Tech-Exec Issue 11

“I want us to sIt rIght In the boadroom and drIve where we're goIng"

GARY DONNELLY ON IT TRANSFORMATION, CONSOLIDATION AND INNOVATION, AND WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS

culture, mindset. Forget technology [for a moment, at least], because when it comes to making any meaningful or lasting change in the modern enterprise it’s these things that matter most, regardless of how effective a leader you are.

Gary Donnelly calls this ‘winning hearts and minds’, and it’s been a crucial aspect of the sweeping programme of change he and his colleagues have been driving at leading logistics business Culina Group. Technology has, of course, been front and centre as he’s worked to consolidate a disparate IT landscape. But, as Donnelly explains, his objective of creating a single, organisation-wide IT function would be hard-pressed had he not ensured that change were embraced across the business.

It’s the same story for Johnson & Johnson’s Ken Creasy, who tells us how the perfect blend of people, skills and technologies – as well as the organisation’s ‘Credo-based culture’ – enables it to put patients first while making a real difference. The reality is, irrespective of which technology you’re exploring or the industry sector you’re operating in, there’s an inescapable and very real human thread that underpins everything. Like the incredible Synchron, a super-innovative company developing digital technology that can unlock the natural highways of the brain, or Stella Vita and its fascinating approach to sustainable travel.

It’s both inspiring and reassuring to know that however rapidly the word develops, we’re always at the heart.

We hope you enjoy this issue.

Matt.

Content Director

Matt High

Creative Directors

Daniel Crawford

Steve Shipley

Marketing Director

Jack Pascall

Project Director Manuel Navarro

Project Director Katie Fedun

Managing Directors

Charlotte Clarke

James Pepper

06 | INSIGHT

EXEC SUMMARY

News, views and tech insight

14 | INTERVIEW CULINA GROUP

On IT transformation, innovation and the importance of winning hearts and minds

48 | PORTFOLIO

TECH YOU NEED

Innovations for work, leisure and the environmentally conscious

58 | ENTREPRENEUR

60 CONTENTS //

MELANIE FELLAY

Remote working, onboarding and HR: a better, simpler way

60 | INNOVATION

LA DOLCE VITA

Style, comfort and sustainability. Meet the future of grean transport. Meet Stella Vita

66 | INNOVATOR CUBERG

14 48 58 TECH-EXEC MAGAZINE | ISSUE ELEVEN 04

68 | INTERVIEW

JOHNSON & JOHNSON

On balancing skills, technologies and partners, culture and always putting patients first

86 | DISRUPTOR

SYNCHRON

Introducing the Brain Computer Interface: the brain unlocked

88 | AWARDS

DATA LEADERS

AWARDS 2022

Inspirational leadership in data: the shortlist

96 | CITY GUIDE

48 HRS: LEUVEN

Business and pleasure in the Belgian city

104 | CALENDAR

EVENTS

The best events for 2022

goIng dIgItaLLY green

Digital technologies will be critical to achieving sustainability goals across organisations and industries, says a joint survey by Bain & Company and the World Economic Forum. Of 400 executives surveyed, 40% said they believe that digital technologies are already making a positive impact on their sustainability goals, with many citing automation as a key enabling technology. By using intelligent automation – a combination of robotic process automation and AI – companies are seeing value in several specific areas, including efficiency, agility, speed and insight, says the survey.

www.bain.com

BOARD-LEVEL THINKING

Get out of your comfort zone. What’s needed, according to Forbes Council Member and CEO at cybersixgill Sharon Wagner, to increase cybersecurity knowledge and effectiveness. Many companies are still not as good as the many threat actors, says Wagner, explaining they face a broad spectrum of riks across data, brand value and trusted marketplace relationships. Action should start at board level, including commitment to increasing cybersecurity knowledge, reconsidering security as a strategic business threat related to workforce, investment and growth, understanding when to prioritise brand protection over data protection, and promoting an elevated and more collaborative relationship with the CISO at board level.

www.forbes.com

12%

Only 12% of firms have advanced their AI maturity enough to achieve superior growth and business transformation. These can attribute close to 30% of their total revenue to AI on average; they enjoyed 50% greater revenue growth on average compared to peers.

Accenture: The art of AI maturity

GOING GREEN WITH DIGITAL WORKERS

WELCOME TO MINDWATCH

NYU Tandon School of Engineering researchers have developed a novel inference engine that monitors brain activity through the skin, a key milestone in their work to develop wearable technology that tracks and measures key brain mechanisms via skin contact.

Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Rose Faghih and colleagues are developing technology that uses electrodermal activity, an electrical phenomenon of the skin influenced by brain activity and linked to emotional state, to make wearables that help improve mental health and cognitive engagement.

To maximise the level of success of any transformation programme, organisations must excel at six key drivers, says EY:

> Collaborate

> Empower

> Care

> Inspire

> Build

> Lead

www.ey.com

Images:Thor Balkhed

TECH FOR GOOD

A bioengineered cornea, created by a team from Linköping University in Sweden, has restored vision to people with impaired eyesight, including those who were blind before being given the implant. Nearly 13 million people suffer from corneal blindness and the team believe the cornea, which is made from collagen protein extracted from pig skin, could help restore sight to people in countries where existing human cornea transplants are difficult to obtain.

EXPANDING HUMAN REACH

Forget Earth, the next frontier for innovative technologies like robotics and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is space. At least, according to Hyundai and Kia, which have announced a joint research agreement with Korean research institutes to develop smart mobility solutions to explore the surface of the moon, including exploration equipment, software for mobility operation and remote communications technology. Said Yong Wha Kim, Executive VP and Head of R&D Planning & Coordination Center for Hyundai Motor and Kia: “We will expand the scope of human movement experience beyond traditional means of transport and beyond the bounds of Earth to further contribute to the progress of humankind and help create a better future.”

www.hyundai.com

sPaCe raCe

You get to Venus. You’re ready to explore for signs of life after our recent discovery of phosphine – a gas created on Earth through biological processes - only to find out you have five minutes. That’s it. This is the fate awaiting Rocket Lab’s small, multipurpose spacecraft known as Photon, which is slated to launch in mid 2023 and will search the Venusian clouds for organic particles as it drops to the planet’s surface, beaming the data back to Earth.

www.technologyreview.com

REALITY ONE?

Apple is rumoured to be preparing for the development and launch of its first AV/VR headset. According to Bloomberg, the company has entered new trademark filings in the US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica and Uruguay for the names ‘Reality One’, ‘Reality Pro’, and ‘Reality Processor’. Bloomberg said Apple didn’t make the filings itself, instead they were applied for by relying on law firms the company has previously used to lock down its brand names. www.bloomberg.com

Cruise operator Royal Caribbean Group implements SpaceX’s Starlink across its entire fleet to improve onboard internet connectivity and enhance crewmember experience.

Facebook shuts down its video game livestreaming app, Facebook Gaming. After just two years on the market it will stop working on October 28.

Honda Motor Co. forms a joint venture with LG to build an EV battery factory in the US that will produce 40 gigawatt-hours of batteries annually from 2025.

Tom Hanks launches his own trivia game, Hanx101, on Apple Arcade which will include 58,000 questions across a range of categories.

Brand Guidelines

Seattle wins the Electronics Product Environmental Assessment Tool Purchaser Award in recognition of its commitment to sustainable technology and responsible purchasing.

Elon Musk adds whistleblower allegations against Twitter as a reason for ending his $44bn takeover bid.

ROCKET LAB

CREATING

CREATING ONE IT

GARY DONNELLY ON IT TRANSFORMATION, THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSOLIDATION AND INNOVATION, AND WHY WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS IS KEY TO ANY CHANGE PROGRAMME

PHOTOS JAMES RANDLE

What does Culina IT look like? One of several key questions and challenges at the heart of the ongoing and significant technology transformation that Gary Donnelly and his team are driving at market leading international logistics organisation Culina Group. Donnelly, a vastly experienced and senior IT leader, joined the business just 15 months ago tasked with leading a consolidation and evolution of its disparate IT environment. Since, he has spearheaded a change programme that, while driven by the need to consolidate the organisation’s use of technology and innovation, is also underpinned by something far more important: people, culture and winning hearts and minds.

Culina is a market-leading logistics organisation, expanding over the last decade or so by an acquisition strategy that sees it today

comprising 16 distinct business units operating across two key areas of logistics: chilled and ambient, plus a number of industrial support businesses. It’s a strategy that has brought significant success for the business but, at the same time, has created an IT and technology environment ripe for greater consolidation and evolution, says Donnelly. “Over the same time as we’ve been on this significant acquisition journey there’s been very little in the way of technology consolidation,” he explains. “Within the Culina Group you have an environment where every business has its

own IT systems and, when I joined around 15 months ago with the remit of bringing this all together, it was apparent that there was a lack of overall IT cohesion.

“With that in mind, I came in expecting relatively immature processes that were oriented more towards supporting or representing the individual brands within the group, but I also knew there was a drive from the senior leadership table to achieve greater consolidation, standardisation and an IT organisation that could support further overall growth and drive innovation,” adds Donnelly. “From my perspective there’s three big challenges to address to meet those objectives: a cultural, identity piece around what does best-practice Culina IT look like and how can we best support our customers and stakeholders in the group, a broadening and deepening cybersecurity risk because of the footprint that we have, and then a diminishing set of returns from our acquisitions’ technology footprint.”

“ OVER THE SAME TIME AS WE’VE BEEN ON THIS SIGNIFICANT ACQUISITION JOURNEY THERE’S BEEN VERY LITTLE IN THE WAY OF TECHNOLOGY CONSOLIDATION”

LOOKING FOR A TRANSPORT BUT NOT SURE WHAT YOUR

Who is Enterprise Software? We’re a company dedicated to developing Transport Management solutions for today’s logistics and haulage operators.

What do we offer? We’re market leaders in what we do and offer a full life cycle solution with order management, load consolidation, route planning, resource allocation, execution, debrief and invoicing sitting at its core. This is complimented by a extensive range of modules which includes Crossdock, ePOD, Optimisation, Reporting and Analytics.

Who uses our software? Companies providing general, contract logistics, 3PL, 4PL, chilled & ambient transport services. But that’s not all, our software is used by operators that supply specialist transport services across a wide range of industries, all with differing transport and operational needs. We really do have something for everyone.

How can we help you? As an experienced solution provider we will support, guide and assist your business. Our teams of people are experts in their fields and will

work with you to ensure your implementation journey is smooth and successful.

Is finding the right solution fit important to you?

We always do a deep-dive into an operation so that we can identify and guide on the most efficient and effective ways to work with our solutions. That way, you gain the maximum benefit from a Transport Management system that fits perfectly around your business.

FIVE BASTIONS OF CHANGE

Since assuming the role of Group CIO, Donnelly has worked to address these questions through an ongoing change programme centred on five key ‘bastions’. “First, the overarching priority is about creating a single Culina IT function that’s prepared with the right skills, capabilities and people so that we can support the wider business strategy for the group moving forwards,” he says, discussing each in more detail. “As part of that journey we also want to address how we can rationalise our IT landscape into a far more consumable

set of outcomes while, at the same time, considering how to optimise our approach to IT investment and purchasing – as an example for context, in my early days I found we had 14 different vendors for the handhelds we use in our warehouses that charged us significantly different rates.

ESS AND STOBART: COLLABORATION, INNOVATION AND IMPROVING BUSINESS

Digital transformation and people-led innovation are crucial to logistics companies like Stobart, part of the Culina Group, which is undergoing a significant IT transformation based on consolidating key technologies, moving from paperless to digital, and improving operational efficiency, outcomes, and the user experience across the organisation.

Enterprise Software Systems (ESS) plays a key role in this transformation providing innovative technologies and close collaboration that helps Stobart optimise its driver management, rostering and manning. Across its sites, Stobart uses MyWorkforce, an application developed by ESS

offers a facility for drivers to, amongst other things, manage holiday bookings instantly and provide early notification of absence.

ESL Connect is available on iOS and Android and is a great example of how a system, developed collaboratively, can innovate and synergise. Stobart gains access to key real-time data, providing enhanced visibility over planning, risks and potential manning or rostering challenges whilst the workforce, through the app, can control key aspects of their work life more easily: manage holidays and absence, view business-related notifications, arrange shift swaps and extra shifts and call for fleet assistance on the roadside. Additional features are already planned to facilitate the current workforce needs, while Stobart will extend its use, rolling it out to other members of staff within the business.

to streamline processes and provide a central repository of driver master data such as driver type, shift patterns, holiday entitlement and absence.

While having a centralised and consolidated database was hugely beneficial, the process of booking holidays still involved the completion of forms and gaining timely notification of absences remained a challenge. This led to unavoidable pressures and could impact operational efficiency and success.

To mitigate this, working closely with the business, ESS developed ESL Connect, a mobile application that replaces paper-based processes, provides information automatically to MyWorkforce, and

Its use has brought widespread benefits to both business and drivers, according to Stobart Transport Director Steve Ridley: “ESL Connect delivers benefits to our customers, our colleagues and ultimately to business profitability,” he says.

“Having the ability to automate the process and to fix peoples’ interpretation of the rules so they are consistent across the business has been invaluable. Realistically, this app is innovation at its best.”

“Realistically, this app is innovation at its best”

Steve Ridley, Transport Director, Stobart

Simplifying operations of ports, terminals and warehouses.

World-class, end-to-end software and consultancy solutions for the entire lifecycle of ports, terminals and warehouses. A scalable portfolio of solutions that work for small or large operations, either manual or automated.

“Our mission is to provide integrated software solutions to simplify the operations of ports, terminals and warehouses.”

“In addition, the growing cybersecurity threat and considering how to secure our estate was essential because, at the time, it was very vulnerable,” Donnelly continues. “Very few threats to the business these days are people coming through your front door, it’s about cyber attacks, stealing your data and damaging your technology and reputation, and the risk is greater if you have the kind of footprint we have across our various businesses. The last area of focus is then about how we proactively use our new IT organisation to unlock innovation throughout the business. It’s something that’s becoming increasingly important in all areas, but particularly with challenges like workforce shortages, where we’re looking at how we use technologies like RPA and Autonomous automation to our advantage.”

It’s a significant programme of change that has been branded ‘One IT’, says Donnelly. “In the short term, it’s about consolidating everything that falls under the technology umbrella with the overall objective of supporting the group as a whole,” he explains. “So, ultimately that includes cloud strategy, consolidation and removal of unnecessary data centres, standardisation of networking and Wi-Fi products,

standard device builds and technologies across our sites and more. The One IT programme of work is us driving the five core bastions so that we bring significant benefits to Culina Group, from our employees having a far better and simplified IT experience or the organisation as a whole having a much clearer strategy around what products and services we’ll invest in to support growth, right through to greater clarity around future acquisition programmes.”

