When Alex Cantu trained new soccer referees, he told them to give every call about thirty seconds, because the game would show them whether they got it right. As a Chief Operating Officer, he leads the same way, watching how each decision moves through finance, HR and the next staff survey.

In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Alex, Chief Operating Officer of the Surge Institute, a national nonprofit that develops and supports leaders of color in education, to talk about staying calm under pressure, making big bets on imperfect information, and why a budget should tell a story.

Alex tells his story as three decisions. His parents in San Antonio, who never got to finish college, made his education the priority from preschool on. In high school he took up refereeing because it paid cash, and twenty-three years later he still works games on Sundays. He graduated into the tail end of the Great Recession hoping for a career like the one in the advertising drama Mad Men, and a first job in schools with a nonprofit turned him toward social impact.

Ron and Alex dig into why Alex says a COO communicates for a living, and why the role now calls for a generalist who can speak finance, law and culture without being a CPA or a lawyer. Alex sees keeping top talent through uncertainty as the sector's next challenge, and bets on skill building, with AI used to multiply what a lean team can do, not to shrink it.

For his Rondering, Alex challenges his fellow COOs and CFOs to keep one spreadsheet for the whole budget and make the rest narrative: the organization's legacy, what has to change this year, and the way forward. The numbers matter, but people follow narratives.

Chapters:

• (01:33) - Meeting at the Education Leaders of Color convening
• (03:27) - Three decisions, starting with his parents
• (05:25) - Refereeing soccer for twenty-three years
• (08:08) - A calm refereeing style and two breaths
• (11:32) - Missing calls and why the ball never lies
• (13:49) - From referee to chief operating officer
• (15:44) - Give every call thirty seconds
• (16:57) - Big bets on imperfect data
• (18:32) - Bridgespan and the rise of the generalist
• (23:23) - PowerPoint night: communicating for a living
• (26:57) - A first job in the Great Recession
• (28:53) - Advice to college Alex: be confident sooner
• (31:34) - Retaining top talent through uncertainty
• (35:44) - Alex's big bet: skill building and AI
• (37:20) - Ron's big bet: nonprofit mergers and acquisitions
• (42:37) - Reading together and celebrating what didn't work
• (48:03) - Alex's Rondering: one spreadsheet, the rest narrative
• (52:16) - Culture, the Spurs and the Knicks
• (55:05) - Investing in yourself as a leader

Links:
NBA referee Tim Donaghy pleads guilty in a betting scheme, August 2007 - https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/nye/pr/2007/2007aug15.html
How Generalists Help Nonprofits Navigate Complexity, Bridgespan - https://www.bridgespan.org/insights/how-generalists-help-nonprofits-navigate-complexity
A new home at Transcend for the Gradient Learning program, February 2026 - https://gradientlearning.org/whole-student-journal/our-next-chapter/
The Knicks beat the Spurs in the 2026 NBA Finals - https://www.espn.com/story/_/id/48419498
The Two-Organizations Problem, Harvard Business Review - https://hbr.org/2026/06/the-two-organizations-problem

Alex Cantu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexcantutx/
More about the Surge Institute: https://www.surgeinstitute.org/

Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo

Ron Rapatalo's bestselling book Leverage: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473

Interested in writing or publishing? Visit: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com

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