Joshua Silverboard, Florida ‘98, will begin the second day of the 2019 Principled Business Leadership Institute February 15-17 with a keynote address in Atlanta.
PBLI is the Fraternity’s annual flagship event where students and alumni interact with experts in the business industry to further their professional development.
“What I’m looking forward to most is just connecting back with Alpha Kappa Psi and paying back some of the value that I got out of my experience with our Fraternity by sharing some of what I’ve learned since,” he said.
Silverboard joined AKPsi as a sophomore at the University of Florida because it aligned with his interests and offered leadership opportunities. He served on his chapter’s executive board and as a committee chair multiple times.
“I knew business was my career track from early on when I funded whatever hobby I wanted to try by selling candy out of my backpack,” Silverboard said. “I’ve had a self-sustaining income and followed my interests ever since.”
While pursuing a degree in decision and information science, he turned an Office Depot store job into an IT internship through persistence and grit after waiting outside the interview room on campus all day until they were available to speak with him. He ran marketing campaigns on campus for Varsitybooks.com during his senior year and planned to continue there after graduation, but Silverboard switched to Exxon Mobile halfway through the year when the dot-com bubble burst. Upon graduation, he filled various roles at Exxon for five years. In 2005. Silverboard obtained an MBA with concentrations in finance and management of global IT from American University in Washington, D.C.
“I decided also to look for roles with products that I shared a passion with and felt like I would have fun working on every day,” he said.
This led Silverboard from positions at Discovery Communications to Marvel Entertainment to Turner Sports, and finally on to CNN in 2012.
Silverboard advanced from senior product manager to his current role as the senior director of product management where he is responsible for Core Web, which includes CNN’s flagship websites globally. He’s had the opportunity to serve on, lead, or build teams that helped grow CNN’s digital products including websites, video experiences, election coverage, platforms, and CNN’s experiences on voice platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
Silverboard said AKPsi helped him fundamentally by teaching him how to keep taking steps out of his comfort zone to continually grow his career.
“(The Fraternity) really taught me the value of networking and leveraging not just friends and peers, but also the organizations you belong to and the various network you build to help grow yourself, grow your support network, and build your career on top of,” he said.
Silverboard hopes to encourage students at PBLI to take advantage of the opportunities to step outside their norm and into leadership roles so they can expand their skill set.
Learn more at myakpsi.org/events/pbli.
Silverboard’s biggest success in business:
–“My biggest success overall has been guiding my career into a spot that I’m passionate about, that I go into work and find opportunities to grow, coach teams, build value, and have fun every day.”
Silverboard’s biggest struggle in business:
–“I think what is most challenging and fun, especially in the media landscape, is that change is constant. There is a constant opportunity and need to learn and evolve, which means both evolving your thinking, evolving yourself, and evolving your practice, your discipline.”