PEOPLE, HEARTS AND MINDS

Any transformation or change programme is challenging, particularly one the size and scope of that which Donnelly and his

“ THE LAST AREA OF FOCUS IS THEN ABOUT HOW WE PROACTIVELY USE OUR NEW IT ORGANISATION TO UNLOCK INNOVATION THROUGHOUT THE BUSINESS”

Research undertaken by Apogee shows almost two thirds of IT directors are not very confident in their IT estate’s ability to fully support the hybrid workforce

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63% of businesses fear that their IT estate cannot support the hybrid workforce. Are you one of these?

their

Making the complicated, simple.

CASE STUDY:

Delivering through Digital Transformation

• Greater cost control, security and visibility

• A tailored solution fully integrated with the warehouse management system

• Automated processes to increase employee productivity

• Accelerated the digitisation of manual processes

As Culina’s Digital Transformation Partner, Apogee’s task is to facilitate the optimisation of processes and solutions - delivered through industry leading hardware and software solutions, all supported through a nationwide service network, enhancing Culina’s operations.

The Solution:

To gain a thorough understanding of the intricacies of Culina’s document handling requirements, Apogee carried out a full assessment of their paper-based processes. Information from this assessment, coupled with 30 years of industry expertise, identified the solutions within Apogee’s product portfolio that would deliver cost savings and elevate Culina’s operations into new levels of efficiency.

Business-wide management solution: The solution allowed Culina to take control of their fleet, securely tracking and managing the cost and volume of what you’re their organisation printed, copied and scanned. Delivering insights into who is printing what, giving them detailed reports and full control of their print output.

Benefits delivered:

• Cost savings on Culina’s current spend, achieved by bringing complete transparency to the way Culina uses documents.

• Enhanced security through user authentication, as well as increased visibility across all networked devices, helping to strengthen governance and control.

Warehouse management solution: A powerful solution, designed to receive data from the warehouse management system, compose documents, and direct the output through email or print. The solution solves the issue of document production from back-end systems then manages and automates the process.

Benefits delivered:

• Reduction in the overall cost of the processes by removing high running cost print devices, and digitisation of proof of delivery notes via email.

• Due to the scalability of the solution other depots across Culina have adopted the process as the business expanded.

Inbound delivery notes: Utilising the hardware installed as part of the wider managed print contract, Apogee provided a solution that allowed in users to scan inbound delivery notes. The solution would read the barcode on these notes and automatically index these documents into the back-office system, eliminating steps from the previous process.

Benefits delivered:

• The solution took away the wasted time and money with the existing process, by increasing staff productivity.

• Reduced the potential for human error when occasionally filing the delivery notes into the wrong folders.

All the above solutions are easily scaled and adapted to meet many requirements. They were all designed, delivered, and supported by Apogee, providing Culina with a managed print environment tailored to their business. Culina and Apogee are continuing to look at other opportunities to optimise and digitise current processes within their business.

Solution delivered by Apogee, in Partnership with Ricoh

colleagues are working on. In this instance, the need for consolidation means that people, culture and mindset have played a crucial role.

“IT and technology have evolved to become far more strategic over my career, and that’s particularly true for a company like ours,” says Donnelly. “Technology isn’t our core product; on the most basic level I consume other people’s technology, plug it together and make it work for the solutions we offer. My role and that of IT is really about business strategy, enabling business objectives and providing

the basis for the organisation to achieve its goals. In that context, my first focus here was to bring the organisation together. One of the biggest challenges, even now, in this transformation is the ‘hearts and minds’ piece and the ability to drive that consolidation across people, processes and vendors. I’m a firm believer in the fact that, if you can’t change people to

“ THE TECHNOLOGY ASPECT OF THIS KIND OF CHANGE DOESN’T OVERLY CONCERN ME BUT, AS A LEADER, IT’S THE CHANGE AGENDA THAT COMES WITH THE NEW TECHNOLOGY AND ENSURING EVERYONE ACROSS THE ORGANISATION IS COMFORTABLE WITH THE JOURNEY WE’RE EMBARKING ON”

embrace what you’re trying to do, you’ll never evolve your organisation.

“The first drive of this journey has been to consolidate all the people from the various employing organisations into a central Culina IT function,” he continues. “It’s been a significant piece of work across three tranches that

will ultimately mean we have one Culina IT set of resources, and that provides me with two things. First, it gives line of sight and line of responsibility for all IT costs in the business, and it brings everyone together under one shared objective that lets me drive people in the right direction.

“I’ll give you an example of how complex a challenge this aspect is,” says Donnelly, expanding on the theme. “We’ve 10+ finance systems and 10+ finance teams who each have different ways of operating, and we

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discussed in great detail the right finance system to implement for the group. The technology aspect of this kind of change doesn’t overly concern me but, as a leader, it’s the change agenda that comes with the new technology and ensuring everyone across the organisation is comfortable with the journey we’re embarking on. We’ve a large roadmap

of IT consolidation and over the next three to five years it’ll involve looking at each of the business applications in turn, starting with finance and HR before moving onto reviewing how to consolidate solutions such as Transport Management, Warehouse Management, Telematics, Learning and Development, Health and Safety solutions.”

Leadership will play a crucial role in successfully completing this journey. With some 30 years’ experience in IT and technology, Donnelly is passionate about effective and

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pandemic. Because it prioritized a flexible and agile workplace from the project outset, the workplace systems were designed to be flexible and resilient, allowing employees to remain effectively engaged through changing circumstances or world events.

• Frictionless working environments and meeting spaces

When your organization is the world’s leading building standards organization, it’s important to lead by example. So when ASHRAE, a global society advancing human well-being through sustainable technology for the built environment, set out to move its Atlanta headquarters to a new location, it decided that building would serve as one of the most secure, innovative, and sustainable workspaces to date.

Buildings, like ASHRAE’S new headquarters, are no longer simply physical structures. They are smart, informative, and transformative, using the latest technology for pervasive connectivity, operational efficiency, meaningful interactions, and health and safety.

Built on NTT Ltd.’s Connected Workplace platform powered by Cisco Meraki, Cisco DNA Spaces, Cisco DNA Center and Cisco Collaboration Suite, ASHRAE’s smart headquarters serves as a showcase to its 54,000 members and the industry at large. It delivers:

• Employee health safety and security features

The integrated building management system enables ASHRAE to address evolving health and safety concerns and regulations, particularly as people return to work.

• A secure, connected workplace of the future Like organizations across the globe, ASHRAE is dealing with the impact of the COVID-19

The next-generation meetings solution and intelligent panels allows employees to efficiently book and run meetings. A fully integrated building management system and space utilization insights allow ASHRAE to optimize utilities and systems for cost efficiencies.

• Integrated building management

With the integration between the building management systems and PlaceOS, ASHRAE has a unified view of its environment. This provides insights required to create a workplace that evolves as its requirements change.

• Sustainability

The building has a universal power over ethernet (UPOE) ready foundation and uses solar panels to power a true carbon neutral result.

Co-authored by Jeremy Witikko, Cisco and Phillip Priestley, NTT Ltd

“I’M A FIRM BELIEVER IN THE FACT THAT, IF YOU CAN’T CHANGE PEOPLE TO EMBRACE WHAT YOU’RE TRYING TO DO, YOU’LL NEVER EVOLVE YOUR ORGANISATION”

proactive leaders capable of advocating for technology across the entire business. He has, since joining Culina Group brought on board a new leadership team and increased he and his colleagues’ visibility to employees within the group in order to help drive the change agenda. “Regardless of how good the tech or the package you’re delivering is, if people aren’t able to evolve from how they do things and embrace new ideas, it’s an obstacle you’ll likely not overcome. Because of that we’ve done a lot of listening and actively sought out feedback on where people are and how they’re dealing with the journey,” Donnelly says.

