Faith Collides

Do you feel like a jack-of-all-trades, but master of none? Has your career taken a very non-linear path, as you bounced back and forth between different callings and passions? If so, you’ll probably resonate deeply with Max Anderson’s story. Max is currently the managing partner of Saturn Five, a venture fund in Denver, Colorado. But in the past 20 years, Max has also worked for McKinsey & Company, at Tim Keller’s Redeemer Church in New York City, and for Bridgewater Associates, one of the largest hedge funds in the world. He also came up with an idea called “The MBA Oath” that was so popular during his time at Harvard that he gained national attention from news outlets like CNN, NPR, and The New York Times. It’s basically a Hippocratic oath for MBA students who wanted to pledge to conduct themselves with honesty and integrity in the midst of the 2008 global financial crisis. Max has accomplished a lot, but it hasn’t always been easy. There were times when he didn’t know whether he should stay in the business world or work in Christian ministry. He was also torn between going to seminary and becoming a pastor, or going to business school and pursuing his MBA. Then, there was the time when Max had to decide, point blank, if he wanted to keep his job or write a book instead. None of these decisions were clear cut, but Max Anderson relied on his faith to help him be at peace no matter what he decided. We hope you’ll be encouraged by this episode if you’re not sure what’s next in your career, need help making a big decision, or feel drawn in different directions at the same time. By the way, you can subscribe to Max’s weekly newsletter here. Special thanks for this episode: Max and Jessica Anderson, Molly Ray, Trae Stephens, Josh Batson and Jen Lazala ­­­__________________________ Support Faith Collides podcast now on Buy Me A Coffee Or with a review—>  http://bit.ly/FaithC0llid3s Faith Collides podcast is hosted by Grace Huang from Lux Mundi.  More info rmation: www.lxmundi.com

Akeel Sachak is an investment banker in the United Kingdom, working for Rothschild & Co. He’s been with the company since 1985. Over the past 35 years, Akeel has climbed the ranks from junior analyst to Partner and Global Head of Consumer. Over the years, Akeel’s specialty is food and beverage related transactions. He’s helped companies like Coca-Cola, Asahi, and Weetabix through mergers & acquisitions, and strategic and financial advising. He’s had a fulfilling career, made lots of money, and generally been successful in his work. But Akeel’s main passion isn’t his job – it’s his Christian faith. Originally raised in a Muslim family, Akeel came to know Jesus at Oxford University after hearing an evangelist speak. Akeel then met his wife Joy at a church. At first, Akeel was timid about sharing his faith at work. But over time, he’s come to see that his job and beliefs can go hand-in-hand. He’s also realized that it was wrong to gather wealth without sharing it with others. You may not often hear investment banking and Christianity in the same sentence, but Akeel is used to being different than his peers. Growing up, Akeel was typically one of the only people of color in whatever setting he was in. From his boarding school to early days at Rothschild, Akeel was always in the minority. But even when he experienced racism, Akeel learned to work harder and trust in God by not worrying about things outside of his control. Akeel’s biggest challenges have come from balancing his work and family and making sure that he wasn’t investing too much of his time and energy into his career. He’ll share more of how he figured that out, and what he’s learned from the pandemic, on this episode. Feel free to let us know how this story has impacted you! Send us your thoughts or feedback via email or in an audio message Special thanks for this episode: Akeel and Joy Sachak, Mandy Paulse, Josh Batson, Jenn Lazala ______ Inspired by Akeel Sachak’s story and want to learn more on how he’s applied faith at work, check out the following links: Gospel Patrons City Lives ______ Support Faith Collides podcast now on Buy Me A Coffee Or with a review—>  http://bit.ly/FaithC0llid3s Faith Collides podcast is hosted by Grace Huang from Lux Mundi.  More information: www.lxmundi.com

