The 10 Most Innovative CIOs to Follow in 2021

ISSN 2582-127X

December 2021

THE

MOST INNOVATIVE CIOs TO FOLLOW IN 2021

CIOs: Accepting the Challenge to Transform Their Business Processes Top Five Effective Traits Executives Need in a Professional CIO

Anuj Anand CIO

EDITORIAL Innovative CIOs, Accelerating Business Transformation and Driving Business Strategy

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ith the Covid-19 the role of a Chief Information Officer has become an increasingly vital figure within the modern workplace. CIOs are agents of change, gatekeepers to innovation, and increasingly, one of the most important means of adapting to change in a post-covid world and realizing the future for information technology trends. CIOs are essential leaders in today's tech-driven business world.

They handle everything from vendor procurement to software projects, including IT strategy.

CIOs have shouldered a heavy burden in 2020, implementing digital initiatives to keep their organizations afloat. In a volatile environment, fast reflexes and decisive action help businesses survive the chaos and capitalize on new opportunities. As CIOs have helped lead their organizations through the disruption caused by COVID-19, investing in the technologies that enable these capabilities has become a top priority. Connecting different departments with an overarching technology strategy is necessary to coordinate a unified response to market shifts. And focusing on finance is particularly important to CIOs. End-to-end digital transformation and cloud technologies will likely be the greatest enablers of this shift. On that note, CIOs are rapidly implementing a cloud-based infrastructure to allow employees to work flexibly in 2021 and the coming years switching easily between remote and in-person operations as needed.

For CIOs, the challenge is how to match that boldness so they can not only enable the business's aspirations for growth but also shape them. That challenge is all the more seminal because even a glance under the hood of the top goals of many businesses reveals that their goals are unreachable without technology. Improvements in

productivity and efficiency gains through cloud-migration programs can generate significant cost savings, but they essentially represent better ways of doing what IT already does. CIOs have a crucial role in getting the business to focus on the far bigger prize: the new businesses, innovative practices, and new sources of revenue that the cloud either enables or accelerates.

Technology adoption has been accelerating and becoming an inextricable part of every organization and business function. Correspondingly, the technology function has grown dramatically in scope and complexity. The role of technology leaders has expanded not just in breadth, but increasingly in strategic influence.

This prominence brings challenges. Today's technology portfolio is a dynamic mix of centralized, decentralized, and federated services. CIOs at large enterprises now manage hundreds, if not thousands, of applications spanning dozens of functions, often at a global scale. And while CIOs continue to deliver the core IT services that power the dayto-day operations of the business, they are also expected to drive innovation that paves the way to a successful future.

Many technology leaders not only embrace this increasingly diverse set of responsibilities, but they also do so under longstanding talent and budget constraints.

The pandemic continues to underscore that the CIO role is more crucial than ever. Whatever the future holds, the ability to adapt to the unknown and transform risks into opportunities will be indispensable.

Aratrika Dutta Content Analyst

December

2021 1357, Ridder Park, Dr. San Jose, CA 95131, USA Tel : +1-408-380-2566 540/6, 3rd Floor, Geetanjali Towers, KPHB, Phase-6, Hyderabad 500072, Telangana, India Tel: +91 40 23055215 Copyright @2021 Analytics Insight. All Rights Reserved.

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CREDITS Ashish Sukhadeve

Adilin Beatrice

Shivani Muthyala

Editor-in-Chief

Associate Manager

Content Analyst

Arti Chaudhary

Satavisa Pati

Disha Sinha

Content Analyst

Content Analyst

Content Analyst

Aratrika Dutta

Nikita Das

Shruthi Talla

Content Analyst

Marketing Manager

Research Analyst

Amit Kumar

Nagesh Tembhekar

Web Developer

Creative Head

Anuj Anand

Executive of the Month

Brian Gahan

Van Richardson

Sergey Tairyan

Michael Mathews

Tony Lau

Bruce Carlos

CIOs: Accepting the Challenge to Transform Their Business Processes

Top Five Effective Traits Executives Need in a Professional CIO

COVER STORY

Anuj Anand Pushing the Boundaries of the Mining Industry

by Leveraging Tech-Based Innovation

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ngineering and mining companies have faced a growing range of pressures in recent years, including price volatility, the need to drill down deeper to find new resources, and an industry-wide skills shortage. To address these challenges, many mining companies have embraced digital technology to enhance engineering design and develop 'smart mines'. Ausenco is a tech savvy engineering company that delivers innovative, value-add consulting services, project delivery, asset operations and maintenance solutions to the mining and metals, oil and gas, and industrial sectors. The company's experts provide tailored solutions that help clients respond to changes in the market by combining global experience and a flexible approach that is both innovative and cost-efficient.

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Anuj Anand CIO www.analyticsinsight.net

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www.ausenco.com

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The only time one actually “fails” is when one chooses to believe so.

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Anuj Anand CIO

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An Expert Insider in Information Management Anuj Anand is the CIO of Ausenco. He joined the company in 2006 as a graduate engineer and held various roles across engineering design, systems, and innovation. In 2018, he was appointed VP, Technology Services and Solutions and subsequently in 2021, to CIO. In his current role, he leads a global team of IT professionals who support Ausenco's 26 offices across 14 countries. Anuj has developed a high level of expertise in the integration

of systems and processes with a key concentration on information management. He has spent time in various Ausenco offices deploying new systems and standardizing best practices - with a focus on transitioning legacy systems and infrastructure to modern platforms. He tailors change management practices to suit the different cultures across the company.

Failure is the First Rung in the Ladder of Success Anuj explains that his industry experience from working on the floor, as well as at mining sites in the middle of nowhere, gave him key insights and a sound understanding of the nuances and intricacies of a very complicated business. He states, “I often tell this story about my first foray into IT. I was challenged to come up with a vision and strategy of how I perceived the industry in 5 years and what we needed to do to get there.” He confesses that not coming from the IT space and not having a background in the sector was bound to make this a challenge. Anuj was given three months to gain an understanding of the situation and then present it to the CIO and CTO at that time. After spending almost a month trying to understand the lay of the land and interviewing

the IT team, he thought he had come up with a brilliant strategy and set a time to present to the C-suite. He was thrilled that he had completed the task in six weeks rather than the allotted three months. However, it didn't go well and the presentation ended with the words “Anuj, how about you take the time to rethink this and present it to us again in three months' time?” This experience taught him a lot. Anuj believes that the only time one actually “fails” is when one chooses to believe so. During this experience, he received a lot of constructive feedback and excellent commentary. He presented again three months later after doing extensive research and incorporating the feedback he had received. And as they say, the rest is history in the making of a Top 10 CIO.

Partnering with IT for Improvement and Collaboration From an achievement perspective, Anuj believes that Ausenco has realized multiple tangible successes in cost savings and in infrastructure upgrades. However, for Anuj, the biggest success the team has achieved to-date, is changing the corporate culture to appreciate that IT is not just a 'behind-the-keyboard' cost centre, but rather a partner that drives improvement, efficiency, and collaboration. Anuj feels that cultural change is often the hardest to enact, but that it can be the most rewarding.

He talks about his passion for sport and how he learned about leadership following successful sports teams. One of his favourite quotes is by James Kerr, author of Legacy, and one of the most successful New Zealand All Blacks (rugby) coaches - “Create the highest possible operating standards, develop the character of your players, develop the culture of your team and, The Score Takes Care of Itself.” He has seen this play out with in his team at Ausenco.

