Mar 04, 2021 | 3 min read

Helping the Next Generation of Startups with Roger Liew

By: Patrick Emmons

Helping the Next Generation of Startups with Roger Liew

Roger Liew has a track record for leading cutting-edge teams. As the fifth employee of Orbitz, Roger led the team that created the original infrastructure powering orbitz.com. In the years since, he has helped lead many companies and has spent a lot of time leading the next generation of startups as a mentor and board member.

On today’s episode of Innovation and the Digital Enterprise, Roger talked about what it means to add value to a board, why a first-time board member has a hard time switching gears from operations, and why companies that need to hire from the outside haven’t done enough to develop their leaders. Take a listen to the episode for his insights.

  • (01:27) - Impact Engine
  • (03:49) - Launching Orbitz
  • (10:37) - ShopRunner separation
  • (11:54) - Disruptions are opportunities
  • (18:33) - Pure motives
  • (22:36) - Adding value on a board
  • (30:21) - Coaching and mentorship

Roger Liew is a partner at Impact Engine, a venture capital and private equity firm, investing in companies, driving positive impact and economic empowerment, education, environmental sustainability and health.

Roger has a long history leading technical teams at multiple startup companies based in Chicago. He most recently served as the Chief Technology Officer at ShopRunner.

He was a Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Orbitz Worldwide. Roger joined Orbitz in 2000 as a startup's Vice President of Technology as the company's fifth employee. He led the team that built the original technological infrastructure for the official launch of orbitz.com in June of 2001.

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Podcast episode production by Dante32.

About Patrick Emmons

If you can’t appreciate a good sports analogy, movie quote, or military reference, you may not want to work with him, but if you value honesty, integrity, and commitment to improvement, Patrick can certainly help take your business or your career to the next level. “Good enough,” is simply not in his vernacular. Pat’s passion is for relentlessly pushing himself and others to achieve full potential. Patrick Emmons is a graduate of St. Norbert College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. Patrick co-founded Adage Technologies in 2001 and in 2015, founded DragonSpears as a spin-off dedicated to developing custom applications that improve speed, compliance and scalability of clients’ internal and customer-facing workflow processes. When he is not learning about new technology, running a better business, or becoming a stronger leader, he can be found coaching his kids’ (FIVE of them) baseball and lacrosse teams and praising his ever-so-patient wife for all her support.

Recent Episodes

We interview leaders from early-stage start-ups to billion-dollar enterprises who distill their lessons from their victories and their failures. Learn how these high-performing leaders organize their teams, establish a growth-minded culture, and leverage new technologies such as DevOps and Cloud.