Nona Jones is Head of Faith-Based Partnerships at Facebook. It’s her job to teach faith communities how to stay connected and engaged through social media. As a Christian, Nona loves helping churches across the country do “digital discipleship” while also assisting her husband pastor a church in Florida. But Nona’s life wasn’t always so great. Her childhood was filled with loneliness, neglect, and all kinds of abuse: physical, verbal, emotional, and sexual. Nona was so broken by her experiences that she tried to take her own life twice. Things turned around when a friend invited Nona to church in the sixth grade. As she experienced unconditional love and acceptance for the first time in her life, Nona began to do better in school, eventually earning a full-ride scholarship to the University of Florida. After initially pursuing a medical degree, she switched to Communications. After college, Nona bounced around a few different jobs, first with a broadcasting company, then Nationwide Insurance, and a utility company in Florida. Eventually, she found a job she really loved and saw herself doing for a long time at Pace Center for Girls. But then she heard God say: “this assignment is over.” Nona Jones turned in her resignation without having a new job to go to but being unemployed didn’t last long. She’ll tell more in this episode about the story of getting a random phone call from Facebook and what she does in her role there. Nona’s learned from her traumatic past that nothing bad can define us, if we allow God to use it. She’s especially aware of the importance of community and sharing our stories with people we trust. Of course, that’s not easy to do right now as the pandemic continues, but Nona is confident that we can have hope anyway. Her story is one of overcoming an incredibly difficult start in life and not letting brokenness stop her from living out her purpose. ______ Get a copy of Nona’s books from the links below: Success from the Inside Out: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PQ4Z88N/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 From Social Media to Social Ministry: https://www.amazon.com/Social-Media-Ministry-Digital-Discipleship-ebook/dp/B081MZQV78 Love Nona’s story and want to know more? Feel free to connect with her. Nona Jones’ website: https://www.nonajones.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NonaNotNora Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/nonanotnora Special thanks for this episode: Nona Jones, Antwan Steele, Josh Batson, Jenn Lazala Support Faith Collides podcast now on https://www.buymeacoffee.com/faithcollides Or with a review—>  http://bit.ly/FaithC0llid3s Faith Collides podcast is hosted by Grace Huang from Lux Mundi.  More information: www.lxmundi.com

Peter Demos is a restaurateur and the CEO of Demos Brands, a family business that his father started. He successfully owns and runs multiple restaurants, but his career has had plenty of failure, too. Peter started working in his dad’s restaurant before he was even a teenager. He loved the community of “restaurant people,” but was also interested in becoming a lawyer after he saw the proceedings of a court case. During his undergrad years in college, Peter got in over his head with thousands of dollars in credit card debt… until he discovered some practical money management principles that he’s carried with him to this day. After law school, Peter started working for a firm in Tennessee, but realized it wasn’t something he wanted to do long-term. And so, things came full circle when he rejoined his dad’s business, taking over the management of the restaurant and eventually buying it from his father. All this time, the Christian faith wasn’t a huge part of Peter’s life. He’d gone to a Christian school as a kid, but had terrible memories of being bullied there by his classmates. His wife often asked him to go to church, but Peter’s focus was on making the restaurants successful – and he did that. And then one day, everything changed when Peter made the decision to become a Christian Instead of his business increasing in size and scope, a new high end restaurant concept he’d been working on began to fail miserably. Peter questioned why God would allow that to happen, but looking back, he sees how God was teaching him valuable lessons about facing fear, trusting Jesus, and handling failures… all of which have been vitally important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Peter’s life is proof that God’s plans for us are much greater than commercial or career success. If you’d like to hear more of his story, you can check out his new book, Afraid to Trust: One Man’s Journey Into the Love of God. Special thanks for this episode: Peter and Kristin Demos, Kristin Nill, Josh Batson, Jenn Lazala Support Faith Collides podcast with a review—>  http://bit.ly/FaithC0llid3s