“To give some examples, we’ve held IT conferences in which we openly share our vision, our progress against the strategy and encourage participation,” he adds. “We also give six-week updates to the team, regular leadership meetings and we share assets with everyone in the team so they’re able to see how the work we’re doing is progressing. It’s all part of that change narrative; I think the logistics industry has been

BUSINESS CONTINUITY ISN’T JUST AN IT

pretty traditional in its approach to IT whereby the organisation has usually been viewed as a back office function rather than the kind of strategic partner we’re creating. I don’t want that. I want to sit us right in the boardroom and make sure we have the influence to participate in and drive where we’re going.”

UNLEASHING INNOVATION

The modern logistics industry is a complex beast that requires a host of technologies to ensure organisations like Culina can deliver. The business specialises in ambient and chilled food and drink third-party logistics and, through its various operating companies, provides warehousing, distribution, contract packing and delivery of bonded goods. To do so effectively it uses an IT infrastructure that includes warehouse management systems, satellite tracking and client interfaces, customer web portals that allow clients to access relevant data and more.

“As a top line, to offer the services we do you require a transport management system that controls the planning of vehicles, the routes, pickups and deliveries, accounts functions and so on” says Donnelly. “We then use similar warehouse management systems and billing

“

PROBLEM, EVERYONE CONTRIBUTES TO IT”

Continually Driving Innovation

Veritas Technologies has over a 30 year history of helping customers of every size and industry vertical, as they attempt to gain competitive advantage through the adoption and evolution of their underling IT systems. Aligning these systems (together with their people and processes) against their company strategies and goals, brings IT from a backroom necessity and cost sink, to boardroom innovator and business unit enabler.

IT Visibility & Insights across ALL your data and platforms

On any journey (IT or otherwise), it’s important to know where you are starting from – not just where you want to end up, and often you need to change direction along the way (sometimes suddenly). Veritas provides customers with pin-point visibility across both their data and underlying IT infrastructure (no matter where it resides) so you can make informed decisions at the start, about how you want things to look at the end (and provide continual progress reporting along the way).

The largest (and smallest) Logistics companies rely on Veritas day in, day out. Many have a disparate mix of legacy and cutting-edge technologies often inherited as a consequence of mergers and acquisitions. Veritas’s platform agnostic approach over 3 decades has resulted in an unrivalled breadth of IT platform support and knowledge, allowing organisations to view them as Consumable, interchangeable IT assets. So no matter where you are on your IT journey, we can help standardise then consolidate the number of technology vendors you work with. If you need to change direction (or vendor) as your projects and programmes progress, we allow you to do so quickly, with no compromise to your IT quality of service and whilst reducing cost.

Cyber Resilience, Application High Availability & IT Business Continuity

Veritas’s portfolio of Data Protection & High Availability solutions are engineered with Cyber Resilience in mind and allow companies, if compromised by an attack, to quickly Detect, Respond and Recover at scale in an automated and orchestrated fashion.

Compliance & Regulation

As you embark on your journey it’s important you understand any rules and regulations that may apply along the way. Ensuring you visibly comply with current legislation and regulation or how regulatory changes may affect the route you take, or the speed you travel, are key to ensure you don’t compromise your brand or reputation. Veritas’s solutions dynamically categorise your information so potential issues can be flagged and dealt with before they negatively impact your business so you maintain compliance and keep on the most effective route.

Don’t let “IT” become a logistical nightmare

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Veritas Cloud Scale Technology – Protects data using 90% less storage and 40% less compute than some other solutions

“

THE OVERARCHING PRIORITY IS ABOUT CREATING A SINGLE CULINA IT FUNCTION THAT’S PREPARED WITH THE RIGHT SKILLS, CAPABILITIES AND PEOPLE SO THAT WE CAN SUPPORT THE WIDER BUSINESS STRATEGY”

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technologies which are tied together by an integration layer. The delivery vehicles we use all have telemetry systems that allow us to track and geo fence them and we also have things like an active directory exchange, networking, finance and HR systems and, in our case, learning management platforms. We don’t have any consistency across this top line of necessary systems, so this journey is about using one system across the group under each category or use case.”

As with many large-scale change programmes, no area of focus exists in isolation. Donnelly points to cybersecurity as a good example, describing how the ongoing consolidation of several brand-centric IT and technology processes under one banner can help improve resilience to risks and threats as the business

moves forward. “Because of the early momentum and the fact that we recognised that we had some immature cyber behaviour across the group, it’s given us a platform to focus everyone on the vulnerabilities inherent in some of our legacy technologies and systems,” he explains.

“It’s allowed us to start to build security policies that demonstrate to the entire organisation that business continuity isn’t just an IT problem, everyone contributes to it and so you work to a principle that, if there’s no IT one day, how are you going to operate,” Donnelly adds.

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“It remains one of my biggest challenges. Our future ambition is to integrate everything which can increase risk because you basically have all your eggs in one basket. So, you have to very clearly and effectively put the appropriate controls and segregation in place to mitigate that. In the same way I was talking about the importance of culture and mindset before, we’ve also made sure we bring our whole user community on those journeys. That involves things like mandated cybersecurity education for the entire group, new password policies, hiring a new cyber and IT risk leader, and the results have been very encouraging with a noticeable engagement with the theme across the organisation.”

This kind of engagement is crucial to any successful transformation and forms a key part of another new initiative within Culina Group, the opening of TechHub, a new capability within the organisation that will focus on technical development and the evolution of cutting-edge new ideas, innovations and initiatives. TechHub will be a dedicated centre of innovation that encourages interactive engagement across the group in the trialling of new tools, processes and technologies that can support business growth and position

Culina as the UK’s most technologically advanced third-party logistics provider.

“The idea came from an initial conversation with the CEO about creating a very simple environment where we can experiment, understand how to get best value from our IT and try new things,” says Donnelly. “A lot of the technologies we invest in are expensive, so the ability to test and understand the products is really important, particularly for the people that will be using them. My vision was for ideation sessions where we gather, discuss innovation and how we bring ideas to life in Culina Group – it’s very interactive and based around real experience. We’re actively

“

MY ROLE AND THAT OF IT IS REALLY ABOUT BUSINESS STRATEGY, ENABLING BUSINESS OBJECTIVES AND PROVIDING THE BASIS FOR THE ORGANISATION TO ACHIEVE ITS GOALS”

working with several of our key technology partners who are providing us with products and technologies to test and demonstrate, including automated forklifts, wrapping systems and drones; it’s about doing all we can to take all the group businesses on the innovation journey together.

“And, as part of that, we’ve also created a new innovation process,” he adds. “Often, the best

ideas are out on the shop floor so our aim is to have an open environment where anyone can raise a potential new innovation or idea and share it within the TechHub for review and possible development of proof of concept. If it’s technology, automation, anything else, we’re open to it and there’s already been some great examples. We’ve deployed our first ever use of robotic process automation through this process, we’ve also created a visualisation

IT Ambitions for Digital Transformation

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tool that consolidates our various transport management systems for our chilled businesses, and introduced some new innovations around employee engagement applications.”

In this and other areas of Donnelly’s work, collaboration with technology partners plays an important role. “I’m looking for someone that takes the time to understand our business and works with me and the team to design a product or service that will work for us,” he explains, discussing the relationships in more detail. “Therefore, I need someone who is willing to learn, to innovate and do it in a way that differentiates me and the business from our competitors, gives the quality we expect, helps me meet the objectives of the transformation or enables us to deliver the customer-focused outcomes we’re known for.”

