Having grown up in a Brooklyn tenement, Gerry Sigal knows what it’s like to be disadvantaged and discounted. As a boy, he delivered groceries to earn money. He put himself through school, went to work for a New York construction company, and eventually settled in Washington, where he started his own successful business, Sigal Construction Corporation.
In 1995, he read in the paper that the bathrooms at many DC schools were unusable, and he was instantly returned to his roots. He contacted colleagues, clients, and friends, and Operation Spiffy John was born. By the time they were done, Sigal and company had rehabbed restrooms in 14 schools.
He also realized that while unemployment in the District was a chronic problem, public schools didn’t offer a vocational program to train kids for jobs in his own field. So he helped found DC Students Construction Trades Foundation and the public/private partnership that created the Academy of Construction & Design at Cardozo Education Campus. “Lots of young girls who didn’t think of this before are in the program,” Sigal says. “We’ve taught them to be carpenters, plumbers, electrical workers. Some have gone on to college.”
This year, he established an annual award for the outstanding Career and Technical Education student at the academy. The first winner, Treymane Chatman, was hired by Sigal’s company on graduating from Cardozo and became a registered apprentice after just 90 days.
Sigal also awards a scholarship to one District student to attend Parsons design school in New York. He’s on the National Building Museum board and helped rally support for constructing the BIG Maze that delighted museum visitors last summer. In addition, Sigal organized a relief fund to help families of 9/11 victims at the Pentagon. Appointed by President Clinton to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, he’s now co-developer of the new Holocaust archival-research-and-scholarship building to be built in Prince George’s County.
“I’m from the streets of Brooklyn,” Sigal says. “I’m very fortunate. I believe people have to give back.”
Dr. Rod Berger is a keynote speaker, moderator, producer, author, and expert in strategic storytelling. Berger’s book, The Narrative Edge: Authentic Storytelling That Meets The Moment (Wiley), hits bookstores in late 2025. He draws on more than 4,000 interviews conducted worldwide for Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fair Observer, including a cover story about former Virgin Entertainment co-founder Jason Felts, for Los Angeles Magazine, as well as various podcasts. He has captured the narratives of investors, CEOs, renowned entrepreneurs, bestselling authors, scholars, and cultural icons such as NBA legends Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley, as well as United Nations officials and Van Halen’s Sammy Hagar, while also exploring the behind-the-scenes world of Formula 1.
Berger has met with the Crown Princess of Sweden, Pope Francis, United Nations officials, and NGO leaders, covering stories of water insecurity with WaterAid, the intergenerational refugee crisis faced by displaced Sudanese in Uganda, and the impacts of child marriage in Western Africa with the Le Korsa Foundation.
Berger served as a guest lecturer at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management for nearly two decades, focusing on the power of storytelling in business.
He has partnered with The Jim Henson Company to create a television show, The Ultimate GOAT, that combines his passion for distant lands and storytelling with culture, sports, and puppetry for family programming.
Berger conducts moderated keynote events that blend storytelling with live, on-stage narratives featuring cultural icons such as Opal Lee, the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and recognized as the “Grandmother” of Juneteenth. In 2023, Berger received the inaugural Pangea International Literacy Prize and delivered his TEDx Talk, “Story is Our Currency.” He lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife and two children.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