Emma Anderson is Head of Solutions Delivery at Planet, a payments company based in Ireland, that provides services to companies like Starbucks, Adidas and Kate Spade. It’s an industry we don’t often talk about - yet it’s played a vital role in enabling our ability to make online payments and digital transactions. Emma had several stops along the way to get to this point, but her original career goal had nothing to do with the payments industry. Her parents were missionaries, and that inspired Emma to pursue being a medical missionary. But Emma struggled to make it through the rigorous and demanding coursework of medical school at the University of Birmingham in the UK. So, she dropped out and started working as a sales and operations coordinator for a heavy machinery company. In 2007, Emma was introduced to the endless possibilities in the world of digital payments when she accepted a position at Barclays. And then pivoted to a Senior Marketing Manager role at Visa to promote digital payment products and services to greater Europe.  And eventually took a position with Elavon that involved less travel when she needed to think seriously about starting a family. Emma absolutely loved working at Elavon, a subsidiary of U.S. Bank, until some changes shook up the company’s focus on ethical business practices. Knowing the importance of transparency in the financial world, Emma spoke up as a whistleblower at the risk of more losses to the company and ruining her relationship with her boss. Honesty is a big part of Emma’s story, so when she was later offered a new job in the UAE around the same time she finally got pregnant, she knew she had to turn it down. After the birth of their first child, Emma then took a position with Planet where she works today. Emma’s story is all about the importance of honesty and trusting God when the outcome looks different than what we imagined. Special thanks for this episode: Emma and Robin Anderson, Amy Maxson, Jenn Lazala and Josh Batson -------------------------------------------------------------------- Support Faith Collides podcast with a review—>  http://bit.ly/FaithC0llid3s Faith Collides podcast is hosted by Grace Huang from Lux Mundi.  More information: www.lxmundi.com

Trae Stephens is a partner at Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm with a portfolio that includes Airbnb, SpaceX, and Palantir. Trae is also the chairman and co-founder of Anduril Industries, a rapidly growing US defense technology company with over 350 employees, and a valuation of $1.9 billion. In this bonus content, Trae opens up on how he met his wife Michelle, how he learnt about stock options when he moved to big data start-up Palantir after working for the US intelligence, how he had to solidify his faith at Georgetown and how faith continues to impact the way he believes we should be working to make this world a better place. Full transcript of the interview story on www.faithcollides.com/traestephens_bonus

Trae Stephens is a partner at Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm with a portfolio that includes Airbnb, SpaceX, and Palantir. Trae is also a co-founder of Anduril Industries, a rapidly growing US defense technology company with over 350 employees, and a valuation of $1.9 billion. Trae opens up on growing up in rural Ohio with a grandfather who was the pastor of his church. He shares how he had the opportunity to travel to the Middle East on an overseas mission trip, what it was like to be the editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper, and how the events of 9/11 prompted him to pursue a different career path— one that may not have panned out without bold steps and prayerful intervention of getting on the waitlist at Georgetown University. Upon graduating in 2005, Trae secured a data analytics role in the US Intelligence community, working on identifying and tracing intelligence to terrorists’ activities. But despite getting into what he wanted to do after high school, Trae could not bear the bureaucracy within government, and in 2008, started working at a big data start-up Palantir Technologies as one of its early employees. Palantir (NYSE: PLTR) now valued at more than $45 billion was co-founded by Peter Thiel. While Trae was at Palantir, he came to know Peter Thiel, who was known to be the first investor in Facebook and one of the co-founders of PayPal. And through this connection, Trae was able to pivot into venture capital in 2014, and also merge his expertise of defense technology with investments. At Founders Fund, Trae saw the opportunity to start the next big unicorn in defense technology. In 2017, Trae partnered with Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus, to start Anduril Industries, a company building advanced technologies to solve some of the most important and complex national security challenges. Read more on Trae's perspective on ethical warfare: The Ethics of Defense Technology Development: An Investor’s Perspective  While Trae has done exceptionally well in his career, he continues to share how his faith has shaped the way he thinks about his work and his successes so far. Listen to Trae’s incredible story on this podcast. Special thanks for this episode: Trae and Michelle Stephens, Elena Cladianos, Jennifer Lazala