Fifteen months into their journey Donnelly, his team and all within Culina Group have made significant progress in this respect. The core priority remains to continue the programme of consolidation and simplification in order to unify Culina IT. “Right now, it’s about focusing on simplifying those underlying technologies we use as a business in order to give us a greater ability to collaborate, exchange information and improve the user experience for everyone across the group. At the same time, I’m working on how we safely and effectively consolidate the various applications in the organisation so we have one standard and a simplified line of business. Beyond that, looking ahead five years, my goal is to effectively deliver for

Culina Group the most secure possible, but best technology the business can achieve at an appropriate cost and scale to deliver success.”

www.culina.co.uk

PORTFOLIO

I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

SMITH LOWDOWN FOCUS

Life’s hectic. And, while pulling on a pair of sunglasses may afford you a certain level of celebrityesque ‘leave me alone’ aesthetic, do your Bonos of this world have glasses that actively help them relax, unwind and focus? Probably not. If they did, they’d be the Smith Lowdown Focus smart glasses. That’s because, when combined with accompanying Smith Focus App and headphones, the Lowdown Focus glasses use integrated brainsensing tech in the temples to monitor brain activity and performance, then coach you on ways to better focus and concentrate.

www.solsticesunglasses.com

PORTFOLIO

I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

TURNT

Yamaha’s Design Lab, a group of forward-thinking and innovative designers and technologists, regularly takes on the challenge of applying design, aesthetic and the latest technologies to everyday problems. Like, for example, ‘how do I turn my phone into a turntable?’ [we’ve all been there]. TurnT is the result, one which turns your phone into a record player. Place the smartphone on the speaker/ stylus device, drop the stylus onto the screen of the phone and, according to Yamaha, you’re ready to ‘bring back the nostalgia’.

www.yamaha.com

PORTFOLIO

I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

SAMSUNG Q900 QLED

The problem with even the fanciest, most high-tech TVs is that when you’re not watching your highest-def shows you’re left with a not-so-inconspicuous black hole on your wall. Not so with the 98-inch Samsung Q900 QLED, the only 8K television [meaning it has 7,680 lines of resolution instead of the 3,840 of 4Ks]. But that’s not the most impressive feature. No, that’s saved for ‘ambient mode’, in which you can upload a photo of the wall behind the TV via a special app and it is mimicked perfectly. The result, your very own disappearing television.

www.samsung.com

PORTFOLIO

I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

LOUNGE MOUSE

It’s not all about technology you know. Groundbreaking design, style, aesthetic simplicity and ease of use. All are important, and all can be found in the classic and iconic Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman. Or, its great-grandchild, the Lounge Mouse. The product of Taiwanese designer Shane Chen, the mouse pays homage to the famous chair designed by Charles and Ray Eames, even down to being crafted from the same plywood and leather of its namesake. According to Chen, the mouse was designed to bring “a new visual language to the boring office digital product”.

www.shanechendesign.com

PORTFOLIO

I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

CAMPSTOVE 2

Fire and electricity – two of the most significant, life-changing things in our whole existence on this planet. But what would early man say should he come across the Biolite CampStove 2? We can only imagine. But it’s hard not to be impressed by the portable, camping-ready innovation that lets you turn fire into usable electricity. CampStove 2 is environmentally friendly – it burns any renewable biomass – and, while you’re cooking meals and heating water, the power generated from the smokeless fire is enough to charge devices and more.

www.bioliteenergy.com

Onboarding new employees has always been tough. Throw in a global pandemic, remote working and the fact that we often only meet new hires through a video screen and you’ve an even bigger challenge facing organisations and hiring functions.

Melanie Fellay saw this. It’s why, three years ago with Zari Zahra, she co-founded

Spekit, the only just-in-time learning platform that enables teams to find information, training manuals, employee handbooks for tools and platforms used by the business and more, in one, centralised system that everyone can access. Particularly for remote organisations, Spekit enables teams and individuals to be empowered, self-sufficient and productive from anywhere and in real-time.

Says Fellay: “We’re using more digital tools than ever before and our workflows

are increasingly complex but the expectation has been that an employee will figure it all out with a PowerPoint presentation or LMS course. We knew there had to be a better, simpler way.”

www. spekit.com

MELANIE FELLAY, CO-FOUNDER & CEO, SPEKIT

STYLE,

COMFORT

AND

SUSTAINABILITY.

MEET THE GREEN FUTURE OF ROAD TRIPS

Motorhomes, campervans, caravans. Sure, they’re fun if you like to travel in good ole’ rustic fashion, but there’s limitations [a quick Google by this writer reveals more ‘Top X things about motorhome life’ lists than you can shake a camping stove at]. They’re also gas guzzlers, meaning they may not be the best way for us to collectively travel to the sunlit fields of the future. But a self-sustaining ‘house on wheels’? Now you’re talking.

That’s how the aptly named Solar Team Eindhoven, a group of Eindhoven University of Technology students, are describing Stella Vita, the world’s first entirely solar-powered camper. She is the latest in a series of solar racing family cars that the team has pioneered since 2013 to enter the World Solar Challenge in Australia. The group of 22 are driven by a collective striving for a sustainable future where life is powered by the sun

and, because they are students they explain, they have greater power and freedom to innovate without the shackles of market demands and preconceptions.

Unlike her predecessors, Stella Vita wasn’t engineered solely for the World Solar Challenge. Instead, she was unveiled in 2021 – and shortly after, in September of that year, took off on a tour of Europe to demonstrate the potential of the vehicle, travelling from Eindhoven in the Netherlands to Tarifa in Spain.

And what a journey it must have been. The solar house on wheels is designed to be entirely self-sufficient in terms of energy, with solar panels across the curved roof design making it independent of charging

stations or networks (that same roof slides open when Stella Vita is stationary, making it easier to stand inside to cook, work or sleep).

Inside, campers will find everything needed to live off-grid including a small cooking area and fridge, both of which run on solar power, as well as a toilet, sofa and full-size bed with room for two adults.

“TO ACCELERATE THIS TRANSITION WE ARE GOING TO INSPIRE AS MANY PEOPLE IN EUROPE AS POSSIBLE FOR THE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE DURING OUR JOURNEY”

KJELL REVENBERG, TEAM MANAGER, SOLAR TEAM EINDHOVEN

Photos: STE / Bart van Overbeeke

Photos: STE / Bart van Overbeeke

STELLA VITA IN NUMBERS

7.20

4 DOORS

120

2.05

1700 WEIGHT

730 RANGE

8.8

17.5

Stella Vita uses a 60KWh lithium-ion battery that, according to the team, allows for a top speed of 120km/h and a range of 600km – on a sunny day it’s possible to extend that to 730km. The vehicle is designed to be highly energy efficient and generates more energy than it consumes while driving; any extra energy is used for appliances and living when parked up. The droplet-like aerodynamic design contributes to this efficiency, giving as little air resistance as possible and much of Stella Vita is made of lightweight materials for the same reason.

It’s smart too. The team have built in an infotainment system that helps users to understand how much energy the on-board appliances are consuming and offers choices about how they can best use the remaining amount of energy. In doing so, it helps those fortunate enough to hit the road in Stella Vita use energy consciously, make informed decisions about how to best apply their energy consumption and ultimately live more sustainable lives. www.solarteameindhoven.nl

CUBERG

The promise of electromobility

THERE’S no two ways about it, the future of transport simply has to be electric. Perfect, then, that Cuberg’s vision is to enable electric mobility by commercialising its innovative and breakthrough battery technology.

The Silicon Valley-based business, which was founded in 2015 by Forbes 30 Under 30 in Energy alumni and Stanford materials science & engineering PhD graduate Richard Wang, is built around the idea that, to support the development

380WH/kG SPECIFIC ENERGY

2000W/kG SPECIFIC POWER OUTPUT

672CYCL C/2 CYCLE LIFE

of all-electric aircraft, trucks, cars and more, the battery industry needs a new framework for technology innovation. Accordingly, it takes a holistic approach to battery R&D that incorporates data science, breakthrough engineering capabilities and AI and machine learning.