Envisaging Transition and Overcoming Technological Challenges Talking about challenges, Anuj notes that the industry was going through a transition when he became CIO, and managing this transition was demanding. Looking to the

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future, Ausenco decided to make new investments in technology. Planning and experience were paramount to the success of this project, as the company needed to not

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only upgrade the older technology, but to also select the technology that would still be relevant in five years.

Navigating the various technologies and choosing the right ones was challenging but during those five years, the company made the best choices possible and has developed excellent relationships and partnerships with key players in the technology space.

According to Anuj, learning on “the floor” and directly experiencing how things are done, is critical to understanding how a new system, or an innovative process, will effect change. This understanding has helped him communicate his messages clearly and

engage his co-workers in embracing the solutions that help solve their problems Most importantly, these changes aren't made to just 'keep up with technology', but are made to have a material impact on the business.

Anuj discusses how cyber security is also a critical challenge for CIOs, and that ensuring they can keep the “crown jewels” safe, is no easy task. “As technology advances, it has become easier for bad actors to also use technology to try and breach perimeters. It's definitely something that the CIO is concerned with and where we have to continually invest to constantly strengthen security” says Anuj.

Four Must-Have Attributes of a CIO According to Anuj, every CIO and leader, should foremost have a high level of emotional intelligence (EI). A high EI leads to trust, helps build relationships, reduces conflict and stress in a team, improves productivity and incorporates good communication. Empathy is one of the components of EI and is critical to managing and developing a strong team as well as for building relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.

For Anuj, creativity or innovation is the next must-have attribute of a CIO. He says “There needs to be the innate ability to challenge the status quo and 'Find a Better Way” (Ausenco's purpose).' This needs to be constant, he argues. Without this attribute and open-mindedness, CIO's will find themselves constantly challenged, claims Anuj. No one will know everything about everything so it is important to continue to learn and leverage one's skills and those around you. He refers to this as the “start-up” mindset but advises approaching this with a level of humility that is often missing in “start-up culture”.

For Anuj, the third key attribute of a CIO is to be a change manager. The only thing that is constant in his line of work (IT) is change. As CIO, once a project is underway, it is about staying consistent with the change and being able to navigate what may be a complicated path. Change is never easy as it involves an element of disruption that not everyone is comfortable with. Possessing strong EI and change management skills helps the implementation go a lot smoother. He emphasises that being a change manager takes excellent project management and planning skills.

Anuj also believes that CIOs need to be data stewards to excel at their work. This is where leaders need to understand the data, and be able to translate the technical data and information into a language that is easily understood by the board and C-Suite. In addition, the CIO must be able to pull various sources of organizational and business data together to make it more useful across business groups.

Advice for Future Leaders For future CIOs, Anuj advises, “Stay open to new experiences and keep learning. Always say 'yes' to challenges no matter how daunting they seem at the time.

It's pressure that makes diamonds. There is only so much

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that books can teach you, everything else you will learn from experience and other people's experiences - stay open to them.”

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Anuj Anand

Van Richardson

Ausenco

iManage

CIO

CIO

Anuj Anand is the CIO of Ausenco. He joined the company in 2006 as a graduate engineer and held various roles across engineering design, systems, and innovation. In his current position, he leads a global team of IT professionals that support Ausenco’s 26 offices across 14 countries. Anuj has developed a high level of expertise in the integration of systems and processes with a key concentration on information management.

Van Richardson is the CIO of iManage, a cloud-enabled, secure platform that enables organizations to uncover and activate the knowledge which exists inside their business content. Van has been working in the IT sector for more than 20 years and has led the department of Enterprise Information Technology and Workplace Solutions.

Everything that involves internally supporting the company’s global business is within his responsibilities.

www.ausenco.com

www.imanage.com

Brian Gahan

Sergey Tairyan

Tony Lau

CIO

CISO

Sequent Software, Inc.

SXiQ

GridBeyond

Digitain

CISO & Head of Cloud Operations

CISO

Brian Gahan is the CIO of GridBeyond. He started his career at HP at technical roles initially in product development and factory automation and later became the global head of IT for the Graphics and 3D services business. Brian also spent a few years in the regulated energy sector. His role in GridBeyond is heavily focused on the development of their energy trading and optimization platform.

Sergey Tairyan is the CISO of Digitain, where he leads the structure and behavior for the company’s security processes, information security systems, personnel, and organizational sub-units. He holds a Ph.D. in Technical Sciences. Sergey is also an author of more than ten international publications and tutorials on information security. He is an Information Security Lecturer in ArmenianRussian University for more than a decade now.

Tony Lau is the CISO and Head of Cloud Operations at Sequent Software, Inc. He has extensive system architecture and operations experience in meeting payments and security requirements. Tony Lau has served the bank customers with serviceoriented professional service at HP and VeriFone. Also, in the past, he managed, integrated, and deployed secure electronic payment transaction systems to major banks in the world.

As the CISO of SXiQ Information Technology and Cyber Security Services, Bruce Carlos leads the company on multiple fronts of building and delivering strong cyber resilience programs. He ensures protection of core information assets for SXiQ as well as for the customers where there is scope to practice end to end business strategy skills to deliver world-class fit for purpose cyber security leadership.

www.gridbeyond.com

www.digitain.com

www.sequent.com

www.sxiq.com.au

Michael L. Mathews

Lori Beer

Jon Summers

Ben Fried

Oral Roberts University

JPMorgan Chase & Co

AT&T

Google

CIO & VP

Global Chief Information Officer

CIO

CIO

Michael L. Mathews (Mike) is the CIO and VP for Technology Innovation at Oral Roberts University. He has over 24years of experience as a senior-level IT executive, bringing creative solutions that value the end-users of technology and business process management. Mike has held positions as a chief information officer, general manager of CIOs, chief strategist for innovation, etc, for leading corporations and higher education.

Lori Beer is the Global Chief Information Officer (CIO) of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and a member of the company's Operating Commi ee. She is responsible for the firm's technology systems and infrastructure worldwide. Lori supports JPMorgan Chase's retail, wholesale, and asset and wealth management businesses. Prior to joining the company, she was Executive VP of Specialty Businesses and IT for WellPoint.

Jon Summers is Chief Information Officer of AT&T Technology & Operations, AT&T Services, Inc. He is responsible for the design, development, delivery, and support of software solutions and services spanning AT&T Business, AT&T Mobility & Entertainment, and AT&T Network Operations. Jon has held a variety of Technology and Product Development, Marketing, and Operations roles at AT&T over a 30-year career.

Ben Fried is the Chief Information Officer of Google.

He is overseeing the technologies that make Googlers go. He’s the New York office Tech Site Lead, responsible for 8,200 Googlers in the company’s East Coast headquarters. Ben has a diverse background in systems engineering and software development. He led the development of mission scheduling software for NASA and spent over a decade at Morgan Stanley.

www.oru.edu/

www.jpmorganchase.com/

www.a .com

www.google.com

THE

MOST INNOVATIVE CIOs TO FOLLOW IN 2021

Bruce Carlos

Executive of the Month

Brian Gahan CIO

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Changing the Dynamics of Energy Tech Sphere with Seamless Solutions

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ridBeyond is a global leader in providing intelligent energy technology solutions for industrial, commercial, institutional, and utility partners.

Whether it is for renewables, battery storage, or flexible industrial processes, their platform uses automation and AI to give its customer the ability to trade and optimize the position of their assets in the energy markets in real time. GridBeyond helps in improving their bottom line whilst facilitating the transition to net-zero.

