LVEDC President & CEO Don Cunningham interviews Crayola President & CEO Rich Wuerthele for the first entry in LVEDC’s executive virtual interview series.

The Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) concluded its executive video interview series last week, speaking with 10 new corporate leaders at some of the largest companies and employers in the Lehigh Valley.

The series, released weekly over the last three months, was so well-received that LVEDC plans to produce and release a second series of video interviews with Lehigh Valley executives next year, according to LVEDC President & CEO Don Cunningham.

“This new generation of leaders are shaping the future of some of our region’s biggest companies, and by extension the broader Lehigh Valley economy,” Cunningham said. “We’re pleased to have had this opportunity to introduce them to a wide audience, and will continue to do so in the future.”

The video series, which began in September, included interviews with new leaders of such companies as B. Braun, Capital BlueCross, Crayola, FL Smidth, Follett, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network, PPL Corporation, and Sharp Packaging Solutions, among others.

The videos were released weekly on LVEDC’s Facebook page, and were made available for later viewing on the LVEDC website and YouTube channel. A YouTube playlist with each of the videos can be found here, and viewers are encourage to share and embed the interviews on their own websites.

Lehigh Valley has seen an unprecedented amount of new leadership at major employers in recent weeks, with at least 15 companies hiring new presidents or CEOs. LVEDC conceived the interview series as a way to introduce these new leaders to the region at a time when in-person gathering and networking events were limited due to the COVID-19 crisis.

“In these challenging times where we can’t meet as we usually do, we thought this was a great opportunity to introduce the new leaders who are shaping the future of the Lehigh Valley, that are running the companies that drive forward the economy,” Cunningham said.

The video series was reached by nearly 5,000 unique viewers, a far larger viewership than if the interviews had been limited to in-person audiences, according to LVEDC Director of Marketing Liz Martin.

Cunningham expressed his gratitude for the sponsors who supported the executive interview series, without whom the interviews would not have been possible.

The Lehigh Valley Health Network was the presenting sponsor for the series, with Capital BlueCross as the premier sponsor. Gold sponsors included BB&T, now Truist, Fitzpatrick, Lentz & Bubba, and PenTeleData. Crayola and Good Shepherd Rehabilitation were event sponsors for the series; Follett LLC was the interview sponsor, Countess Communications was the production sponsor, and ArtsQuest was the venue sponsor.

The series is being recorded and produced by Countess Communications, a Lehigh Valley video and media firm. ArtsQuest provided access to indoor space large enough for safe distancing for the interviews. There was no in-person audience for the interviews, which adhered to public health and social distancing standards.

Each video interview is a 30-minute, one-on-one conversation between Cunningham and the executives about who they are, their thoughts on leadership, the companies they lead, and doing business in the Lehigh Valley.

The videos from the executive interview series can be viewed below:

Rich Wuerthele, President & CEO of Crayola:

Korey Kohl, President of Follett:

Jean-Claude Dubacher, Chairman & CEO of B. Braun Medical Inc. (US):

Michael Spigel, President & CEO of Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network:

BB&T, now Truist’s Travis Rhodes, Regional President Delaware Valley/Lehigh Valley Region; and Arthur Dorn, Lehigh Valley Market President:

Pat Turner, FLSmidth’s President of the North America region:

Todd Shamash, President & CEO of Capital BlueCross:

Kevin Orfan, President of Sharp Packaging U.S.:

Vincent Sorgi, CEO of PPL Corp.:

Matthew Sorrentino, CEO of HNL Lab Medicine: