Steve Lucas

Korn Ferry estimates that by 2030, 80 million high-skilled jobs will go unfilled globally. This means companies will have to compete for talent—more than they already are. Yet, the CEO of ICIMS says there's currently a lack of qualified employers. What does CEO Steve Lucas mean? And, what does he think companies should do to attract high-quality talent? 
Steve Lucas joined the VOE Podcast to talk about talent acquisition and retention, and what ICIMS has to offer. With 25 years of leadership experience, Lucas has a strong message for fellow leaders, employees and students: Be curious. 
The VOE Podcast is an extension of Voices of Experience, the signature speaker series at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business. Keep tuning in each month for more business insights from Daniels’ alumni voices of experience.
Transcript:
Kristal Griffith:
Hello and welcome to the VOE Podcast,
Nick Greenhalgh:
An extension of Voices of Experience,
Lorne Fultonberg:
The signature speaker series at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business.

Kristal Griffith:
We’re your hosts, Kristal Griffith,
Nick Greenhalgh:
Nick Greenhalgh, 
Lorne Fultonberg:
And I’m Lorne Fultonberg from the Daniels Office of Communications and Marketing.
Kristal Griffith:
We’ll be unpacking topics at the intersection of business and the public good with CEOs and other business leaders from the Daniels community.­ Let’s dive in.
Joining me today is Steve Lucas, CEO of iCIMS. Steve has extensive leadership experience in companies like Adobe, SAP and Salesforce. Before iCIMS, he was the CEO of Marketo. In his many leadership roles, he's been a great partner to the Daniels College of Business, consistently recruiting our students, providing feedback on curriculum and sponsoring student projects.
If you’re not familiar with iCIMS, it’s a recruiting software, so we look forward to visiting with Steve about his perspectives on the labor crisis. Steve, welcome to the VOE Podcast.
Steve Lucas:
Oh, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
Kristal Griffith:
Let's start with your background. You have more than 25 years of leadership experience with cutting-edge software companies. Tell us about your journey to become the CEO of iCIMS.
Steve Lucas:
Every time I hear I've got more than 25 years of experience, I'm genuinely terrified. I don't recognize myself anymore. But yes, it's been fantastic, journey-wise. I started my career working for Microsoft and my title, which was a big deal, was demo rep. And so it was kind of the "Let's name the job, exactly what it is. Demo rep." And I demoed the heck out of software, but actually I demonstrated compelling Microsoft titles, like Microsoft Dogs and Encarta, which was a CD-based encyclopedia before the internet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so all these years later, now you're probably thinking, "How is this guy, a CEO." But I've always wanted to be a CEO. And I love software. I feel like I get paid to play baseball. It's just so fun. And for me, I'm a naturally curious per person and anytime I've been thrown into a situation, I've always wanted to understand more than just, "What's my job? How does it work? Why is it this way?" These are just the innate things that well up within me. And it turns out there is a really good job for that. It's called CEO.
Kristal Griffith:
That's terrific.
Steve Lucas:
And so my journey's been Microsoft. And then I worked with an amazing company, Crystal, which made Crystal Reports and then Business Objects, Salesforce, SAP. I jumped in as CEO of Marketo back in 2016. And I worked with a private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners, to take Marketo private, which we did for $1.6 billion. My job was to grow the company, improve it, build the software. And Adobe acquired the company 24 months after I started for about $5 billion. So we did a good job in terms of growing the company and returning equity to our shareholders.