#161 – Josh Berg | Magna Technology Investments – Leadership, Navigating a Corporate Career & Growing a Start-up

Future of Mobility

Josh Berg is Managing Director of Magna Technology Investments at Magna International. In this role, Berg oversees all direct investments, governance, portfolio management, and partnerships with startup companies, VC funds, accelerators and incubators.

Key topics in this conversation include:

• Vertical and horizontal career building
• Prioritization, inspiration, and motivation
• The #1 test to determine if you’re a good leader
• The four things all founders need to do well
• How to determine where you excel and where you need help

Links:

• Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/joshberg
• magnatechnologyinvestments.com
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-berg-40414a7/

Josh’s Bio:

Josh Berg joined Magna in April, 2019. He currently serves as the Managing Director of Magna Technology Investments at Magna International. In this role, Berg oversees all direct investments, governance, portfolio management, and partnerships with startup companies, VC funds, accelerators and incubators.

Prior to joining Magna, Berg started his journey as a complex civil litigation Attorney at a prestigious boutique law firm in Southeast Michigan. In 2010, he joined General Motors as a Public Policy Manager. In that role he oversaw legislative and regulatory issues in the area of telematics and connected technologies working directly with Public Officials on behalf of GM. Soon after, OnStar’s COO recruited Berg to oversee Sales Operation where he successfully managed a large team, more than $1B in annual revenue and a dynamic customer experience. After rounding out his operations experience, Berg was asked to join GM Ventures as a Partner for GM’s corporate venture capital arm. He spent 3 years at GMV, where he experienced tremendous success, including 6 investments, 2 notable exits and multiple successful production commercial agreements between the startup companies and corresponding business units at General Motors.

Berg holds a bachelor of arts in political theory and constitutional democracy from the James Madison College at Michigan State University. His Juris Doctor is from Wayne State University School of Law. He is a member of the Epsilon Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, a proud mentor for Winning Futures, and active member of the Detroit Economic Club, having formerly served as a founding board member of the young leader wing of the club. Berg is on the Advisory Committee for Michigan Rise, a State of Michigan funded, early-stage venture capital fund. He is also the Managing Partner for Look Around Ventures, a pre-seed angel investment group that makes early-stage investments in areas unrelated to his work at Magna. Berg has backpacked in 28 countries around the world and enjoys traveling with his wife and 2 children.

About Magna

Magna is more than one of the world’s largest suppliers in the automotive space. We are a mobility technology company with a global, entrepreneurial-minded team of over 171,000 employees and an organizational structure designed to innovate like a startup. With 65+ years of expertise, and a systems approach to design, engineering and manufacturing that touches nearly every aspect of the vehicle, we are positioned to support advancing mobility in a transforming industry. Our global network includes 341 manufacturing operations and 88 product development, engineering and sales centres spanning 29 countries.

Future of Mobility:

The Future of Mobility podcast is focused on the development and implementation of safe, sustainable, effective, and accessible mobility solutions, with a spotlight on the people and technology advancing these fields.

linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/

brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/