Grey Matter with Declan Kelly: Inside the Minds of the People Who Move the World

Carl Lewis is widely regarded as one of the most dominant athletes of the modern era. For more than a decade, he was the fastest man in the world, winning nine Olympic gold medals, going undefeated in the long jump for ten years, and becoming one of the most recognized athletes on the planet.
Over the course of his career, Lewis came to understand that dominating track and field had a dual effect. It brought extraordinary visibility and influence, allowing him to challenge the sport’s amateur model and advocate for athlete compensation. It also placed him under constant scrutiny, where anything less than perfection was viewed as failure and every position he took invited resistance. 
In this episode of Grey Matter, Lewis sits down with Consello Founder, Chairman and CEO Declan Kelly to discuss what it means to occupy the top position in the world for an extended period, the responsibility and scrutiny that followed, and what that level of sustained success demands. 
In this conversation, Carl discusses:
How his parents taught him to track personal bests instead of placements and why that shaped his entire approach to competition
The decision to follow Tom Tellez to the University of Houston and why choosing what he asked for over what felt comfortable defined his career
Why he became one of the first advocates for professionalizing track and field and the resistance he faced from every direction
The mental discipline and strategic intimidation required to remain undefeated in the long jump for an entire decade
What the losses to Mike Powell and Joe DeLoach taught him that winning never could
Why he returned to coaching at the University of Houston, doing exactly what his parents did before him
About Consello

Consello is an Advisory and Investing Platform with offices in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Dublin, Belfast, London, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.

Consello’s distinct advisory practices provide the complete strategic counsel today’s leaders need to grow and transform their organizations. Consello’s advisory expertise spans Corporate Advisory; M&A; Management Consulting; Talent; and Sports and Entertainment. Dedicated teams operate in each practice, led by a leadership group with deep operational experience across industries, business growth stages and market cycles and with an expansive set of global corporate relationships.

Consello’s investment business, Consello Capital, identifies high-potential mid-market companies and invests capital and expertise to transform their growth.

For more than four decades, Mike Wirth has built his career at Chevron, rising through an organization where major decisions are expected to stand up over long periods and where leadership judgment is assessed through enduring outcomes rather than immediacy.
When he became Chairman and CEO, the company was operating in an environment that placed a growing emphasis on capital discipline and on the durability of long-dated investment decisions. That context sharpened the importance of pragmatic judgment around expansion, particularly in moments when outside pressure made it easier to pursue scale than to step back.
In this episode of Grey Matter, Wirth sits down with Consello Founder, Chairman and CEO Declan Kelly to discuss institutional endurance and the role pragmatic discipline plays in long-cycle decision-making.
In this conversation, Mike discusses:
•The decision to walk away from the Anadarko acquisition, and how capital discipline shaped Chevron’s approach even as pressure intensified
•The Hess transaction, including the importance of contractual clarity and why maintaining established frameworks mattered more than speed in resolving uncertainty
•How pragmatic judgment guides decisions when public narratives and market momentum diverge from long-term institutional priorities
•Why leadership in long-horizon businesses requires comfort with near-term criticism in order to preserve credibility and coherence over time
•The formative experiences that shape how he thinks about individual limits and the difference between perceived capacity and actual capability

About Consello

Consello is an Advisory and Investing Platform with offices in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Dublin, Belfast, London, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.

Consello’s distinct advisory practices provide the complete strategic counsel today’s leaders need to grow and transform their organizations. Consello’s advisory expertise spans Corporate Advisory; M&A; Management Consulting; Talent; and Sports and Entertainment. Dedicated teams operate in each practice, led by a leadership group with deep operational experience across industries, business growth stages and market cycles and with an expansive set of global corporate relationships.

Consello’s investment business, Consello Capital, identifies high-potential mid-market companies and invests capital and expertise to transform their growth.

For nearly 140 years, The Coca-Cola Company has grown by building one of the most enduring and recognizable brand systems in the world, expanding across markets and categories while maintaining a level of global consistency. 
That scale and reach became a defining strength, but it also required a new approach as consumer behavior, technology, and expectations evolved.
When James Quincey became Chairman and CEO, he approached that moment with a mindset shaped by engineering and operational discipline. Rather than relying solely on precedent, he focused on how complex systems perform under changing conditions.
Under his leadership, The Coca-Cola Company expanded its portfolio, evolving into a total beverage company while modernizing its operating model. The intent was not to diminish the brand’s legacy, but to protect it by ensuring the system around it remained fit for the future.
In this episode of Grey Matter, Quincey sits down with Consello Founder, Chairman and CEO Declan Kelly to discuss what it takes to lead an iconic institution through change, balancing preservation with progress.
In this conversation, Quincey discusses:
•How an engineering background informed his approach to leadership and decision-making
•Why simplifying parts of the organization became a way to strengthen focus 
•Streamlining the portfolio while innovating for the future
•How leaders act decisively without waiting for perfect information
•Why “everything communicates” inside an organization, from dress code  to operating decisions
•The responsibility of protecting the core of an iconic brand while still innovating offerings

About Consello

Consello is an Advisory and Investing Platform with offices in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Dublin, Belfast, London, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.

