Ixia was in a period of rapid growth through acquisitions. A deeply technical company, it needed to cultivate a stronger leadership bench from cross-functional roles. Chris Williams, senior vice president, human resources, spearheaded the creation of Ixia’s Next Generation Leadership program (NGL) to help future leaders develop business acumen and other skills that complemented their technical expertise. The NGL program would be conducted in three modules over the course of a year. Williams sought a leader in the experiential learning field to provide a business simulation that would form one of the program’s cornerstone modules.