins as a leader, it builds the credibility you’ll need down the road. -- “The ONE Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan The central idea in this book is that exceptional results usually come from identifying the highest-leverage priority and ensuring relentless focus on it. The book’s “Focusing Question” asks what single action would make everything else easier or unnecessary, which is a powerful way to cut through complexity and noise. In many cases, there is one decision, one bottleneck, or one priority that will create a disproportionate business impact. That is why focus is such an important leadership responsibility. It is easy to create more priorities, but it takes discipline and clarity to identify the ONE that matters most — and ensure the organization stays aligned around it. -- “Good to Great” by Jim Collins Lasting business success comes from disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action. As a leader, you must understand what talent you need to get where you want to be, which means getting the right people on the bus in the right seats before deciding exactly where to drive it. This becomes even more important as companies scale. If you do not have the right people in the right roles, you are eventually going to feel it in your execution, culture, and results. The best organizations stay disciplined even while they evolve. -- “7 Powers” by Hamilton Helmer If you’re running a business, Helmer argues that you have to be situationally aware of both why and how you can win. This book offers one of the clearest frameworks I have seen for thinking about building a durable competitive advantage. Lasting, strong businesses build forms of power that make that performance hard to replicate, whether through switching costs, scale economies, network effects, branding, process power, cornered resources, or counter-positioning. -- These books help leaders succeed by teaching them how to learn fast, focus hard, build the right team, and be clear about why your company can win. I’ll be sharing more soon on the remaining books, with a focus on culture and leadership.
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Greg Brown shared thisIllumia is scaling with intention, and Chennai, India is central to our next chapter. Today, we announced the opening of our new Chennai Global Capability Center office, building on nearly 14 years in the city and reinforcing India’s role as a strategic hub for our global product and technology organization. Our Chennai team is helping strengthen the capabilities that matter most to our future: cloud, information security, product engineering, and operational scale. Thank you to Srinivasagopal Raman (Srini) and our Chennai leadership team, and every team member building with us. This is an important investment in exceptional talent, stronger products, and the global growth ahead. Story: https://lnkd.in/gipn36Wn
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Greg Brown shared thisIt’s encouraging to see more campuses speaking up about the value of strong Illumia and IDX experiences. When campuses like Oregon State share what’s working, it highlights how important seamless identity and access has become to the broader student journey on campus. Excited to see that momentum continue.Greg Brown shared thisJust wrapped an insightful session at NACCU 2026 with Teresa Parker and Nicole Frantilla from Oregon State University: How to Prepare for Your ID Center Software Migration. They shared their journey migrating from a legacy hosted campus ID system to Illumia’s cloud-native, multi-tenant IDX platform—along with practical advice on preparing early and involving the right stakeholders. When asked about implementation, Teresa said: “It was so smooth no one even noticed.” And on support: “I’ve never experienced better support.” That’s the point—when campus ID systems work well, nobody notices. At Illumia, we build at scale to reduce operational burden so administrators can focus on elevating the student experience. Thank you to Teresa and Nicole for sharing such valuable insights—we’re thrilled to have you in the Illumia family! 🩷 #CampusID #Illumia #OregonState #HigherEd #EdTech #NACCU #IDX #IDXUpgrade #StudentExperience #NACCU2026
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Greg Brown shared thisIn higher ed, far too many finance and administrative teams still spend time compensating for systems that do not stay aligned in real time. These teams are saddled with more manual work, more reconciliation, and less confidence in the workflows institutions depend on to serve students well. That is why its so meaningful for Illumia to receive the 2025 Ellucian Partner Award for Integration Excellence for our real-time integration between Illumia Integrated Payments and Ellucian Student, powered by Colleague. For schools, integration shapes staff capacity, operational accuracy, and the consistency of the student financial experience. When core systems work together more effectively, teams can spend less time correcting data gaps and more time supporting students and managing with confidence. I am grateful to Ellucian for this recognition, and proud of the team behind this work. Ellucian's honor reflects Illumia's broader priority across industries: reducing administrative friction and strengthening the systems institutions rely on every day. https://lnkd.in/gTwBAmuJ