A Technology Veteran in the Energy Trading Industry Brian Gahan is the CIO of GridBeyond. He started his career at HP where he played a variety of technical roles initially in product development and factory automation for the Inkjet division. He later became the global head of IT for the Graphics and 3D services business, where Brian was more focused on strategy development, customer experience, and delivery of customer-facing services. Brian also spent a few years in the regulated energy sector, implementing a cloud migration and digital transformation program as head of IT at Flogas (a DCC company) before joining GridBeyond as CIO last year. His role in the company is heavily focused on the development of their energy trading and optimization platform, and his team has already delivered an initial pilot release earlier this year.

From Experience to Experts: The Synoptic View on Learning Brian says that spending the early part of his career in a major multinational technology company was a great way to get the fundamentals of leading-edge technological design and delivery.

He states that HP was ahead of the curve and he and his team were completing digital transformation and cloud migrations well before they became mainstream. Brian also had the opportunity to work with some amazing leaders throughout his career, which taught him that the real value of an organization is in its people, and that the way to grow value and create a high-performance workplace is to invest in talent development, diversity and culture.

Product and Tech Development as Core Attributes of CIOs Brian believes that the CIO's core responsibility is to lead IT in advancing the business strategy. He adds that strong commercial orientation helps to ensure technology investments

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yield the appropriate organizational benefits. “The biggest driver of long-term value in business is people capabilities” says Brian.

He trusts the concept of recognizing, acquiring, developing, and retaining the best talent which when combined with a positive culture and collaborative working environment would result in higher performance and better business outcomes.

Brian asserts that the role of the CIO is to structure the IT organization effectively, and hence he believes that a CIO must be keen on building strategic supplier partnerships that ensure connectivity to the latest technology developments.

Amalgamation of Business and IT to Bestow Innovative Solutions Brian mentions that the capability of identifying and delivering the core differentiators which drive success for energy market stakeholders are vital catalysts of product adoption. To successfully achieve this, one needs to be able to bring the business and IT teams together so that the strong domain knowledge can be combined with the leading-edge technology to deliver a differentiated offering that meets the customer needs.

Entwining Supply and Demand for Successful Migration Brian states the ability to match supply and demand has become the holy grail of successfully migrating to renewables.

He mentions a sample analysis of the Irish grid over a seven-day period in November 2021 where the demand on the grid fluctuated between 3.2 GW and 6.6 GW, whilst for the same period the wind availability fluctuated between 1% and 75% (0.064 GW and 2.7 GW) of that demand. The traditional failsafe approach has largely been to have supply match demand by curtailing wind and hydro when there's excess and bringing on gas power stations that emit 350 to 400 tons of carbon per GWH when there's a deficit. Brian points out a more sustainable solution is matching the supply with better demand-side flexibility and storage – solutions to which are central to GridBeyond's strategy.

The Three Concurrent Technology Trends Brian says that three concurrent technology trends are facilitating the development of technology solutions to help society achieve the ambitious carbon reduction targets.

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Significant innovation opportunities are emerging to combine advances in information technology with those in renewable technology, and provide an effective pathway to meet our climate action targets

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for the energy sector.

Brian Gahan CIO

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Developments in native cloud services and scalable cloud compute power are simplifying product development, and supplying the capabilities to build AI solutions that adjust for supply and demand changes in real-time.

Brian says that technology product development nowadays has evolved much like the development of an F1 car has. The growth in the availability of cloud services has meant that many of the building blocks for a product are often readily available either as cloud-native services or configurable PaaS or SaaS solutions.

The challenge for the platform architect therefore becomes more of selection and integration of the right components, whilst simultaneously keeping the internal core talent focused on going deep on building the 5-10% secret sauce where it gives a competitive edge.

“This has levelled the playing field for smaller companies who can create enterprise-grade products and services that can dynamically scale to match the degree of market success,” states Brian. Ÿ

IOT evolution means the previously dark energy assets in everybody's homes, vehicles, and businesses are becoming SMARTER and more connected.

Brian claims that IoT capabilities provide connectivity to SMART devices such as EV's and heating and cooling systems, commercial processes, generation assets, etc. so that more accurate data can be collected and more control applied over when these assets contribute to or pull from the grid. He adds that GridBeyond's market-leading IoT platform can integrate with and automate the control of the commercial load, generation and battery storage assets to respond to shifts in supply or demand. Ÿ

Advances in the development and maturity of data science tools mean that its now possible to better forecast load, generation and storage, and transition to proactive demand response.

The data science technology ecosystem in Python and R has led to rapid experimentation and faster innovation and Brian feels that open source and community-based approaches encourage sharing and collaborative development, which allows R&D results to spread from experiments to actual data products sometimes in a matter of weeks rather than years.

Lastly, Brian credits certain deep learning approaches have leveraged scalable cloud compute power to become highly refined by using thousands of hidden layers. “This allows deep learning networks to capture complex mappings, and do time series forecasting and classification which are key to effective energy optimization solutions,” adds Brian.

Keeping up with New Technologies to Foster Business Need “In tech, the early career is all about learning new technologies and choosing where to specialize,” reveals Brian. He kick-started his journey in robotics and automation but soon he gravitated more towards data and business intelligence. According to Brian, technologies were a little different back then but the fundamentals of designing to business needs and transforming data into knowledge haven't changed. “Every opportunity

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certainly brings new challenges, and technology is ever-changing so in IT as in most professions it's all about lifelong learning,” adds Brian.

Good Will for Emerging Leaders Brian expresses that as IT is becoming more and more of a team sport, it equally requires the leaders to become much more team and business-centric than they previously were. He illustrates the example of the data science capability, which is a collection of several statistical, technological and business skill sets distributed among many individuals rather than a single role. To make all these capabilities work effectively together requires the right type of talent and working environment. “While hiring technology professionals, collaboration and team working skills are as critical to high performance as technical proficiencies,” remarks Brian.

A Key Insight on Data Centres Brian discusses the perception that data centre's are causing problems for the grid for the fact they create a significant additional load, but he argues they can be a big part of the solution. The geographical redundancy inherent in data centre design means that at critical times they can easily shift their compute load to a different region whilst in parallel allowing their on-site generation to export to the grid.

Brian emphasises that society needs data centres as they are the engine of the knowledge economy and run the technology that balances the grid. “When you consider these factors in the round, co-locating data centres in regions where there is a large renewable supply is a pretty progressive move” adds Brian.

Above and Beyond As evidenced by COP26, there are major changes in the public agenda and political landscape afoot claims Brian. Climate change is happening now and there is a major shift to investment in renewable and smart grid technologies, storage and flexibility. While talking in the same context, Brian mentions that the GridBeyond trading and optimization platform for generation assets and commercial batteries was released earlier this year in UK and Ireland and is gaining a lot of traction in the market. “We also have a slimmed-down version running in Texas and we are going live with a major customer in Japan in Q1. Over the next 12 to 18 months, we will further develop the feature set, scalability, and learning capabilities of the product whilst expanding to all asset types and target markets including behind-the-meter microgrids,” he highlights.

Brian further adds that the market to date has been mainly focused on the large infrastructure owners and he feels that technology developments and regulatory changes mean that consumers will soon be starting to play an increasing role in contributing to the transition.

Consumers and businesses will have the systems to choose to charge their EV's at times which are likely to provide financial and environmental benefits. “In time, significant deployment of EV's and 'vehicle to grid' technology with the right incentives will mean EV's exporting power to balance the grid at peak times instead of gas power stations. This approach allows environmentally conscientious consumers to become net contributors to reducing the carbon footprint of the grid,” states Brian.