The result is the first aviation-certified lithium metal battery pack, based on an innovative non-flammable electrolyte combined with a lightweight lithium

metal anode that radically increases energy density and power while ensuring reliability and safety.

“ Cuberg’s lithium metal technology can fulfill all key performance requirements for the most demanding mobility applications”

RICHARD WANG, FOUNDER & CEO, CUBERG

PUTTING THE PATIENT FIRST

KEN CREASY EXPLAINS HOW THE PERFECT BALANCE OF SKILLS, TECHNOLOGIES AND PARTNERS ENABLES JOHNSON & JOHNSON TO PUT THE NEEDS OF THOSE IT SERVES FIRST

WORDS JONATHAN DYBLE

The reason I’m such a strong advocate of smart manufacturing is because the visibility it provides allows companies to make smarter, faster, better decisions. Visibility begets good information; good information allows us to make better decisions; and that ability to make better decisions gives us agility and resilience within the supply chain to help react to disruptions.”

For Ken Creasy, smart manufacturing is the embodiment of industry 4.0 – a topic he believes is still only in its infancy, despite its growing adoption over the last several years. Indeed, Creasy is better placed than most to comment on its progression. With a background spanning a diverse range of experiences and skill sets from research and development, operations, and technology through to marketing, sales and quality control, he has held various leadership positions at globally renowned healthcare company Johnson & Johnson over the course of almost 20 years with the Company.

“CULTURE IS KEY. IT MUST BE WHERE ANY ORGANISATION STARTS”

CULTURE IS CRITICAL

Of course, overseeing manufacturing, technology innovation and advanced engineering at a company with more than 134,000 employees is no easy or small task. Continual step changes and pioneering efforts are required in order to sustain the status Johnson & Johnson has as an innovator and yardstick in the healthcare sector. Yet for these to be successful, Creasy explains that all parties need to be pulling in the same direction, aligned with the targeting of unified goals.

“Culture is key. It must be where any organisation starts,” he affirms. “The great thing about Johnson & Johnson is that we have ‘Our Credo-based’ culture. This clearly outlines four key ambitions: one, we must always put our patients first; two, we must recognise the responsibility we have to our employees; three, the responsibilities to the communities in which we operate; and four, what we are responsible to our shareholders for.

“It’s about always asking those simple questions. What are we doing for our customers? What are we doing for our patients? What are we doing for the health professionals who serve our patients? That allows us to really focus on what the mission is and ensure everyone is pulling in the same direction and with a clear view or objective.”

Additionally, Creasy flags that it is important to sustain an appreciation

and understanding of what technologies can and cannot do. While digital innovations can of course play a vital role in building an effective smart manufacturing operation, they are just one piece of a much broader landscape that requires input from a variety of experts, as well as an optimal blend that leverages the best of human and machine.

“It’s about falling in love with the solution, not falling in love with the technology,” he continues. “We’re talking about very complex systems, and nobody’s going to solve a problem totally by themselves. So, with all humility, it really takes a cross functional effort. Our IT and data

science partners, our property service partners and health and safety teams, our quality & compliance, regulatory and commercial teams – all of these aspects need to come together as one.”

UNLOCKING TRUE STEP CHANGE

This emphasis on the importance of diverse skill sets and collaboration is reflected in the makeup of Creasy’s own team, which comprises a variety of

highly knowledgeable individuals from various backgrounds and specialisms.

From leaders in sensing and IoT to experts in automation and robotics, digital twins, advanced materials, process design, logistics and distribution, Creasy oversees a team of global technology leaders.

“It’s humbling to not be the smartest person in the room,” he says. “They’re all

“IT’S ABOUT FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE SOLUTION, NOT FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE TECHNOLOGY”

Get the Best Digital Twin with Hybrid Analytics

A digital twin is a virtual representation of real-world entities and processes, synchronized at a specified frequency and fidelity, according to the Digital Twin Consortium . Today, with Ansys Twin Builder and artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI/ML) integration, engineers can blend data and physics to create an advanced digital twin: the hybrid digital twin.

Hybrid digital twins combine the power of physics and data modeling to enable real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and performance optimization, while supporting business value in numerous other ways. They

also encourage collaboration across design and operations teams.

Hybrid digital twins bridge the gap between the design and operations process by merging design knowledge from simulation with field behavior from data. Conversely, a digital twin built on design specifications alone may reflect design intent while lacking field observation while a digital twin designed with field behavior in mind may lack design insight. Additionally, even if the original design incorporates field behavior, operating conditions in the field may change over time, including equipment degradation. As a result,

a digital twin that provided high-fidelity representation of an asset or system when first deployed may deviate from the behavior seen in the field.

Hybrid digital twins provide a solution by automatically adapting and updating to these circumstances over time.

Hybrid digital twins help in four key areas:

1. Reusing engineering design in operations

2. Designing for data and learning from data

3. Look-ahead performance

4. Closing the design loop

A hybrid digital twin can adjust to field behavior to provide better predictions and match physical behavior to enhance operations. Once a twin is learning an asset’s behavior, it can be used to perform what-if scenarios to see how the asset

would behave with different sizing and operating conditions, or a combination of the two. This can be achieved either by taking the twin offline temporarily to run analysis or by launching a separate copy of the twin to investigate what-if scenarios while the original twin continues to monitor the equipment.

Hybrid digital twins bridge the gap between design and operations to close the design loop and provide better value from digital twins. Once the tools and pieces are in place to use both simulation and data, the ingenuity of design and operations teams will create unique solutions specific to each use case.

incredibly talented individuals doing tremendous work.” Indeed, such praise is reflected in the variety of projects and initiatives they have overseen, driving a truly progressive smart factory strategy that continues to take the business to new heights.

In recent times, Johnson & Johnson has been successful in exploring several vital questions, with early technology use cases being meticulously challenged and

analysed to unlock key learnings for use in the development of playbooks. Critically, Creasy explains that these will be used to scale the firm’s digital transformation within manufacturing a lot more quickly for years to come.

“What are we doing from a sensing standpoint? What are we doing from a model simulation standpoint? These are just some of the questions that we’ve been working hard to answer,” he reveals.

“OUR IT AND DATA SCIENCE PARTNERS, OUR PROPERTY SERVICE PARTNERS AND HEALTH AND SAFETY TEAMS, OUR QUALITY & COMPLIANCE, REGULATORY AND COMMERCIAL TEAMS – ALL OF THESE ASPECTS NEED TO COME TOGETHER AS ONE”

Build, Validate and Deploy SimulationBased Digital Twins

Ansys Twin Builder enables you to quickly create a digital twin – a connected replica of an in-service asset. This allows for enhanced lifecycle management and true predictive maintenance, saving costs to help maintain a competitive advantage.

Ansys Twin Builder lets you build, validate and deploy the twin, potentially cutting the time required to create an accurate product model in half. Once deployed, users can expect a 25% increase in product performance, and maintenance cost savings of up to 20% over the product’s lifetime.

“The next step is really trying to institutionalise that whole smart factory digital transformation while also looking at things like more flexible manufacturing, again, to get better resilience and agility.”

Here, the firm has already made significant progress. Indeed, its state-of-the-art cleaning centre has found ways in which to repeat the use of vessels in a much faster manner, reducing the amount of changeover time required between batches. Resultantly, Johnson & Johnson is now able to supply more products despite retaining the same original footprint.

PROOF IN THE PANDEMIC

Perhaps the greatest fruits of the firm’s manufacturing innovation came during the COVID-19 pandemic – a period in which almost every function of the business mobilised to continue meeting Johnson & Johnson’s patient-centric mission in the most effective manner.