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Greg Brown shared thisThese are the books I wish someone had handed me at the start of my leadership career. There are nine total that cover every core discipline that leaders need to develop credibility, make sound decisions, and lead effectively over time. These first three shaped how I think about building teams, creating clarity, and designing core operating philosophy that drives excellence. -- "The Advantage" by Patrick Lencioni The core principle is that organizational health builds competitive advantage, and that healthy organizations reduce politics, reduce confusion, and align around clarity. To say it's been influential on me is an understatement. I apply Patrick's principles across every organization I lead because they address the hard, repetitive work of creating focus and clarity. His framework centers on building a cohesive leadership team, creating clarity, overcommunicating that clarity, and reinforcing it through systems and behavior. I've seen it work time and time again. This model has enabled our leadership teams to build trust, accountability, discipline, role clarity, and organizational alignment. More than once, an executive has come to me to admit that they may have been skeptical of the approach but ended up adopting the framework with their own teams once they see the effect. Focus and clarity scale better than charisma. -- "Execution" by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan Bossidy and Charan argue that leaders have to personally drive execution by setting clear priorities, following through relentlessly, and putting the right people in the right roles. Execution is a core leadership responsibility, not a downstream activity delegated after the strategy deck is finished. To me, you can spend unlimited time refining strategy, but without discipline and rigor, you will never bring your strategy to life. Execution is what turns strategic intent into measurable progress. -- "Extreme Ownership" by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin Former SEAL Team 3 member Jocko Willink builds this book around a simple but tough standard: leaders must take ownership of all outcomes and accept responsibility for solving problems rather than deflecting them. Jocko and Babin apply battlefield leadership lessons to business and life, with leadership framed as the deciding factor in whether teams succeed or fail. I find this book profound in its simplicity. If something is off, start with your own responsibility. “It’s on me to fix it” is a far more productive instinct than looking for distance from the problem, or someone else to blame. Ownership includes results, but it also includes how you show up in relationships both business and personal. It's a life-changing mindset adjustment. I’ll be posting more soon on the other six books, with a focus on scale, strategic discipline, culture, and leadership.
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Greg Brown liked thisGreg Brown liked thisThe best entrepreneurs aren't obsessed with their solution, but with the problem itself. Taran Lent, CTO at Illumia, and our CEO, Paul David, discuss why finding your conviction is the most critical step for any founder. Ideas are easy, but staying power comes from falling in love with a problem so deeply that you’re willing to dedicate years of your life to solving it 10x better than anyone else. Conviction isn’t found in a lab; it’s found in the wild by asking the hard questions and doing the real work to understand the customer's pain. #Entrepreneurship #FounderMindset #Conviction #Innovation #ProblemSolving Listen to the full episode on Tech Can't Save Us: https://lnkd.in/ektnhhGs
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Greg Brown liked thisWhat an extraordinary week. I had the privilege of spending time with our Chennai team — collaborating with local industry leaders and opening our brand new office. It’s modern, bright, and designed for how people actually work: quiet corners for deep focus, open spaces for the kind of collaboration that sparks real ideas. But honestly, the space is secondary to the people in it. Our Chennai team is at the core of everything we build — product development, sales operations, finance, banking and accounting, marketing, global implementation, and client support. They are not a remote extension of Illumia. They are Illumia. Leaving with a full heart and a clear sense of what’s possible when talented, committed people come together around a shared mission. Thank you Chennai — for the warmth, the hospitality, and the ideas. This is just the beginning. #Illumia #Chennai #GlobalTeam #LeadershipGreg Brown liked thisA new chapter for our Chennai team 🎉 Today we inaugurated our new office at International Tech Park, expanding our Global Capability Center and reinforcing Chennai's role as a strategic hub for Illumia's global product and technology work. Nearly 14 years in. ~80 people strong. And actively hiring across cloud engineering, information security, and product engineering. Special thanks to Taran Lent and Srinivasagopal Raman (Srini) for leading the inauguration alongside our Chennai leadership team. If you're ready to build technology that powers 10,000+ higher education, healthcare, and senior living institutions worldwide, our Chennai team is hiring! https://hubs.li/Q04dShTW0 #Illumia #Chennai #GCC #Hiring #IndiaTech #GCCsinIndia
