Relationships – A PeppTalk Podcast
Relationships - A PeppTalk Podcast
Podcast Description
Welcome to Pepptalk - Pepperdine University’s podcast dedicated to sparking conversations of personal and global significance, featuring world-renowned professors, faculty, and students from across the University. Our inaugural series, on relationships, is brought to you in part by the Boone Center for the Family. Whether single or married, a parent or a grandparent, a senior professional or just starting out in the workplace, our relationships are a central part of our daily lives. And we all experience the stress that they can produce—the misunderstandings, the confusion, the hope for a different interaction. If healthy relationships are at the center of a flourishing, successful life, why don’t we have the kind of relationships we dreamed about in college? Tune in to discover how we can build stronger, more meaningful relationships—starting today
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on relationship dynamics, exploring topics such as family connections, friendships, and workplace relationships, with episodes like 'Why Are Relationships Hard?' addressing the challenges of emotional and cultural forces in building connections and drawing from both psychological research and personal anecdotes.
Welcome to Pepptalk – Pepperdine University’s podcast dedicated to sparking conversations of personal and global significance, featuring world-renowned professors, faculty, and students from across the University.
What does it take to grow a family business and remain true to the values that built it?
In this episode of PeppTalk, host Alexa sits down with Henning Strauss — CEO and owner of STRAUSS, Europe’s leading workwear brand, and Seaver College’s 2026 Distinguished Alumnus — to explore how purpose-driven leadership can shape both a company and a life.
Henning traces his unlikely path from a small town in Germany to the Malibu coast, sharing what led him to take a leap of faith and study at Pepperdine. As a business administration major, Strauss quickly felt at home within Pepperdine’s welcoming campus community. He immersed himself in his coursework with the goal of one day contributing to his family’s business back home. For Strauss, Pepperdine’s values-centered curriculum, emphasis on servant leadership, and guiding Christian mission created an environment that shaped his leadership philosophy and inspired him to become a lifelong learner.
In this conversation, you’ll hear how Henning went from working in the company warehouse to the CEO seat, what it means to carry forward his grandfather’s legacy, and how STRAUSS became the official workwear partner of Major League Baseball. He also shares his perspective on leadership, brand authenticity, and why giving back to the Pepperdine community remains an important part of his journey today.
Whether you’re a student exploring your next step, an entrepreneur building something from the ground up, or someone who believes there’s always more to learn and more to come, this episode is an invitation to think bigger about what business, service, and legacy can look like in practice.
Henning Strauss
Henning Strauss is CEO and co-owner of STRAUSS (Engelbert Strauss), Europe’s premier workwear brand. Founded by his grandfather, Engelbert, in 1948, STRAUSS has grown from a regional German supplier into a global manufacturer generating more than $1.54 billion in annual revenue. The company is known for engineering high-performance clothing and gear for builders, farmers, and tradespeople worldwide.
Under Henning’s leadership, STRAUSS has expanded aggressively into the US market and secured a landmark partnership as the official workwear of Major League Baseball. A 2001 graduate of Pepperdine University’s Seaver College, where he studied business administration, Henning now returns as Seaver College’s 2026 Distinguished Alumnus — mentoring students, exploring educational opportunities for STRAUSS employees, and living out Pepperdine’s motto: Freely ye received, freely give.
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