“There was a lot of work that went on and it was one of the best experiences of my entire career,” Creasy affirms. “The amount of effort, the amount of meaning that you saw from people throughout the entire corporation was absolutely phenomenal.”

Creasy himself oversaw a global COVID response team that pulled together experts throughout the company to execute several initiatives. Johnson & Johnson’s microbiology team, for example, discovered how to extend the life of personal protective equipment by

reworking it so that it was available for multiple uses.

“Additionally, the response team did a lot of modelling and simulation so that vaccines can be produced in more places,” Creasy continues. “Here, our smart

“THE RESPONSE TEAM DID A LOT OF MODELLING AND SIMULATION SO THAT VACCINES CAN BE PRODUCED IN MORE PLACES”

Introducing real-time monitoring of your machines, processes, and operations.

Now you can predict machine failures, identify process inefficiencies, and understand the causes and proper actions to take to optimize production. This means minimizing disruptions, avoiding accidents, and reducing waste that keep you from realizing the full value of true production health –sustainability, workforce engagement and profitability.

LEARN MORE: info.augury.com/PHTE

“THE NEXT STEP IS REALLY TRYING TO INSTITUTIONALISE THAT WHOLE SMART FACTORY DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WHILE ALSO LOOKING AT THINGS LIKE MORE FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING, AGAIN, TO GET BETTER RESILIENCE AND AGILITY”

factory and digital twin team did a great job in understanding what the manufacturing transfer process needed to look like, and our automation team looked at how to make different manufacturing sites far more efficient in a matter of weeks. There were tremendous amounts of collaboration, and it really showed us what the power of purpose can do.”

EMBRACING A DIVERSE EXTERNAL ECOSYSTEM

Of course, it is not just internal collaboration and alignment that underpins the success of Johnson & Johnson. Equally, the firm is continually reliant upon the support of its external partners, having amassed an extensive ecosystem of partners, vendors and suppliers that elevate its goals.

“We’re actively engaged with a number of industry organisations, consortia and external partnerships, which are critically important to understanding what technologies can and can’t do,” Creasy affirms. “With all humility, we recognise that while we can connect the dots, we’re

not always going to be the ones developing technologies from scratch. That’s why this ecosystem needs to be very strong.”

With each of these critical building blocks in place, Creasy is able to express distinct optimism as attentions turn

“WE’RE TALKING ABOUT VERY COMPLEX SYSTEMS, AND NOBODY’S GOING TO SOLVE A PROBLEM TOTALLY BY THEMSELVES. SO, WITH ALL HUMILITY, IT REALLY TAKES A CROSS FUNCTIONAL EFFORT”

towards the future. Moving forward, the company is looking towards new pharma and manufacturing technologies that will support its pipeline of products and innovations, representing what Creasy describes as a distinct opportunity to be incredibly purposeful.

“By that I mean to say we’re not going to throw every technology into the mix. Instead, we’ll be thinking through the customers that we’re going to serve, and really incorporate the most relevant technologies in an optimal way to meet those specific needs,” he explains as the

conversation comes to a close. “Johnson & Johnson’s leadership is promoting this. Truly, they are inspirational, challenging and pushing us to explore and innovate. They really keep the focus on serving the patients, and if we sustain that mission moving forward, I only see us continuing to remain successful.”

www.jnj.com

THE BRAIN UN

LOCKED

ON July 6 the first patient in the US was implanted with Synchron’s brain-computer interface, or BCI, marking the start of its trial to ultimately enable patients with severe paralysis to control digital devices hands-free.

The company, which was founded in 2016 by Tom Oxley, has developed the innovative BCI technology to unlock the natural highways of the brain. Its solution is built on the stentrode, an endovascular electrode array designed to record or stimulate the

“Our technology is for the millions of people who have lost the ability to use their hands to control digital devices”

-

TOM OXLEY, MD, PHD, AND CEO AND FOUNDER OF SYNCHRON

brain or neveres from within the blood vessels. It is incorporated into the wall of the blood vessel like a tattoo, causes no long-term inflammation or trauma to the brain and allows access to the unprecedented volumes of data that exist in the untouched areas of our brains.

In doing so, it allows us to fundamentally change how we study, diagnose and treat the brain without the need for open brain surgery.

www. synchron.com

THE SHORTLIST

FOUNDER/MD CLASSIFICATION GURU

Susan is founder and MD of The Classification Guru Ltd, a specialist data classification, taxonomy customisation and data cleansing consultancy. With a decade of experience fixing dirty data, she brings clarity and accuracy to data and procurement; helps teams work effectively and efficiently; and cuts through the jargon to address dirty data issues. Susan is a thought leader, TEDx speaker, DataIQ 100 2022, and author of ‘Between the Spreadsheets: Classifying and Fixing Dirty Data’.

Hugh leads Data Science work in the development of a cloud-based platform for improving the efficiency and performance of mining and mineral processing operations. He has contributed to many models underlying IntelliSense. io’s Brains.App platform and applications, particularly in designing tooling to deploy and integrate models into the software stack. As IntelliSense.io has grown, Hugh has overseen the scaling up of the Data Science team from four to 24 members.

Lee FuLmer CHIEF DATA OFFICER UBS

As CDO for UBS Investment Bank Lee oversees all the data strategy, governance, management and commercialisation efforts across the bank. He is chair of the Bank of England’s Reporting and Data Standards Transformation Board and also sits on Gartner’s governing body for the Chief Data Officer community. He set up the investment bank’s Innovation function, establishing Innovation Labs in London, Singapore and New York to drive the bank’s business transformation efforts.

susan waLsh

dr. hugh mCnamara TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR INTELLISENSE.IO

TECH-EXEC BUSINESS LEADERS’ DATA LEADER OF THE YEAR 2022

HEAD OF DATA BRAMBLES

Nick is the Global Lead of Data & Analytics at Brambles and has over 10 years’ experience in setting up and leading analytics and data science teams across a number of industries. He is passionate about combining the right people, with the right technology and processes to scale the delivery of data products and solutions. At the heart of this is his commercial and customer mindset and value-driven approach to delivery.

marIon shaw

HEAD OF DATA & ANALYTICS CHAUCER GROUP

Marion is establishing Chaucer Group’s first data and analytics Centre of Enablement. She is focused on harnessing the power of data to drive decisions and create opportunities for the business and, using cutting edge techniques and technology, will enable Chaucer to unlock the value in its ‘hidden’ data.

Marion is an experienced data professional passionate about transforming data culture, and the power of data literacy and understanding in driving decision making.

mIng tang CHIEF DATA AND ANALYTICS OFFICER NHS ENGLAND

Ming has over 20 years’ experience in managing and delivering large-scale change involving the implementation of new operating models in complex and challenging environments. At NHS England she is responsible for strategic development of data and analytics capability across the NHS, supporting system transformation, strategic information assets, digital tools and analysis to enhance decision making and improve healthcare.

THE SHORTLIST

gILLIan tomLInson

GROUP CHIEF DATA OFFICER THE WEIR GROUP PLC

Gillian has over 18 years’ global experience leading the establishment of datarelated organisations, programmes and initiatives. At The Weir Group she is accountable for driving both the digital and data vision and strategy for the group and championing its transformation.

Gillian was awarded the Data Activators Award by Hottopics in 2022 and has been nominated as a data titan by DataIQ Top 100 in Data for five years running.

