Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders

Updated: 25 Jun 2025 • 183 episodes
www.icrinc.com

In the increasingly crowded and competitive corporate and financial ecosystem, it’s harder than ever for companies to break through the clutter and be heard. The media, investors, agenda-driven influencers, even customers and competitors, are defining your business story on their terms. Therefore, it is imperative that companies take control and proactively drive the conversation with stakeholders in an effort to build & maintain equity value. In Welcome to the Arena from ICR, Co-Founder & CEO of ICR, Tom Ryan, interviews key business and financial players who influence the fate of public or aspiring public companies in the capital markets. As a former Wall Street Journal ranked sell-side equity analyst and the founder of one of the largest strategic communications firms in the world, Tom understands what it takes to navigate this complex environment. This is a forum for CEOs, CFOs, institutional investors, sell-side analysts, financial journalists, private equity professionals and other financial community participants to share their stories and give advice in an open and candid conversation. For more information, visit http://www.icrinc.com

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Summary:  At this point, most Americans will probably be familiar with the media company, Newsmax. Their political slant has garnered the company its fair share of criticism, but their growth in recent years has been undeniable.    Chris Ruddy is the CEO of Newsmax Media, which trades under the symbol NMAX. Chris began

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Back in January, we had on Julie Masino, the President and CEO of Cracker Barrel, who walked us through her strategy for transforming the brand, and gave great insights into general trends in the restaurant industry. Since it's summer time, and patio season is in full swing, we thought now would be a good time to revis

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Dash Miller may not be a CEO, but like many of the people we feature on this show, he is a true leader, he has a vision, and he's executing on his plan. Sometimes life forces you to grow up quickly, and that's exactly what happened to Dash. He lost his 16-year-old brother Callum after a five year battle with cancer. An

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Summary: Back in February, we were joined on the show by Stuart Haselden, CEO of outdoor apparel company, Arc'Teryx. Hearing about his retail philosophy and personal story was absolutely fascinating, so we decided to revisit the episode for listeners who may have missed it the first time around.     You’ve heard it bef

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Given the new administration's tariff policy and the global unease we've seen in recent months, we felt it was a good time to pick the brain of someone who's spent decades studying China's economy and its evolving relationship with the United States. Andy Rothman is the founder and CEO of Sinology, a consulting firm th

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When you stop to fill up your car with gas, you might also pop into the store to grab a quick bite, or a gatorade, or that carton of milk you forgot to get at the supermarket.  One company has managed to leverage that common retail experience into a real-estate empire. Chris Constant is the president and Chief Executiv

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