Today Brad Kellogg is the Director of Consulting Services at Houston Methodist Global Healthcare, and he opens up on how his career journey has involved plenty of risks, a lot of change, and a humble reliance on God. Early in life, Brad learned about the ups and downs that can come with working. His family ran a car rental franchise, but the business went bankrupt in the 1980s. And as a kid, Brad started a successful lawn care company with a friend, and also experienced some challenging issues at church that made him come to his own faith. As Brad entered university, he had a desire to work as an engineer internationally after an internship in East Africa. When Brad graduated, he found a full-time engineering position with Schlumberger, a publicly traded oilfield services company. But entered the workforce when oil prices dropped to historical lows, so he experienced job uncertainty during his first months relocating to Texas. While Brad was able to keep his job and move up the corporate ladder, he and his wife Amy would have to transfer to Abu Dhabi and then to Venezuela. That’s when Brad felt like he was a cog in a big machine, and eventually took a large pay cut to shift industries from oil to healthcare. He started as a biomedical engineer and worked his way up to COO of a well-known hospital, Oasis Hospital now Kanad Hospital in the United Arab Emirates. Brad’s learned to hold things loosely and trust that whatever’s next is ultimately part of God’s plan for his life. You’ll hear more about it on this episode of Faith Collides. Special thanks for this episode: Brad and Amy Kellogg, Shaina Lee, Jennifer Lazala and Josh Batson Support Faith Collides podcast with a review—>  http://bit.ly/FaithC0llid3s Faith Collides podcast is hosted by Grace Huang from Lux Mundi.  More information: www.lxmundi.com

Jon Chiu did everything right to ensure a successful career by excelling in school, getting an engineering degree from UCLA, and landing a full-time job with an investment management firm right out of college. It looked like things had lined up quite nicely for Jon. But the year was 2008, and a financial crisis was about to crash the economy and change the world. Jon lost his job after only a few months. He reluctantly decided to work as a cashier at his sister’s frozen yogurt shop. All his hard work and his expensive degree felt pretty meaningless at that point. But Jon Chiu didn’t give up. He went back to school, earning a master’s from Stanford. Then he was hired as a management consultant for the prestigious McKinsey and Company. He thrived there, using his problem-solving skills to help the company’s clients make informed, data-driven decisions. Jon also worked at Google for a few years, and then came back to McKinsey as an Engagement Manager. Jon was good at what he did – but the long hours and high stress environment made him realize his faith and family were being put on the back burner. As Jon considered making a career change, his wife was given a job transfer from Silicon Valley to Los Angeles. Jon sent out his resume, hoping to find a new company in LA to work for that would give him a better work-life balance. Jon ended up as the Director of Strategy and Finance at Blizzard Entertainment, a video game company well-known for titles like World of Warcraft and Overwatch. For the past few years, especially during the COVID pandemic, Jon has enjoyed working in the video game industry. He’s achieved a better work-life balance and is happy to know that his company has helped people stay connected virtually during times when physical connection wasn’t possible. Jon’s story is all about overcoming obstacles by never giving up, always being ready to move on to the next thing when it’s time and trusting in God to help you make the right decisions. He shares more on this episode of Faith Collides. Special thanks for this episode: Jon and Karen Chiu, Jennifer Lazala, Josh Batson and Martin Garcia Support Faith Collides podcast with a review—>  http://bit.ly/FaithC0llid3s Faith Collides podcast is hosted by Grace Huang from Lux Mundi.  More information: www.lxmundi.com

Arin Pinto grew up in Texas yet has worked all over the world. His first trip abroad to India was a college internship with Goldman Sachs. After getting a master’s degree from Stanford University, he moved to China to study and do an internship with an energy-focused non-profit. From there, Arin moved to Ethiopia to take a low paying job with a private equity firm. When he tried to start his own business there, it failed, and he went back to the United States to figure out his next move. That’s when Arin discovered that “there’s a deeper, spiritual, mental, emotion element to what people need and it’s not just money.” On this episode of Faith Collides, he’ll share how he reached that point, and how it changed his mindset. Then, you’ll hear how Arin worked his way from sub-contracting to being on the management team of Khudairi Group, a Houston-based company focused on the oil and gas sector in Iraq.  It’s a story that will open your eyes to what it might look like to work in emerging markets. It’ll also give you a taste of what got Arin into energy, and how this industry drives economies and may evolve in the future. Special thanks for this episode: Arin and Rachel Pinto, Jennifer Lazala, and Josh Batson Support Faith Collides podcast with a review—>  http://bit.ly/FaithC0llid3s Faith Collides podcast is hosted by Grace Huang from Lux Mundi.  More information: www.lxmundi.com