Consello’s distinct advisory practices provide the complete strategic counsel today’s leaders need to grow and transform their organizations. Consello’s advisory expertise spans Corporate Advisory; M&A; Management Consulting; Talent; and Sports and Entertainment. Dedicated teams operate in each practice, led by a leadership group with deep operational experience across industries, business growth stages and market cycles and with an expansive set of global corporate relationships.

Consello’s investment business, Consello Capital, identifies high-potential mid-market companies and invests capital and expertise to transform their growth.

Jimmy Dunne is often described as a legendary figure in the finance and sporting world. But he'd describe himself more simply—as someone who shows up, relentlessly, for the people who stood by him and the moments that define what matters.
For over a decade, he built Sandler O'Neill into one of Wall Street's most respected investment banks. On September 11th, 2001, the firm lost 66 colleagues, nearly one-third of the company, when the South Tower collapsed.
He attended every funeral. Committed to paying for every child's college education. And rebuilt the firm from the ground up, refusing to let terrorism win or fear change how he lived. 
That same resolve and grit have defined everything Jimmy does, from rebuilding his firm to fighting for the future of the game of golf while the world was watching. 
He does not see any of this as heroic. To him, it's about gratitude, loyalty, and the obligation to do right by the people who believed in you back when nobody was watching at all.
In this episode, you'll hear and see Jimmy talk about:
· Growing up in a working-class Irish family where his parents taught him to look people in the eye—never up, never down 
·  What he learned caddying at 11 years old (lying about his age to get the job) that shaped how he leads today 
· The concept of "refined desperation"—leadership with intensity but without toxicity 
· The obligation he felt to his 66 colleagues lost on 9/11 and why rebuilding the firm became about something much bigger than business
· His role in one of golf’s most challenging moments and how he fought fiercely to protect the game’s integrity and future
· How he embraced pressure at a young age and still does to this day, and how and why it matters in the world of business, and in life. 
About Consello

Consello is an Advisory and Investing Platform with offices in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Dublin, Belfast, London, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.

Consello’s distinct advisory practices provide the complete strategic counsel today’s leaders need to grow and transform their organizations. Consello’s advisory expertise spans Corporate Advisory; M&A; Management Consulting; Talent; and Sports and Entertainment. Dedicated teams operate in each practice, led by a leadership group with deep operational experience across industries, business growth stages and market cycles and with an expansive set of global corporate relationships.

Consello’s investment business, Consello Capital, identifies high-potential mid-market companies and invests capital and expertise to transform their growth.

Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, embodies a rare kind of leadership—the ability to balance empathy with a deep sense of conviction when the stakes couldn’t be higher. 

In 2005, he stood alone in bankruptcy court when 180 airlines had filed before him and only a few survived.

At the height of COVID, with Delta’s business literally grounded globally, he refused to furlough a single employee. 

He blocked middle seats for over a year because protecting his people mattered more than the economics.

Under his leadership, Delta is now the most admired airline in the world. As Ed said himself, it's not just a byproduct of their planes or technology, it's because of a culture obsessed with taking care of its employees, knowing they'll take care of their customers.

This conversation is about what happens when leaders trust something deeper than data or convention and how the hardest moments don’t build character, they reveal it. 

In this episode, you'll hear and see Ed address:

• How growing up as one of nine kids in upstate New York and spending two years driving his younger brother to chemotherapy taught him that leadership is about service, not position.

• Why he left Delta six months before filing for bankruptcy and what it took for him to come back and lead the restructuring on his own terms.

• The moment his chairman told him during COVID that character isn't formed in the crucible but revealed by it, and how that truth guided the decisions that would shape Delta’s future.

• The decision during COVID to refuse furloughs and block middle seats for over a year and why protecting his people mattered more than the potential business impact. 

About Consello

Consello is an Advisory and Investing Platform with offices in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Dublin, Belfast, London, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.

Consello’s distinct advisory practices provide the complete strategic counsel today’s leaders need to grow and transform their organizations. Consello’s advisory expertise spans Corporate Advisory; M&A; Management Consulting; Talent; and Sports and Entertainment. Dedicated teams operate in each practice, led by a leadership group with deep operational experience across industries, business growth stages and market cycles and with an expansive set of global corporate relationships.

Consello’s investment business, Consello Capital, identifies high-potential mid-market companies and invests capital and expertise to transform their growth.