Kickin' it with Krish

Tobin​ ​Ludwig has been passionate about food and drink his entire life. ​ Inspired by his mother’s culinary genius from an early age, he started working in ​the hospitality​ ​industry​ ​at 12 years old. He continued to work in the F&B industry during his undergraduate studies at Ithaca College and then for nearly a decade in New York City until he co-founded his first enterprise, Hella Cocktail Co. ​

As an​ ​educator​, ​entrepreneur and consultant ​Tobin​ ​has​ ​worked​ ​with​ ​internationally​ ​recognized​ ​brands​ ​such as Delta Air Lines, American​ ​Express ​and​ ​Diageo,​ ​to​ ​name​ ​a​ ​few.​ As the co-founder and COO of Hella Cocktail Co. he leads product development in addition to overseeing operations, supply chain and procurement​. When he’s not trying to create the perfect balance of pH and brix, he’s spending time with his family, mostly in the kitchen.

Lynn Schusterman is a Billionaire and the Founder and Chair Emerita of Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, which strives for a world where the United States and Israel live up to their highest ideals and achieve more just and inclusive societies.

Lynn has been active in Jewish communal and philanthropic affairs for over 40 years. She and her late husband, Charles, established their family foundation in 1987. Through her philanthropy, she has been recognized as a proud supporter of the Jewish people and Israel, as a leading advocate for the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect, as a champion of educational opportunities for all young people, and as a pioneering funder of inclusion and equality. Her work is grounded in a firm belief that we must all do our part to help repair our communities and our world.

Lynn served as Chair of the Schusterman family’s philanthropic work from 2000 until 2018, when she became Chair Emerita. Lynn prioritized building and supporting Jewish organizations dedicated to serving Jewish youth and young adults. These include BBYO, the leading pluralistic Jewish teen movement; Hillel, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world; and Moishe House, which supports young Jewish adults worldwide in turning homes into spaces for innovative and engaging community programming. She also helped to launch Repair the World, which mobilizes young Jewish adults and their communities through service and volunteerism, and is a leading philanthropist in the Birthright Israel program. Lynn also established an office in Israel, as well as three operating programs to engage influential young leaders: ROI Community, REALITY and the Schusterman Fellowship.

As a philanthropist, Lynn became an outspoken advocate for inclusion and equality, with a particular focus on the LGBTQ community in the U.S. and Israel. In 2010, Lynn made a groundbreaking decision to only fund organizations with formal non-discrimination policies that explicitly covered both sexual orientation and gender identity. She has also been a pioneering funder of the multi-disciplinary academic field of Israel Studies, believing that students deserve the opportunity to study modern Israel with thoughtfulness and intellectual rigor. Among her key investments were establishing the Israel Institute, as well as centers of Israel and Jewish studies at Brandeis University, University of Oklahoma and University of Texas – Austin.

In addition to her passion for shaping vibrant and inclusive Jewish life, Lynn focused on strengthening both Tulsa, OK, and Israel. One area of deep investment she pursued was investing in efforts to promote child welfare and safety. She helped launch both the Haruv Institute in Israel and Haruv USA at University of Oklahoma’s Tulsa campus to provide professional education and training for students and professionals who work with children and families to increase the identification, prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect.

Lynn has written articles and opinion pieces for a variety of publications, including the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Jewish Week, JTA, eJewish Philanthropy and Tulsa World. Her work has been profiled in the Jewish and secular press, including the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post, among others.

Recorded and Edited by Shiv Govil.