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Greg Brown liked thisGreg Brown liked thisRevolutionizing Student Payments: Western Oregon University launches comprehensive payment processing with Illumia’s Integrated Payments solution, including 529 Plan, eRefund, Payment Plan Software, Cashiering, and Illumia IFT, enhancing the student experience with convenience and flexibility! Is your campus missing out? https://hubs.li/Q04gQ9Pv0 #WesternOregonUniversity #CampusPayments #Illumia #StudentExperience #HigherEd
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Greg Brown liked thisGreg Brown liked thisWhat if the secret to scaling isn't more management, but more autonomy? Taran Lent, CTO at Illumia, explains why building independent, mission-driven teams of 8-12 people is the key to sustainable growth. When teams own a specific problem and have the trust to solve it, they become highly scalable units that move faster than any top-down hierarchy. Leadership isn't about maintaining the status quo; it's about providing the tools, training, and trust that stack the odds in your team's favor. #Scalability #TeamEmpowerment #Leadership #SoftwareEngineering #AgileTeams Listen to the full episode on Tech Can't Save Us: https://lnkd.in/ektnhhGs
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Greg Brown liked thisGreg Brown liked thisYOUR CEO SCORECARD: The latest Executive Whisperer breaks down what separates elite CEOs from everyone else.
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Greg Brown liked thisThese are the final three books I wish someone would’ve given me at the beginning of my leadership career. This series shaped how I think about culture, trust, and the responsibility to create the conditions where people can do the best work of their lives. The recurring themes—accountability, humility, clarity, and commitment—are about making sure that the team’s success is placed above everything, including your personal success. -- “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek Sinek shares that high-performing cultures are built on trust and safety. People commit more deeply to a mission when they believe their leaders value them, protect the team, and make decisions for something bigger than personal reward. My dad was a coach and mentor, and I learned early from him that the greater good of the team mattered more than individual recognition. Sports reinforced that lesson for me: the best leaders remove obstacles, create confidence, and help others win. “How you do anything is how you do everything.” This applies directly to servant leadership. Putting the team first cannot be situational. When trust becomes the foundation, teams can move through disagreement, have tough conversations, make real commitments, and hold each other accountable without fear. -- “Dare to Lead” by Brené Brown I wholeheartedly agree with Brené Brown’s stance that courage and vulnerability are leadership disciplines — not soft skills, not situational tactics. And leaders who commit to it have more honest conversations and make better decisions. For me, that often means starting with ownership. There are times when I will say to my team, “I got this wrong, and here is what we are going to do differently.” That kind of ownership only works when it connects back to values. If you value humility, it must show up in how you make decisions, give feedback, and hold one another accountable. -- “Surrender to Lead” by Jessica Kriegel and Joe Terry Terry and Kriegel define leadership as the ability to set the conditions for success. That requires the humility to accept what you cannot control, the courage to change what you can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Sustained excellence requires leaders to surrender to the reality that they cannot control everything. You cannot muscle your way through every team challenge or every external constraint. It makes no sense to try. The real leadership work is shaping the conditions where the best outcomes are possible. That means recognizing the behaviors you want repeated and investing in skills development. It means building a company where people can do the best work of their lives. Leaders must set the conditions for high performance. -- Ultimately, these books will teach you that leadership is not about being the center of the story. When you can build trust, live your values, and set the conditions for others to win, your culture will scale. And that is how organizations create performance that lasts.
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