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T

he pandemic made an influx of vulnerability that cleared out customary methods of directing business and left ventures no choice except to adjust to the new normal. Work from home was the most substantial impact on the pandemic. It shook endeavor activities and requested remote working practices for the time being. While IT groups have consistently held a vital job in the endeavor, their job was more noticeable than any time in recent memory in supporting this new model. CIOs had the onus of guaranteeing that while representatives and colleagues worked off-site, they were furnished with the right devices and prepared to work continuously to keep the lights on.

Companies that are already on the path of digital transformation were totally ready for the unstable circumstances, while others mixed to adapt to the unexpected interest for innovation resources. Pushing ahead, it's necessary that IT groups take examples from an earlier time and get ready with dependable, adaptable, and versatile arrangements and approaches.

The Role of CIOs Digital transformation is not only an innovation or a pattern, which anybody can learn and execute rapidly. It requires administration, legitimate technique, and clear execution. Overnight the role of CIOs turned out to be truly significant and they became answerable for their association's bearing towards digital transformation. One research shows 40% of the CIOs are responsible for digital transformation, while just 27% of the CEOs are there in the rundown.

CIOs face a ceaseless challenge to utilize the most recent advancements and continue to develop new IT developments to make the whole business process lightfooted. CIOs are conveying the significant obligation of driving technological change. The individuals who are not able to take the challenge to change their business processes consistently convey a danger of turning into an ordinary player in their industry.

Here is how CIOs can embrace the changes born by the pandemic and future-proof their enterprise.

Updating Heritage Technology Weaknesses of heritage frameworks were uncovered during working from home and adapting to fast business changes. Getting to the organization's data and communicating with customers from different areas and gadgets extended the current assets slightly; it welcomed dangers and weaknesses because of an unstable workplace, raising disturbing worries. Consequently, revamping or upgrading your data centers is an incredible system — recognizing holes, updating existing

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advancements, and accepting new ones like SSL VPN, ADCs, and firewalls, ensuring web and portable applications.

Driving a Digital-First Approach The pandemic has increased current standards – from taking on cloud advances to remote work and getting ready for the crossover working, CIOs have accepted work from home circumstances and conveyed to their representatives, customers and clients during the hardest of times. The right innovation blend should fuel adaptability, development, and quick assistance conveyance while keeping cost and intricacy low.

Keeping up with Agility and Resilience CIOs can foster a culture of agility by acquainting new innovation with help changes and energizing executing something similar. For instance, robotization can be a distinct advantage assuming representatives hand over the ordinary, redundant assignments to AI/ML and bot advancements. Another model could be teaching workers on fundamental security boundaries to keep malignant messages, and other cybercrime traps under control.

Innovation can open representatives' usefulness and fill in holes made by remote work by empowering correspondence and cooperation.

Being Prepared for the Hybrid Workforce While it was initially mandatory to work from home, managers have now acknowledged working off-site can be useful. Additionally, it has some additional advantages like reducing expenses, taking advantage of the worldwide labor force, and holding ability. In this way, there's another test that CIOs need to lock in for – a mixture labor force. Organizations imagine a future where a few representatives will be telecommuting, some from the workplace, and come from both. In this manner, utilizing individual and office gadgets all around the organization could put your organization at a raised risk of dangers. Furthermore, assuming this situation becomes animated, it will be a treat for hackers!

Conclusion IT groups assume a critical part in empowering the fate of work, making innovation-filled plans of action, and keeping up with business flexibility. While CIOs and their groups have endeavored to assist their undertaking with embracing a completely new working style, it's presently an ideal opportunity to gain from the pandemic and support your venture for what's to come. Relieving cyber risks and attacks, deploying modern technology, and having a digital-first approach is essential for future CIOs.

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CIOs: Accepting the Challenge to Transform Their Business Processes

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Executive of the Month

Van Richardson CIO

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Enabling Automated Information Technology with Advanced Artificial Intelligence

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he emergence of remote working amid the COVID-19 pandemic has created dramatic shifts in how organizations communicate, collaborate, and operate. With the massive volumes of data and knowledge within organizations today, finding, sharing, and mining critical knowledge for reuse – especially when working remotely – is time-consuming and can drain productivity. Modern organizations understand that the benefits of effective knowledge activation extend beyond empowering their workers for greater efficiency – also translating into delivery of higher quality services for clients. iManage is an innovative company that helps legal and professional services organizations and their knowledge work professionals work more productively. Van Richardson leads the Enterprise Information Technology and Workplace Solutions for the company.

A Successful Provision of Cloud-Enabled, Advanced AI Solutions CIO of iManage, Van Richardson explains that iManage's cloudenabled, secure, platform for knowledge work enables organizations to uncover and activate the knowledge that exists inside their business content and communications. Advanced AI and powerful document and email management can create connections across data, systems, and people. Crucially, iManage solutions can build connections based on the context of the content, which fuels deep insights, informed business decisions, and collaboration. Underpinned by best-of-breed security, the company innovates to solve complex professional challenges and enable better business outcomes for its global customers.

In a nutshell, iManage helps legal and professional organizations work more productively, smarter, and securely, focusing on 'making knowledge work,' recognizing that

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knowledge is the engine that drives performance, outcomes, and value to the customers.

A Multi-Talented Leader Van has been working in the IT sector for more than 20 years and has led the department of Enterprise Information Technology and Workplace Solutions. Everything that involves internally supporting the company's global business is within his responsibilities. He also provides technological support to the engineering organization to enable efficiency in their work.

Van's mandate is wide-ranging. His areas of responsibility within the organization include infrastructure (network, datacenter, cloud, servers, and systems), global service delivery (service desk and end user support), corporate IT security (firewalls, encryption, system hardening, policies and procedures), collaboration (Office 365, Zoom, VoIP), business applications, data, and business intelligence. Within these domains, his biggest priorities are the security of the company's endpoints, protecting data in flight, and end-user training.

Van received both a bachelor of science, with a specialization in business, and an MBA, with a specialization in information technology, from Capella University. Currently, Van is pursuing a Doctorate in business administration, with a specialization in information technology, from the University of Phoenix and expects completion by 2022. Overall, Van's education has been a blend of business and IT, which has served him well in his current role.

The Journey Towards Becoming a Successful CIO Van describes the technology initiative he led to make the organization entirely remote in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a purposefully orchestrated and collaborative effort. In preparation for successfully addressing the new work

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I learned years ago that having the business on your side to accomplish shared goals will go a long way. Removing barriers and bureaucracy in technology processes is very critical to the success of the technology leader.

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Van Richardson CIO

www.imanage.com 26

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paradigm, he met with business stakeholders and teams to understand the requirements. He also implemented systems, processes, and tools to handle the new way of working. The company coordinated with its vendors within various geographic regions to ensure it had the appropriate technical resources to handle the organization's needs. Van led virtual 'IT Café' sessions to aid the workforce in getting used to working remotely throughout the pandemic. Based on the work, the team was voted Team of the Year by the company's global organization.

As described by Van, the company had 5 video collaboration tools and 4 instant messaging platforms. This complexity added major confusion to the workforce, and there was a growing need to reduce the friction. Van met with business leaders across the organization and took pulse surveys on use cases and user sentiment. Within 3 months, the company consolidated to 1 tool in each area, reducing the number of video tools by 80%, and the number of messaging tools by 75%, which helped to deliver greater efficiency, collaboration, and user satisfaction.