James gardner DIRECTOR

– DATA, ANALYTICS & INSIGHT PARKDEAN RESORTS

—

At Parkdean Resorts

James has built a new enterprise-wide data and analytics function from the ground up, led the transformation of its organisational reporting, and built and deployed a number of data science-driven applications, all demonstrating how a measurable ROI can be created from data. James specialises in analytics strategies and roadmaps for mid- to large-sized firms so they can become insightdriven, helping them make smarter, faster decisions based on data.

LIsa CLark HEAD OF DATA SCIENCE ATOS

Lisa has more than 20 years’ experience within business, public admin and academic settings. She has led analytical teams for over 15 years. Her real expertise lies in mathematical and computational analysis of large and complex data sets, but she also thrives in the end-to-end flow of data, from collection through manipulation to revenue generation. At Atos, she and the team deliver end-to-end data science solutions across multiple industries and settings.

TECH-EXEC PEER-TO-PEER DATA LEADER OF THE YEAR 2022

dI

GLOBAL HEAD OF DATA AND AI, WPP

Di has over 20 years’ technology and data experience offering consulting for major organisations. She joined WPP in 2014 as MD of Acceleration and left in 2017 to become a freelance Data Strategy Consultant. She rejoined the WPP CTO team team in January 2022, becoming Global Head of Data and AI for WPP. She is a Governing Body member of Gartner’s Chief Data Officer Group and was included in the Data IQ Top 100 data leaders list in 2022.

matt CurtIs

HEAD OF DATA ENGINEERING COVÉA INSURANCE

—

As Head of Data Engineering at Covéa Insurance Matt is currently focused on centralising data for the 100-year-old insurance company with the objectve of enabling it to become a data-centric organisation capable of facing the challenges of the 2020s. In doing so, Matt has used various technologies including the implementation of new Data Bricks-powered platform, and migrating on-prem warehouses to Azure Synapse.

hemanth Prabakaran

HEAD OF DATA ANALYTICS & INSIGHTS, STANDARD CHARTERED BANK

—

Hemanth spearheads disruptive data innovations across the bank like COOL – ‘Digital & Data platform’, conversational AI, and enterprise knowledge graph and analytics workbench programmes. He also leads and transforms data monetisation strategy through a modern, data driven culture. Hemanth has more than 17 years’ experience in data analytics, enterprise data strategy, architecture, artificial intelligence and data science and has appeared in DataIQ’s 100 Most Influential People in Data.

maYze

L E U V E N

Welcome to Leuven, the innovation hub of Belgium. In 2020, the city was named the European Capital of Innovation. Having a favourable climate for knowledge-driven business, Leuven is a hotspot for technological development, research, and hightech entrepreneurship. With world-class tech universities, the city has created a network of high-tech companies, particularly in nanotechnology and intelligence systems.

WORDS WIM VAN THILLO

BUSINESS

As with many innovation hubs and cities known for their tech companies and entrepreneurship, Leuven is home to several great working spots, including shared and co-working spaces and startup hangouts.

The Philipssite , which is the former factory site of electronics firm Philips, is now an office and sports complex in the district of Heverlee. There’s also De Hoorne , a creative community and co-working space where you’ll find lodging, working, partying and living merge – you’ll find a host of creative work spots

and co-working spaces surrounded by bars. restaurants and rooms to rent upstairs.

Also, the area around Imec HQ is worth exploring. It hosts several companies and startups, is very green and sits closely to the engineering faculty of KULeuven. It was here that IMEC, the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre international research and development organisation began, and it’s still the location for brilliant minds and a stimulating environment.

PHILIPSSITE IMEC

DE HOORNE

STAY

There’s plenty of places to stay in Leuven, from larger hotel brands through to some great and unique boutique hotels. I would recommend checking out The Fourth – Talefrond, which offers a taste of luxury in the city. The building dates back to 1479, when it started life as a meeting place for different guilds in Leuven and, through the years, has also been a theatre and bank. It started its ‘fourth life’ as a hotel in 2016 and combines luxury and attention to detail with state-of-the-art technology and design.

The Ibis Leuven Centrum and Park Inn by Radisson Leuven are also worth a stay. The former is located in the heart of the city, just around the corner of the Old Market Square, meaning everything you need is accessible on foot. Park Inn is an ideal place for business or leisure stays and is located on the busy Martelarenlaan, giving easy access to cultural attractions and transport.

IBIS LEUVEN

PARK INN BY RADISSON LEUVEN THE FOURTH

Wim has more than 15 years of experience focused on mmWave R&D, first as a researcher and later as a programme director for Imec’s activities in cellular, wifi and mmWave transceivers. In that role, he was essential in shaping the R&D roadmap and business opportunities for emerging wireless technologies. Wim was also a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley, focused on researching 60GHz high speed wireless communications. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and a degree in Business Economics from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. www.pharrowtech.com

WIM VAN THILLO CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, PHARROWTECH

ELITE MEN’S CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, 2021

LEUVEN IS HOME TO THE GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS OF ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV

EAT / DRINK

Leuven is not only a hot spot for technology, it’s also known for its world-class restaurants, which you can experience in the pedestrianised alley, The Munstraat, which dates back to the Middle Ages and today has become the culinary main street of Leuven thanks to its many cafes taverns and restaurants. If you’re visiting during the summer months, The Munstraat takes part in the Hapje Tapje gastronomic tour, the oldest culinary festival in Belgium where restaurants invite you in for snack and drink tasting.

For more informal gatherings with friends check out Florida Food Bar, which is located in the Vaartkom, a former industrial site, or sample Belgian street food at a ‘frituur’. If you’re looking for a more highend, seasonal culinary experience, don’t miss Barba which offers an a la carte experience in a great and inviting atmosphere.

BARBA

FLORIDA FOOD BAR

LEISURE

Famed for its breweries and hosting the global headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Leuven has much more than beer to offer! Having a rich heritage, the city boasts stunning gothic architecture. The Town Hall is a shining example of the wow factor that Leuven’s Brabantine Gothic architecture is aimed to inspire. If you are looking for a daytime stroll, don’t miss the chance to explore The Groot Beguinage of Leuven.

Fancy a livelier evening? Leuven has a vibrant nightlife to offer. Known for its countless enjoyable bars and cafés, ranging from student drinking holes to trendy cocktail lounges. For your best chance to experience all that the city has to offer, head over to Oude Markt – Europe’s longest bar made up of several different venues.

www.visitleuven.be/en

ATELIER TOWN HALL

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GLO bAL events CALENDER

BIG DATA EXPO

14-15th SEPT 2022 [ Utrecht, Netherlands ]

Big Data Expo is the first platform to unite supply and demand of the big data sector. It is also the only event in the Benelux that specifically addresses every aspect of data management.

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INDUSTRY OF THINGS WORLD

18-20 th SEPT 2022 [ Berlin, Germany ]

Rethinking technology strategies for scalable, secure and efficient IoT, how smart, connected products are changing companies and revenue streams, and business models arising from products, data and assets as a service.

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MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS

28- 30th SEPT 2022 [ Las Vegas, USA ]

With over 200 expert speakers and 300+ brands MWC boasts cutting-edge technology demos to fuel innovation and ideas that will change the world.

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GITEX GLOBAL

10-14 th OCT 2022 [ Dubai WTC ]

An event that brings together thoughtleaders, creators, innovators and makers to discuss, debate and challenge new ideology, showcase new products and identify future opportunities.

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IBM CDO SUMMIT

9th NOV 2022 [ San Francisco, USA ]

The CDO Summit features leading chief digital, data, analytics and technology officers from some of the world’s most prestigious organisations.

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CES TECH

5-8 th JAN 2023 [ Las Vegas, USA ]

CES 2023 will partner with the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) to showcase the critical role of technology in support of the United Nations’ efforts to advance human security for all.

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