Lisa Lane Cardin
Executive Director
TACO BELL FOUNDATION
Lisa Lane Cardin brings more than 20 years of nonprofit leadership, strategic marketing and fundraising expertise to her role at Taco Bell Foundation. Her goals include breaking down barriers to education and inspiring the next generation of leaders. Beyond her role, Lisa is a passionate animal advocate, championing better lives for people and pets alike.
Allen Goh
Partner
WITHUM
With over 25 years of experience in public accounting, Allen Goh serves as the West Coast Team Leader for the Technology and Merging Growth Services Group. Leading a team of over 30 professionals, Goh works as a trusted advisor to founders and private equity firms, ensuring financials aren’t just accurate, they’re strategically positioned for growth and exit success.
Orange County’s innovation economy is accelerating, driven by a surge in tech startups, increased venture capital investment and technological advancement. But sustaining this growth requires more than cutting-edge technology. It calls for visionary leadership. Two dynamic OC leaders discussed with moderator Anna Magzanyan the challenges facing their organizations and the many wins they’ve experienced by being adaptable in a rapidly changing world.
SHARED INSIGHTS FROM THE EVENT
On creating a favorable idea to encourage investment: Allen Goh: A few years ago, relatively speaking, it was much easier to raise money. All you need to say was you “did AI.” The times have changed nowadays. The term that I’m hearing the most about is this concept of transformative technology. Thinking about it, it’s within a few different buckets. One of them is the need to disrupt existing industries and business models. The second part of that is creating new markets – you have to create something new. The third tenant of that is to significantly increase efficiency, productivity or accessibility. Last but not least, have a broad, far-reaching impact across multiple sectors.
On how new technologies, including AI, are shaping philanthropy: Lisa Lane Cardin: I’m super excited about what’s going to become possible and what is already possible with nonprofits being able to leverage all of these new tools. I think that the sector is historically slow to adopt new technologies just because of the scale, the fear of using resources and things that may not work. But [technology] is letting us pivot faster and it’s played a huge role in our growth in just a few years. We’ve grown from being a $10-million foundation to being a $60-million one. We’re also seeing a lot of our nonprofit partners also adapting and changing the way that they deliver services. We’ve got a lot of really great “beyond the money” programs to pair with our scholarship program. We’re looking at new and innovative ways that we can use technology and AI to bring those programs to both rural and urban communities.
On attracting the top talent in a competitive landscape: Goh: The main differentiator these days is company culture. Top talent wants to feel like they’re valued and challenged and inspired. Some of the questions that people are asking are: Is there alignment with my personal values? Do my personal values jibe with my company’s values? But, I think the biggest thing these days is – especially with the hybrid work environment – how do we keep our people engaged? People are working all over the place, doing all kinds of different things, but in order for us to move forward as an organization, we all need to stay engaged and connected.
On protecting burnout in employees and organizations: Cardin: I would be dishonest if I said we didn’t struggle with [burnout] in our space and our huge amounts of change. Our foundation has experienced rapid growth and the systems and the processes that we were using as a $10-million organization need to change. You can’t be rigid in today’s workforce. You need to be adaptable, you need to be flexible, try new things. You can be unyielding in your mission, right? That’s the thing – be unyielding in your mission, but be flexible in all other areas.
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