The likelihood for teams wanting to use tools that they are familiar with – which are oftentimes cloud or SaaS products – is increasing. Team members want to use the same tools that they use at home and in their personal life. So, Van implemented a SaaS management tool that allows him to integrate with SaaS providers and look for utilization. It gives Van a view into duplication, as well as a view of spending that is being expensed. This allowed him to standardize on common tools, eliminate costs to credit cards that aren't in line with the standard, and implement processes to manage the onboarding of new tools within the enterprise.

Using Smart Communication to Combat Covid-19 Challenges On the IT front, one of the first things Van did when the initial stirrings of COVID-19 were being reported was to conduct some initial assessments of the company's systems – including video conferencing, IM, VPN, remote access, and other key technologies – to make sure that they operated as expected and would be fully performant. According to Van, these third-party tools have been invaluable, but the company is also wellpositioned to support remote working and collaboration, simply by the nature of its core product offering – iManage Work 10.

available to them and how they should use them. Everyone needs a little education when the normal routine is upended.

Van's role as CIO is understanding what the people need and then working collaboratively to deliver on that. Like People Ops or Finance, IT impacts everyone in an organization.

Van emphasized that the IT team provides the foundation for everyone to get their jobs done. When the company has done its job properly, its ability to react to situations like COVID-19 or to turn on a dime from office-based work to working from home can take place much faster because the company has done its homework and has prepared in advance. That's how the company, as an organization, can ensure that everyone stays safe in the face of the current COVID-19 challenges, even while it maintains a focus on what drives it as a company.

'Right Decision at Right Time' Makes a Successful Leader According to Van, a leader must make informed decisions. He also notes that he learned early on that leaders can spend too much time looking for the right answer and miss the opportunity to course-correct immediately. Over the years, he has learned to use his experience and business expertise to quickly make decisions and delegate as needed. Van asks, “Who wants to be the leader of the ship and immediately hit resistance?” He described that he has learned that business stakeholders are more willing to support IT initiatives if they understand the reason for the direction. Better yet, they want to be a part of setting the course. If done successfully, they will be the company's champions while the leader focuses on meeting the goal.

Innovation as a Tool to Bring Positive Changes Van stated, "Whether it was leading the IT team at ITT, Grubhub, or my current home at iManage, innovative technology enablement has been and continues to be a passion of mine."

He shared that he focuses on bringing his diverse expertise to support fast-paced and energetic environments. Van has a passion to develop and lead successful teams, and most importantly, he has a passion to learn. He looks forward to continuing to be an agent of change, a force for innovation, and a positive example for everyone he interacts with.

Automation at the Top of Future Prospects

With iManage Work 10 emails and documents from disparate sources can be organized, managed, and stored in one repository as a single source of truth that is available from any device, any location at any time. The SaaS platform provides access to critical document and emails with best-in-class security and governance, allowing organizations to be more agile, collaborative, and responsive to business demands. These capabilities aren't only game-changing for customers, who increasingly want greater flexibility in endpoints and mobility, but for iManage users as well.

As the company has transitioned to making remote working 'business as usual' during these unusual times, communication has been key: educating the workforce about the tools that are

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In Van's words, "I have no shortage of priorities for the coming year! Automation is at the top of the list." According to him, anything that can be automated should be automated. This includes routine tasks, like the systems' deployment, as well as an intelligent response to threats, and service request management. Van's other priorities include continuing to rationalize corporate applications by removing duplication and finalizing standard offerings, ensuring a secure and safe return to the office once the pandemic has receded, and finalizing a corporate move-to-Cloud strategy. Van believes that being a technology leader requires a unique perspective that focuses on transparency and partnerships with the business.

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Sergey Tairyan CISO

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Empowering the Society with Innovative Cybersecurity Strategies

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igitain is known as an award-winning and leading sports betting software provider servicing in the global online betting and gaming industry. It offers customer-first approach with a wide range of supporting services such as guidance on licencing, customer care and so on. The platform offers products like iGaming platform, sportsbook software, casino games aggregator, DGbuilder, table football, virtual sports, live casinos, and many more.

Innovating Solutions for Talent Pools Digitain is one of the largest IT companies in Armenia that offers turnkey and white-label innovative solutions at a global scale. With its international partners from across all continents and offices in the UK, Malta, and Cyprus.

Digitain has more than 1700 talented experts. Its awardwinning omnichannel platform and sportsbook with integrated payment gateway, bonus engine and CRM system are comprised of 100 sports in 7500 leagues on 70.000 live events per month.

Digitain has projected its more than two decades of experience into building DigiTown tech hub to support innovation and boost the talent pool. DigiTown aims to set a new benchmark with Armenian IT startups and scale the Armenian ecosystem.

An Empowering Leader with an Expertise in Cybersecurity www.analyticsinsight.net

Sergey Tairyan holds a Ph.D. in Technical Sciences, who is also an author of more than ten international publications and tutorials on information security. He is an Information Security Lecturer in Armenian-Russian University for more than a decade now.

During his professional activity, Sergey has conducted Information Security and Social Engineering trainings for RA Ministry of Finance, employees and members of the National Assembly, different direction public, private sector as well as the NGO. He was the Information Security Consultant in the RA State Revenue Committee for more than seven years till now consulting Yerevan Municipality on Information Security and Blockchain.

Sergey Tairyan is the CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) of Digitain with main responsibilities such as the description of the structure and behavior for the company's security processes, information security systems, personnel, and organizational sub-units, showing the alignment with Digitain's mission and strategic plans; and threat hunting--- proactive security search through networks, endpoints, and datasets to hunt malicious, suspicious, or risky activities that have evaded detection by existing tools.

A Certified Professional with Superior Knowledge Sergey has received deep theoretical and mathematical knowledge at the Armenian-Russian University and at home. He has participated in multiple trainings such as IT audit in Slovenia, Russia; ethical hacking and penetration

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Digitain will continue to significantly enhance our information security processes and invest in the teams who safeguard our platform. Innovation, flexibility and trust are our primary company values and we are confident that, with this approach, we will continue to flourish in our industry.

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testing in Russia; SOC analyst in the Netherlands. Sergey is also known as the certified BS ISO/IEC 27001/2013 ISMS lead auditor as well as the certified blockchain expert (by the Blockchain Council).

Confronting Challenges with a Deep Understanding Sergey has started his career as a Systems Administrator in an insurance company, and this helped him to dive deeper into technical and practical issues of information security. Much has changed over the years, but the main thing remains--- the deep understanding of information security risks for the head owner of the company (Julius Caesar is a great example of a leader who was “pretty well” in information security). Especially in SMEs and startups, security risks are often underestimated. This almost always leads to irreversible consequences for the information system.

Insights from a Successful Tech Leader A lot of people buying “well-known” brand's devices and services, usually think that “big brand” made the device “secure and private by design”. But actually, in the era of business, tech companies creating something new, are in a hurry to enter the market with brand new device or service. In practice, these companies spend a lot of time on developing a new product but spend much less resources on its security. This is confirmed by the daily hacking news. Therefore, everyone needs to take care of their own cybersecurity and privacy. He mentions two vital attributes that comprises a technology leader i.e., tech security expertise and psychology skills.

Identifying Secure Environments in the Pandemic Last year, when the pandemic began, almost all companies switched to remote work. As ordinary users are the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain, a wave of phishing attacks with references to the pandemic broke out. Many have started using their own devices for work and new information security risks have emerged. Digitain has developed an innovative strategy to ensure the cyber security of its employees, not only while working on a corporate device, but also to ensure their personal cyber security. Everyone in Digitain can install a corporate antivirus on personal devices and can ask for help any time with their own device problems.