Singles Record: 27-11 duals, 55-24 overall
Highest Singles Ranking: No. 18 (Feb. 21, 2023)
Doubles Record: 30-10 duals, 53-20 overall
Highest Doubles Ranking: No. 4 (Final 2023)
Honors
• Doubles All-American (2023)
• Big Ten Freshman of the Year (2022)
• Second-Team All-Big Ten (2023)
• ITA Midwest Freshman of the Year (2022)
• Second-Team All-Big Ten
• Academic All-Big Ten (2023)
• ITA Scholar-Athlete Award (2022)
• Qualified for the NCAA Doubles Championship (2022, 2023)
• NCAA Singles Championship (2023)
• Big Ten Fall Singles Champion (2021)
Senior Year (2023-24)
• ITA All-America Championships semifinalist
• Qualified for ITA Fall Nationals in singles
Junior Year (2022-23)
Match-by-Match Statistics
• All-American in doubles
• Second-Team All-B1G
• Competed in both the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships
• Had a 13-8 dual singles mark (2-3 at No. 3, 7-3 at No. 4, 4-2 at No. 5) and was 4-3 in the B1G
• Strung together a seven-match win streak in the spring, matching a career best
• Posted a 24-14 overall singles record
• Went 1-1 in the NCAA Singles Championship, after orginally being an alternate, defeating Ozolins (Illinois) in the Round of 64 before falling to Zheng (Columbia) in the Round of 32
• Ranked in the ITA singles rankings 8 of 12 weeks, reaching a career high of No. 35 on March 7)
• Ranked all season in doubles with partner Andrew Fenty as they put together a 26-7 record
• Posted a dual doubles mark of 18-3, going a perfect 7-0 in the B1G
• Went 9-2 against ranked pairs and was 30-9 in dual/individual doubles combined
• Reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Doubles Championship, defeating a pair from Presbyterian and UCF in straight sets before falling to Georgia Tech in the quarterfinals
• Finished No. 5 in the ITA doubles rankings, the highest ranking in school history for a doubles team
Sophomore Year (2021-22)
• Posted a 14-3 dual singles mark (2-0 at No. 3, 4-2 at No. 4, 8-1 at No. 5) and was 7-1 in the B1G
• Had an 11-3 fall record for a 25-6 overall record and ended the season on a two-match win streak
• Big Ten Fall Singles Champion
• Had a seven-match win streak during the season
• Recorded a 12-7 dual doubles record (1-1 at No. 1, 6-3 at No. 2, 5-3 at No. 3)
• Posted a 4-2 fall doubles mark for a 16-9 overall record
• Qualified for the NCAA Doubles Championship with Ondrej Styler but did not compete due to an injury
• The pair picked up wins over the both the No. 3 and 5 duos
• Final ITA rankings of No. 117 in singles and No. 40 in doubles
At Minnesota
• Attended University of Minnesota in 2020-21
Before Michigan
• Captain at Eastview High School
• Four-time all-state qualifier and all-conference selection
• The Lightning were runners-up at states in 2019
• Won the 2021 USTA L1 Spring Nationals and the 2019 USTA L2
• Finished as runner up at the 2021 Atlanta PTT UTR and was a three-time ITA circuit winner
Personal
• Born September 17, 2002
• Son of Geoff (Northwestern '94) and Dana Young (Minnesota '96)
• Has a younger sister Karin (Oregon '25) and younger brother Alexander
• Father is the head coach of the men's tennis team at Purdue
• Major is economics with a minor in entrepreneurship

On this episode, Host Krish Kumar sits down with Chris Helfrich, President and CEO of Stephen and Ayesha Curry's Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation (ELP), which he helped launch in July 2019.

With a mission to unleash the potential of every child, Eat. Learn. Play. is committed to bettering the lives of kids and families in Oakland, the Bay Area, and across the country. The organization supports children by fighting to end childhood hunger, ensuring students have access to a quality education and providing safe places for children to play and be active. To-date, Chris has expanded the foundation with over 30+ community partnerships including Kaiser Permanente, Workday, Salesforce, World Central Kitchen, and the Alameda County Community Food Bank. Additionally, he has played a pivotal role in facilitating the delivery of over 25 million meals to Oakland students and families struggling with food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to this, Chris served as CEO of the Starlight Children’s Foundation, the nation’s leading organization working to transform the hospital experience for millions of seriously and terminally ill children across the U.S. In this role, Chris oversaw the creation of two major, innovative programs which fueled Starlight’s success. First, Starlight Gowns, an effort to revolutionize children’s hospital gowns by replacing ugly, uncomfortable and embarrassing gowns with ones that are soft, comfortable, and a source of joy for the kids who wear them. Lucasfilm, Marvel, Major League Baseball and Disney are among the brands that have featured their iconic designs on almost 500,000 gowns that have been distributed to hospitalized kids since the beginning of 2017. Chris also spearheaded the creation of Starlight Xperience, a groundbreaking new program built in collaboration with Google that brings the magic of virtual reality to hundreds of children’s hospitals across the country. The inspiring program makes it possible for kids to be virtually teleported out of the hospital to almost anywhere in the world – or beyond – they dream to go. Chris made a significant impact in his time as CEO with a nearly 400% growth in fundraising and program spending for the foundation.

Before joining Starlight, Chris worked for the United Nation Foundation, where he spent over five years leading Nothing But Nets, the world’s largest global, grassroots campaign to defeat malaria. During his tenure, the campaign delivered more than five million life-saving bed nets and other malaria interventions to families across 30 sub-Saharan African countries, and served as a leading global health advocate on Capitol Hill, reducing global malaria deaths by 60%. While leading Nothing But Nets, Chris recruited Stephen Curry to become an ambassador for the campaign, and the two traveled together to refugee camps in Tanzania in 2013 and the White House in 2014 in support of the fight to defeat malaria.

Chris is a graduate of Trinity University where he was named Young Alumnus of the Year in 2018. He is a member of the Board of Directors for Starlight Children’s Foundation and the Leadership Council for Classy. He currently resides in the Bay Area with his wife, Kate, and three children.
Recorded and Edited by Shiv Govil.

On this episode, Host Krish Kumar sits down with Division 1 Tennis player Nicholas Heng. Nicholas is a Freshman at Auburn studying Pre-Law. Krish and Nico discuss D1 Tennis, transitioning to Auburn, Nico's experiences training and playing different tournaments, and current players on the ATP Tour.