Disruptive Technologies for Better Outcomes In the case of AI, people who use machine learning and developing artificial intelligence should always keep in mind if the machine does the right thing when it learns.

How many errors are acceptable? To verify the validity of www.analyticsinsight.net

the actions of artificial intelligence, AI auditors will be needed who will supervise and re-teach AI. In the case of blockchain, it is currently at that stage of evolution just like the Internet in the early 2000s. Sergey thinks that in a few years the use of blockchain technology will be more widespread in industries such as iGaming, healthcare, supply chain, land ownership, digital marketing, finance and cybersecurity.

Last but not least, in the case of quantum computing and steganography, the problem of the stability of cryptosystems arose with the advent of quantum computers. Over time, cryptosystems will give way to stegosystems based on post-quantum algorithms with stegochannels for data transmission.

Predicting a Protected Journey to Success From an iGaming industry perspective, it seems clear that the ever-present, and growing, cyber security threats will lead to ongoing greater investments in enhanced security systems. Mobile platform security could be an area of particular focus, given the importance of this channel to the iGaming industry, with up to 70% of bets now taken via this method.

At Digitain, the team continues to invest in the security and stability of the platform, developing both security systems and security teams, in order to ensure the company continues to out-innovate any potential cyber threats. The team will also continue to enhance AI-driven, self-healing security solutions, which will become even more important moving forward, to deal quickly and efficiently with increased volumes of cyberattacks. As a company, trust is part of the DNA and the team will continue to work tirelessly and effectively to protect partner network and their data from cybersecurity threats.

Essential Approach for Budding CISOs Julius Caesar is a great example of a leader who was “pretty well” in information security. "Caesar Cipher," is one of the earliest known ciphers, being developed around 100 BC, it was used by Julius Caesar to send (and receive) secret messages. Caesar shifted each letter of his message three letters to the right to produce what could be called the ciphertext.

The main thing is to approach the solution of the problem as Caesar advised--- Veni, Vidi, Vici.

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Michael L. Mathews CIO

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A Visionary Pioneer Seeking to Expand Education with Advanced Technology Solutions

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ocated in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Oral Roberts University's six colleges o er over 150 undergraduate and graduate programs, including four doctoral programs. The University has over 4,000 students in for-credit programs and over 4,500 certificate-seeking students.

The students come from 116 different nations. Most recently, ORU ranked 4th in the United States for student engagement by the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Ed. ORU offers the most comprehensive technology solutions to enhance the student experience. These solutions include an solution for augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence and access to one of the higher education's fastest supercomputers.

Inquisitive Leadership beyond Academia Michael L. Mathews (Mike), CIO and VP for Technology Innovation at Oral Roberts University has over 24-years of experience as a senior-level IT executive bringing creative solutions that value the end-users of technology and business process management. These solutions have benefited the end-users of higher education, manufacturing, and high technology company products, and resulted in garnering over 12 global awards. Mike has held positions as a chief information officer, general manager of CIOs, chief strategist for innovation, business development officer, trainer, teacher, and vice president of academic services for leading corporations and higher education. He has served as CIO within higher education for over 12 years.

Mike has a deep and rich work history including 12-years www.analyticsinsight.net

at Cray Research as an instructor and global training manager; as well as 12-years at SunGard Higher Education where he served as a chief information officer, and vice president of academic services. In these roles, he has influenced 100s of research, energy, chemical, and manufacturing companies, as well as over twenty community colleges, universities, and statewide systems.

His dual experience in business and education along with working knowledge of seven Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems has allowed him to quickly assess business process and technology innovation that creatively impacts products, processess, students, and society. In 2019, Mike was named Innovator of the Year by Industry Era, received 2018 Top 100 CIO Winner, and was designated as one of the top 30 innovators of education in the world, by the Center for Digital Education.

Learning through Experiences Mike feels blessed to have spent the first twelve years out of college at Cray Research, Supercomputer Company, as an engineer and training manager. This experience helped him become engaged with 8-12 various industries and understand how they leveraged the power of a supercomputer. According to him learning about multiple industries who were all at the level of leveraging a supercomputer illuminated the world in a way few people experience. He finds that the supercomputer was purposely used to shift and transform almost every industry. This gave him an advantage for all of his future jobs and bestowed an endeavor with one goal in mind 'transform the business to be the best'.

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Imagine the future if each technology leader could not only focus on technology transformation – but make a personal investment into other people and transform their career.

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So, when he landed his first job as a technology leader in education, Mike used all this experience and passion for starting a change within education. Within two years during his first education position, he was able to design and deliver the first online courses for a global audience.

The New York Times did a special coverage on this accomplishment and published the story alongside Oxford University in 1998.

This first accomplishment in the industry of education fueled Mike's desire to know that with enough focus and passion, things can be shifted to help individuals through education and technology. Such a blend has allowed an incredible amount of transformation within education.

And, each level of industry achievement has increased the outcome of the next level of achievement.

An Epitome of Grit Mike has an exceptionally high level of persistence. So for him, the everyday obstacles have seldom been a challenge. However, he considers his greatest asset and weakness is his desire to help others step up to higher levels of accomplishments to experience the joy of work.

Early on, as a technical person, he did not necessarily have the stamina and emotional intelligence to be successful at this. After 10 years of beginning his career, Mike obtained another degree in pastoral and biblical studies. This tremendously helped him to understand people better and leverage the power of scripture.

He says that the combination of both technical and pastoral degrees guided him to drive change while letting him focus on helping others come along on the journey of transformation.

Insignia of a Remarkable Leader Mike believes that every leader should have a balance between intellectual intelligence, emotional intelligence, and spiritual intelligence. The balance of these three attributes allows leaders to find a sweet-spot of how to leverage energy, passion, and persistence. More importantly, it will enable oneself to understand the need for levels of intensity better and keep the perseverance in the right context, especially one's mentees.

Passion Mixed With Work Culture Deliver Trailblazing Contributions Speaking of ORU's contributions, Mike says that ORU is inspiring every student to see their place in transforming the world through their respective discipline. The theme for ORU is 'Educating whole leaders for the whole world'.

In essence, he and his team contribute to mentoring and www.analyticsinsight.net

inspiring every student through educational journey. Over the past 55 years, ORU has inspired over 90,000 young people to go and impact their world.

In the area of technology, ORU has inspired the world and young professionals through its leadership in augmented and virtual reality, blockchain, data science, and artificial intelligence. ORU has won three of the most prestigious awards in higher education over the past three years. This award-winning approach has drawn people like Vinay Manda, Victor Ekwere, Jesupelumi Wickcliffe, and Adwait Raiborde to become some of the next great leaders in higher education transformation.

Vinay Manda is the Chief Data Scientist at Oral Roberts University. He has a Master of Business Administration degree with a concentration in Finance and Accounting, a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Information Technology, and a Bachelor of Commerce. His contribution has enabled weaving the world of data so that ORU can digitize education to reach students from 195 nations.

According to Vinay, data seen in isolation is rarely helpful, even with the best of visuals. This is where the art of data science helps to digest complex (and sometimes abstract information) and present it in a meaningful way, such that an average user can walk away with more significant insights into decision-making. Vinay's diverse background has empowered him to take a 360 view approach, connecting the dots between different systems, both internal and external, and bringing that information to one place to be consumed.

Victor Ekwere is an MBA graduate from ORU and is currently a Digital Analyst, there. Under Mike's tutelage, Victor was able to get over 4,500 students to enroll in the ORU Quest Cerificate programs in various life-changing courses. Along with his colleague, Jesupelumi Wickliffe, he developed a pair of AI-Enabled Smart Glasses. This glasses houses an entire course, including quizzes and reading materials, and is currently, ORU's best-selling noncertificate program to date, with over 1,500 registrations.

Jesupelumi Wickliffe, who is the Chief AI Data Scientist at Oral Roberts University, is accredited with the tag of developing AI-Enabled MQ Mirror at ORU. This mirror is a life-size digital assistant that helps students to engage with themselves in a thoughtful way that transforms and augments their life experiences. Via the AI-enabled MQ mirror, students can access their records and other campus resources such as course works. This makes ORU the first University to deliver courses in such an engaging and reflective way.

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Tony Lau CISO

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Empowering the Future with Advanced Security Solutions

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ony Lau is the Cloud Services and Information Security Executive at Sequent Software who has an extensive system architecture and operations experience in meeting payments and security requirements.

Based in Silicon Valley, Sequent Software was founded in 2010. Since its founding, Sequent has been at the forefront of digital transformation and mobile security. It aims to secure the world of shared personal information with confidence, privacy and simplicity. The company delivers its patented technology to enable and secure mobile experiences in payments, financial services, loyalty, and digital access to hard and soft assets.

Sequent Platform fully secures account data, personal data, PII, electronic health records, and other credentials on mobile, wearable, and IoT devices. Its technology is engineered to reside in the cloud or on-premise. It enables shielding or redacting critical consumer data. Sequent technology is protected by numerous US and international patents.

An Experienced Leader with Strong Hands in Technical Competency Tony Lau has served the bank customers with www.analyticsinsight.net

service-oriented professional service at HP and VeriFone. Also, he managed, integrated, and deployed secure electronic payment transaction systems to major banks in the world. Being the head of IT and cloud operations at Vivotech he contributed to providing 7x24 mobile payment and loyalty card provisioning service. As the CISO at Sequent, he works to ensure that companies and customers are protected from continuously mutated security threats and minimized operational risks. He is also a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) with track records of establishing security policies, procedures, and auditable administrative, technical, and operational controls that passed payment security compliance requirements. Tony has very strong hands-on technical competency as well as the ability to articulate ideas and directives to a variety of technical and non-technical audiences.

Security Awareness that Plays a Pivotal Role According to Tony, security awareness among management and employees was relatively low a few years ago. He said, “We spent a few good cycles of training and education to pervade security consideration in all software development lifecycle and company operations. Now, we have many internal advocates from management to engineers knowing that successful business can only exist if we know how to protect ourselves and our customers”.

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Every aspect of life is touched by digital transformation. It's imperative that innovation is never at the expense of security. Secure data is at the heart of Sequent products so when data breaches occur, there is nothing of value to the hacker.

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Data Prevention: An Innovation Beyond Excellence The greatest innovation in the market of data protection is to prevent data from being stolen. Tony said, “To bring in such innovation Sequent's approach is to make stolen data useless to the perpetrator. The original data at rest is tokenized and replaced by a blob of undecipherable string thus making the data worthless. The data can be detokenized on the fly for use after a genuine authorized user is authenticated. “We provide bank graded security to the payment and healthcare industry to protect PII (Personal Identifiable Information) and PHI (Protected Health Information),” he added.

Injecting Efficiency and Transparency with Disruptive Technologies “It is a norm that organizations do not have inadequate staff to handle all security tasks needed.

Resources should be focused on running core business, thus outsource tasks to external trustable cloud vendors who have the skills, AI capability and scalability are the trends,” Tony said.

“With defense in layers and zero-trust in mind, evergrowing controls and monitors are deployed everywhere at perimeter firewalls, internal application servers, and end-user computing equipment. These endless critical but tedious anomaly detection and responses should be outsourced if local governance is allowed. I expect in a few short years that all corporate internet-facing attack surfaces can be handled by external network aggregators; only filtered and clean traffic should reach corporate networks,” Tony further added.

experience that was a nightmare taught him an experience. Sequent now has PCI DSS certification on both AWS environment and own data centres six years in a row.

Going Forth and Expanding the Systems High-profile ransomware attacks and data heists got everybody's attention frequently. Such cyber-attacks occur daily to organizations of all sizes worldwide.

Appropriate security policies and awareness training control implementation and tokenizing invaluable data are all critical arsenals for data protection. By implementing tokenization technology together with identity authentication in providing trust and privacy to protected data, Sequent will continue to replicate success from payment to healthcare to other industry verticals, is what the CISO of the company believes.

Enlightening Upcoming Executives In his advice for the upcoming CISOs and executives, Tony enlightens the starters by telling them that they must understand their own business before starting to implement cybersecurity solutions. It is better to pick an appropriate cybersecurity framework and use it to drive strategies, identify gaps, and most importantly to gain internal support and acceptance.

He believes, “For small to midsize organizations, NIST cybersecurity framework is a good start. For the more established organizations, there are probably contractual and legal compliance requirements like PCI DSS, HITRUST, NIST 800-53 or FedRAMP”.

Experience that Trained and Shaped the Leader Talking about his experience, Tony mentioned “Previous bank systems integration and deployment with architecting and managing payment card industry governed hosting services that naturally trained me to weigh and consider all factors about information security”.

Adding to this Tony also asserted that general data protection was in his DNA. He mentioned that the first PCI DSS service provider level 1 audit took a few months of patience and persistence to remediate all the gaps found but the second-year onwards it became much smoother and easier. This way each www.analyticsinsight.net

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Bruce Carlos CISO

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Steering Cyber Security Solutions to Great Heights with Remarkable Leadership Qualities

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XiQ offers world-class services specialized in cloud, application migrations and modernization services, supported by a full spectrum of cyber security offerings with lowcost high-impact outcomes for the customer.

The company is run by a team of deeply experienced technology experts, who deliver innovative, high-quality solutions rapidly.

The purpose of the company is to create a lasting digital change for all its customers, through the power of its people, its ideas, and its energy.

A Visionary Leadership for Cyber Security for the Digital Age As a recognized global business technology leader with a successful CIO background with twenty-years of hands-on experience, the role of Bruce as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) involves leading the company on multiple fronts of building and delivering strong cyber resilience programs and lead protection of core information assets for the company as well as for the customers where there is scope to practice end to end business strategy skills to deliver world-class fit for purpose cyber security leadership. His role at SXiQ doubles as a practice lead for cyber security for several key customers of the company including Thryv Australia (formerly Sensis). This gives him deep and a balanced cyber-business experience, great opportunities, and the latest hands-on exposure to current and emerging trends and threat profiles across the cyber security landscape that affect businesses, corporations, governments, NGOs, www.analyticsinsight.net

and individuals.

A Passionate Cyber Leader Bruce had a true passion for flying aircraft, space science and technologies and this inspired him to be a successful CIO within the global defense and Australian government sectors. Bruce's is one of the foundational members of the Australian Space Agency and an active/avid member of the Australian space program, having worked with NASA/JPL contract opportunities in the mid 2000s including during on the Mars Rover/Opportunity and Orbiter missions. Bruce's recent roles as the hands-on tech leader leading a global cyber security program also contributed to his current role as a successful CISO. As such, he has helped shape the cyber security posture and the capabilities of global brands, providing a “stepchange”, in preventing and protecting the business from advanced global cyber threats. “This knowledge combined with mitigating risks through the business lens, and formulating a fit-for-purpose cyber program that has lowcost and high impact, is considered to be my achievement. My my combined role as a Practice Lead which brought together strong, clear, and engaging leadership abilities supported by the latest technological knowledge, trends, and threats, has made a well-rounded cyber leader that I enjoy,” he mentioned.

[Also, I am currently writing a couple of articles on Cyber Security that are final drafts for publications into the Australina and US Space Journals. These are titled as follows:

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Cyber Security is one of the core pillars of our offerings to protect our customers from low-cost bases but is highly effective.

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Cyber Security for 2022 and beyond – Space and Satellite Systems Ÿ Cyber Security 2.0 – The New Frontier (talks about global threats, State-sponsored programs, Cyber Defence in Space) Ÿ The Burning Platform: Reforming Australia's Cyber Security Strategy (talks about security our Critical Infrastructure and how data and Cloud plays a vital role in this. Also include references to Industry 4.0 and EVs – controlled by a central grid etc) Whilst the articles themselves are not yet ready - can we make a one-sentence or one-para reference somewhere in this article to add this flavour ? ] Mitigating Challenges with Proper Planning and Strategy Speaking about the challenges Bruce said, “The business case for secure cloud migration and automation in the early days was a major challenge as most of the solutions did not make it clear on the extent of automation of what secure cloud migration could offer. It was difficult to relay the message to make infrastructure and related security controls someone else's problem, which was largely hampered by the cultural change needed within the business”.

According to Bruce the key message is that --Cyber security is everyone's responsibility within the business, and not just by a handful who carry the title. “After all, our people are our first line of defense, so awareness along with governance is vital to ensure security is practiced by every single one in the business,” he added.

So, the biggest challenge he faced both as a CIO and as a CISO, is on how to bring all of the people on the journey, and that's why “I always start every cyber program with people, rather than just technology or process,” he said. [somewhere I would like add…as part of what I stand for…”My focus remains on doing “good cyber security with the lowest total cost of ownership” to build and maintain Cyber Resilience for complex business environments].

Getting IT and Cybersecurity on the Same Line Bruce believes that every technology leader should possess the following attributesŸ A true understanding of the business landscape and vision, strategy, and culture that stands as the basis for a successful cyber program Ÿ Strong clear engaging leadership, with 360 collaboration skills Ÿ Up to date knowledge and skills on the depth of cyber security threats, technologies, and the perspective of looking at the solution rather than

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Ÿ Ÿ

just a software application Being authentic Ability to assess what is fit-for-purpose for a given business environment taking into consideration the products and services it offers to its customers.

Industry Trend Analysis is Crucial Bruce believes it is important to always stay connected with industry trends, threats, and solutions for leveraging product innovation. And this is what makes his product innovative and extraordinary while protecting information and data security across organizations.

AI: The Primary Disruptive Technology Bruce says, “In the past, security was largely confined to infrastructure and some aspects of the network. Today, this is very different and complex. In addition to these two, there are eight other core domains that every business and leadership team or board should understand. These are- cloud, identity, endpoint, applications including PaaS/SaaS, data security, security operations, DevSecOps, governance, risk and compliance and the often-missed third party/vendor security”. “AI is one of the primary disruptive concepts that is applied across this entire spectrum, in both creating threats and the protection and prevention of cyber-attacks” Bruce added.

Know Thy Customer, Know Thyself Bruce says, “It is important for every CISO to ensure that they understand the basics and develop a template for their approach so there is consistency. We know we cannot protect everything all the time, so every executive must start with understanding what their crown jewels are and how to protect them as a core, and then work around ancillary requirements”.

“They must always take a strategic view before refining their approach to tactical or purely operational and recognize and start with their people as people are their first line of defense. Also, culture is often one of the greatest challenges,” he added.

Bruce asserts that every CISO should make sure that they have a good mentor who is a full spectrum leader. He believes that transparency goes a long way in ensuring that all the decisions are risk-based and that the responsibilities shared on risks are hence not mitigated.

This shows how Bruce is totally aligned with ethics and workforce that makes him a leader who everyone should look up to.

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Top Five Effective Traits Executives Need in a Professional CIO

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C

hief Information Officer (CIO) is a very crucial role in the thriving information technology sector in Industry 4.0.

Organizations are overwhelmed with the adoption of digital transformation to boost productivity and efficiency without any human error. The importance of the CIO is increasing at an increasing rate across the world for its key leadership role. A professional CIO is known for managing a wide range of services from information security to machine learning algorithms while mitigating threats efficiently and effectively. The profession is in charge of multiple IT strategies as well as implementation to look after hardware and software of a company. It is essential to research new technologies and strategize new technologies to provide business value.

CIO has to sit on the executive board as a senior or middle manager in data processing or information systems. It is focused on delivering new IT systems on time and on budget. The role of the CIO has started evolving with the emergence of World Wide Web (www) and the constant advancements of internet facilities. The global IT market is expected to hit US$8370.95 billion by the end of 2021 with a CAGR of 6.6%. It has opened a plethora of opportunities for CIOs to become involved in business strategies and have a strong understanding of taking advantage of the internet. Technology has started transforming the lives of people as well as aspiring CIOs. Essential traits are required to be a professional CIO in this cut-throat competitive world. Let's explore some of the top five effective traits executives need in professional CEOs. Trustable Leadership Skills CIOs or Chief Information Officer needs to possess trustable leadership skills to lead the team in the IT department. Trustable leaders are essential to build a team with sufficient knowledge of technology and data.

CIOs lead a team where the morale of employees is needed to be high with their opinions being valued. The leadership skill makes a bond of mutual trust among the team members to coordinate with the C-suite executive.

The constant support is essential to make their own decisions independently to enhance productivity and generate top-notch strategies for the company.

Communication Skills For any Chief Officer, an excellent and strong communication skills is one of the essential traits to be needed to be a successful officer. It is a matter of www.analyticsinsight.net

delegating workload to the team members with complex strategies and IT terms. Thus, it is essential to have an effective communication in the IT team to explain projects, strategies, missions, etc. It helps to eliminate overlapping of work, miscommunication, misinterpretation and many other troubles that can affect deadlines and workloads. Thus, communication skills are needed to be a professional CIO in the nearby future.

Innovator A successful CIO is needed to be an innovator to calculate risks to gain a competitive edge in technological advancements. Innovation tends to come after having a sufficient knowledge of the industry. CIOs are known for fostering an innovation culture to boost the work efficiency and performance of employees. It helps the employees to bring new ideas to the table in front of Csuite executives. The willingness to take risks with innovation is needed to embrace digital transformation to take over competitors.

Emotional Intelligence For being a professional CIO in this market, emotional intelligence is one of the crucial traits to possess.

Emotional intelligence is essential to manage a team efficiently while having a clear understanding of what they need and want with their problems. Emotional intelligence is a bridge between the CIO and employees to boost productivity and morale in a company. The leadership skill needs emotional intelligence to guide and support employees to provide a proper and friendly work environment. Emotional intelligence instigates CIOs to provide direction by motivating other members of the team.

Strategic Skills A professional CIO should possess strategic skills to deal with effective data management and advanced technologies on a regular basis. A clear understanding of data management, big data, and data science is needed to generate meaningful and in-depth outcomes for projects. They are needed to provide a key support to data scientists for enhancing business growth with accurate datasets. Strategic skills are essential to be a head for business and drive customer engagement to be on top of new technological developments.

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